Security expert Kabiru Adamu has weighed in on allegations by a US lawmaker that the US Agency for International Development, USAID, has been facilitating the sponsorship of Boko Haram, the terrorist group dominant in Nigeria and the West African region.

As Ekwutosblog earlier reported, Scott Perry, a US Congressman representing Pennsylvania, accused USAID of funding terrorist organisations such as Boko Haram.

Perry made this claim during the inaugural hearing of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency on Thursday.

Speaking at a session titled “The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud,” Perry alleged that USAID had provided $136 million for the construction of 120 schools in Pakistan, but claimed there was “zero evidence” that the schools had been built.

According to Perry: “Who gets some of that money? Does that name ring a bell to anybody in the room? Because your money—$697 million annually—plus shipments of cash funds madrasas, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS-Khorasan, and terrorist training camps. That’s what it’s funding.”

Before Perry’s assertions, figures such as tech billionaire Elon Musk—who leads President Donald Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—had moved to seize control of USAID, describing it as “evil and a criminal organisation.”

While Adamu acknowledged the possibility of some governments sponsoring terrorism in other countries, he argued that Perry should have provided evidence to support his claims.

Adamu also criticised what he described as the Trump administration’s approach to airing sensitive issues in public.

“Such issues are not new. They have been on the table for a very long time, but the manner in which the current US government is washing its dirty linen in public is concerning,” he said in an interview with Channels Television.

“When we assessed Trump’s four years in office, we expected volatility. We knew there would be some impulsive reactions, but this is beyond what we anticipated. Since the creation of DOGE, the department has attempted to do a lot in the name of improving government efficiency. And of course, you have to consider the Republicans’ position on the matter, especially that of Trump’s supporters.”

Speaking on Perry’s claims, Adamu pointed out political motivations behind such statements: “Now, Rep. Scott Perry is a Republican. There’s a narrative among Republicans—especially those aligned with Trump—that the previous Democratic administration supported inefficiency in government. In their bid to push this narrative, we are hearing these kinds of allegations.”

He acknowledged that intelligence gathering and development aid sometimes intersect but questioned Perry’s reasoning: “There is a connection between espionage and development assistance. For example, when the US was trying to locate and eliminate former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, they leveraged development aid. There is a close relationship between the two. But the way Scott Perry puts it — associating or linking the Taliban to Boko Haram—I’m struggling to see that connection. First of all, there are two major jihadist franchises in the world: Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS). The Taliban does not fall within these two groups. In fact, at present, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are fighting each other. So I am surprised that Scott Perry is making this blurred association without clarification.”

Addressing Boko Haram’s affiliations, Adamu noted: “Initially, Boko Haram was affiliated with Al-Qaeda until 2016, when it switched allegiance to ISIS. In Nigeria and the Sahel, there are two local jihadist groups affiliated with these two franchises. If anyone has evidence of a local jihadist group linked to the Taliban, that would be news to me.

“If I heard him correctly, Perry was referring to Afghanistan before later mentioning Pakistan. The government in Afghanistan is Taliban-led. The Taliban, ISIS, and Al-Qaeda are different entities. So, if funds are going to training camps in Afghanistan, and Perry then brings up Boko Haram, it was expected that he would provide some evidence.”