Assessment of the impact of chemical security measures on domestic terrorism: a study of Boko Haram’s use of precursor chemicals in Nigeria

The misuse of precursor chemicals by unauthorized persons is a challenge in containing domestic terrorism in Nigeria. This study examines the association between the number of government policies to contain terrorism and the number of bombing campaigns by the major terrorist groups in Nigeria. The data used for the study is categorized into three groups: (1) the presidential order’s record to counter the Boko Haram bombing campaigns: (2) the government policies to regulate the purchase and delivery of precursor chemicals: and (3) records of reported bombing campaigns by Boko Haram. A PRISMA flow chart was used to select materials for the experiment. The study concludes that there is no relationship between the number of chemical security measures and the number of bombing campaigns by terrorist groups in Nigeria (p < 0.319). The study also found that the number of government policies increases at 0.219 per year and shows a significant positive trend (r² = 0.764. p = 0.0004). However, there is no significant trend in the number of bombing campaigns (p = 0.646). Regulating access to precursor chemicals may over time reduce domestic terrorism but this is not currently reflected in the proliferation of new government policies.