Why Do Nigeria Deradicalisation Programs Forget Women and Can Operation Safe Corridor Change this?

Introduction

The complex dynamics of terrorism in Nigeria have revealed that a purely kinetic approach would not succeed, thereby making Operation Safe Corridor a viable non-kinetic approach to counter-terrorism in the Northeast. OPSC is a Nigeria Defense Headquarters led programme that is designed and operated through a multi-institutional framework involving 17 ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), as well as frontline states affected by insurgency. Furthermore, local and international development partners (such as UNICEF, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), and the Northeast Development Commission) provide strategic program support.

Since operations began in 2016, about 2,190 defectors from Nigeria and neighbouring West African countries have successfully passed through its structured de-radicalisation, rehabilitation, and reintegration (DRR) process at the Malam Sidi Camp in Gombe State. Participants undergo six to twelve months of vocational training, skills acquisition, and civic reorientation before re-entering society. According to Brigadier General Yusuf Ali, the programme’s coordinator, it records a recidivism rate of less than one per cent—an outcome that underscores the effectiveness of its rehabilitation process.

Despite its successes in breaking cycles of violence, the OPSC has faced criticism from terrorism-affected communities. These concerns are compounded by public mistrust, widespread misconceptions, and disinformation—sometimes amplified by social media influencers and even reputable print and digital media outlets. One major controversy centres on how the programme treats women. It has been criticised for a significant gender-blind spot. While acknowledging this limitation, this piece moves beyond critique to propose practical ways to promote women’s inclusion. It begins by foregrounding the persistent gender gap in Nigeria’s peacebuilding, counterinsurgency, and counterterrorism efforts.

A Country That Forgets Its Women?

Operation Safe Corridor is not Nigeria’s first attempt at facilitating a disarmament, demobilisation, rehabilitation, and reintegration (DDRR) peacebuilding programme. One example is the Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP), aimed at Niger Delta militants. One thing is common: women's involvement is not central to these programs, even though research has shown women are active participants in conflicts. For example, in Operation Safe Corridor, one report indicates that out of 800 ex-Boko Haram associates going through OPSC’s rehabilitation, only 10 are women. 

The inclusion of women in the peace process in the Northeast is crucial given their role in the conflict. As victims, they have been widowed, displaced, sexually abused, and forcibly married to Boko Haram fighters. As agents, they have served as suicide bombers, spies, recruiters, armed smugglers, and more. As a result, when OPSC focuses exclusively on male combatants while outsourcing rehabilitation of women, it ignores a significant population of women who are neither rehabilitated nor reintegrated and therefore remain socially stigmatised, economically disempowered, and psychologically traumatised.

Despite the Operation Safe Corridor’s collaboration with the Borno state government and UNICEF to take care of women and children, gender inclusion remains poor at best. Similarly, the Borno model operates mainly to take care of indigenes of Borno state, ignoring women from other affected states.  Moreover, there needs to be a national strategy of women inclusion in deradicalisation programs beyond fragmented state-level efforts. 

The lack of inclusion extends beyond who gains access to the beneficiary lists. It reveals itself in the administrative activities in the rehabilitation camp. At the Malam Sidi Camp in Gombe, the overwhelming majority of officials and programme staff are male. This situation leaves female ex-associates and women who might be considered for the programme with little to no opportunity to engage with female officers, counsellors, or others, due to the cultural sensitivity arising from the socio-religious context of Northern Nigeria.

Inclusion and the mediating role of cultural norms affecting Women in OPSC

Operation Safe Corridor is a peacebuilding programme that operates within the socio-religious architecture of northern society. Islamic religious laws and cultural conservatism influence the society and shape interactions between men and women in its social space. OPSC's non-admission of women has largely been affected by these factors, creating barriers for gender inclusion. The prevailing cultural conservatism and religious laws dictate strict gender roles that could limit women's participation in peacebuilding efforts. Inclusive peacebuilding goes beyond ensuring gender inclusion; it also requires an acknowledgement of the cultural and religious context within society. The challenge for OPSC is that integrating women into a camp environment dominated by male ex-combatants and, therefore, raises immediate and legitimate questions for religious sensitivity, women’s safety, and community perception.

