• Korea and Global Affairs
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.155-182
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• 2019

This essay examines the relationship between counterterrorism within the Lake Chad Basin Commission hereinafter referred to as LCBC and its effects on leaders' tenure in office. The countries of the LCBC, an intergovernmental institution promoting regional integration in the sub-region, established the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) primarily to maintain peace and security. In April 2012 the mandate of this structure was reinvigorated and broadened to manage the ongoing menace perpetrated by the Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram in the sub-region. The political consequences, however, has not been identical for leaders of the member states of the LCBC participating in this counterterrorism operation. This essay primarily relies on secondary data derived from available public data sets in explaining this phenomenon. The phenomenon of leaders in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad between 2010 and 2018 is used to examine the relationship between counterterrorism in the Lake Chad Basin Commission and its effects on political survival. Results suggest that leaders of highly democratic countries are more likely to lose office and held accountable for either perceived inaction or failure in the counterterrorism operation than their counterparts in autocratic states.