Between “Victims” and Their “Saviors”: Process-Based Leadership and Trust Building in Civil–Military Relations in Northern Nigeria

Northern Nigeria has been plagued by the nefarious activities of terrorist groups, including Boko Haram, its affiliates, and armed bandits. Beyond its kinetic operations, the military has since deployed several strategies toward trust building across the region. This article contributes to the literature, by adopting process-based leadership as a social psychology conceptual and analytical lens. As a departure from traditional conceptualizations of civil–military relations, process-based leadership identifies where influence exists and how it is being exchanged toward the attainment of mutually linked security goals and objectives, between the military and society, in conflict settings. A central argument of the article is that improving civil–military relations in conflict settings is largely dependent on trust building, and achieving this is a function of the exchange of influence and the establishment of mutuality between the military and society.