In the Northeast and across Muslim-dominated communities in Northern Nigeria, cultural norms around purdah seclude women from non-relative men. Many families, communities, and religious leaders object to women being accommodated in a mixed-gender facility. There is also the possibility of culturally sensitive reputational risk for a woman who enters such a programme and the damage it could cause to her social standing and marriage prospects, potentially worsening her socioeconomic condition in such a fragile post-conflict situation.

In the recorded success of the OPSC, religion does not play a peripheral role in the reintegration process in the northeast; it is very integral to its outcome. As a result, without religious and religious leaders' support for a gender-inclusive programme, communities may resist receiving female graduates, regardless of what the programme delivers. There is also the fear of sexual abuse and violence faced by women that has been reported across internally displaced persons camps in the region, which may also constitute another barrier to OPSC's inclusion of women. Despite these challenges, excluding women is not a solution; it deepens their marginalisation and undermines sustainable peacebuilding. OPSC must, therefore, ensure including while recognising relevant socio-cultural realities that affect reintegration.

Strategies for addressing the gender gaps in OPSC 

Gender inclusion is non-negotiable for a peacebuilding programme like OPSC, especially as women constitute over half of the country’s population. Addressing the afore-stated gender blind spot of peacebuilding through inclusiveness in design, decision-making and implementation is critical for the peacebuilding process. Successful peacebuilding programmes in Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Somalia have all demonstrated that women’s inclusion in post-conflict processes reduces the likelihood of conflict relapse and produces more durable community-level stability. OPSC should, therefore, adopt the following specific socio-cultural, religious, and multi-institutional approaches to enhance its gender inclusivity.

First, inclusion will require the creation of a gender department in Operation Safe Corridor that mandates the Ministry of Women Affairs, both at the federal and state levels, to take care of the affected women in the programme. This department will be responsible for developing and implementing women’s reintegration programmes. It will specifically address the needs of women by providing services such as intake assessments, psychosocial support, vocational training, economic empowerment schemes, and post-reintegration follow-ups. 

To finance the department, there should be a counterpart funding mechanism combining resources from both federal and relevant state governments. Federal and state Ministries of Women Affairs and other relevant ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) should dedicate a defined percentage of its annual budget to OPSC-related women's programmes. The amount could be set at 5 per cent of their annual budget, to ensure adequate funding and effective gender mainstreaming. These steps must be implemented within formalised arrangement that ensures there is accountability and efficient resource use.

Secondly, the federal government should use the existing OPSC framework to coordinate with state-level ministries of women's affairs in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, and others to address the challenges facing women. Reintegration and the proposed gender inclusion must be grounded in local contexts, realities, and institutions. State ministries are better positioned than federal agencies to navigate these local dynamics and engage religious, traditional, women, and community leaders to fast-track broader community acceptance. A federal-state coordination mechanism would ensure more effective gender-inclusive programming than leaving the federal government or OPSC to do it alone.

Conclusion

Operation Safe Corridor is an innovative, unique, and critical peacebuilding initiative adopted by the Nigerian government to counter violent extremism in the northeast beyond militarisation. It is a major milestone in providing a structured pathway towards sustainable peace and a resumption of normalcy for citizens and communities whose lives and livelihoods have been disrupted and displaced in Northeast Nigeria. Providing a clear path for women's reintegration will not only ensure inclusion but also sustainability. Women inclusion will address the gender blindspot in OPSC design and implementation, empower women socio-economically, and enable them to contribute to rebuilding their communities as well as fostering long-term stability in the region.

Author’s Bio

Peter Oyinmiebi is a lecturer with the Department of Social Studies, School of Arts and Social Sciences at the Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education, Sagbama, Bayelsa State.