Nigeria must urgently reform its governance structures, political culture and legal institutions to confront the deep-rooted causes of insecurity threatening national stability, experts have warned.
They cited inadequate government investment in education, healthcare and social protection as evidence of structural neglect that fuels grievances and violent mobilisation. They said the modern Nigerian state has struggled to maintain legitimate authority since Independence, with violence becoming an outlet for citizens and groups who feel excluded or unprotected.
Delivering a paper entitled “Nigeria’s Security Challenges and the Way Forward” at the First Anniversary Lecture of the Apex Club House in Lagos, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Centre for Democracy & Development, Prof. Adele Jinadu, said “insecurity in Nigeria cannot be tackled by military responses alone, because its roots lie in a long-standing crisis of human security and fragile state capacity.”
He argued that Nigeria’s insecurity is closely tied to historical failures in nation-building, elite fragmentation, and a political economy that has widened inequality between a wealthy minority and a vast poor majority.
According to him, insecurity in Nigeria must be understood beyond the absence of war, to incorporate the concept of human security, the social and economic protection of citizens, particularly the most vulnerable.
He noted that episodes of banditry, insurgency, kidnappings, political killings and communal clashes reflect a deeper breakdown of social trust and a widening disconnect between citizens and the political class.
The tendency to deploy ethnicity, religion and patronage for political competition, he said, has intensified conflicts rather than eased them.
Jinadu blamed recurrent instability on Nigeria’s fragile state capacity, weakened by decades of zero-sum politics, elitist legal practices and public institutions captured by partisan interests.
He argued that the nation’s security breakdown is inseparable from a crisis of legitimacy, in which citizens increasingly question whom the state exists to serve.
“The political class has taken morality out of governance,” he said, warning that widespread impunity and procedural technicalities in the courts undermine justice and public confidence.
The professor proposed a public policy reform agenda that prioritises accountability and citizen welfare, which include: “making the constitutional principles on social and economic rights enforceable, restructuring political parties to ensure internal democracy, granting genuine autonomy and financial independence to local governments, and strengthening oversight institutions such as INEC, anti-corruption agencies and human-rights bodies to operate without political interference.”
He further emphasised the need to democratise access to political information and empower civic and professional organisations to hold leaders accountable. The middle class, he said, must reclaim its role as the ethical watchdog of democracy rather than colluding in governance failures.
“Our professionals must stand up against creeping authoritarian rule in the deceptive garb of democratic politics,” he declared, urging organised public engagement to rescue the federation from further decline.
Jinadu maintained that rebuilding Nigeria’s security architecture requires a reinvention of politics as a public trust and a recommitment to development anchored on human dignity, solidarity and justice.
Chairman of the Apex Club House, Felix Alao, said the organisation chose to mark its first anniversary by addressing an urgent national issue rather than holding a purely celebratory event.
“We see the challenges facing us in insecurity, we see how our people are being mowed down by bandits and by Boko Haram,” he said, noting that the gathering aimed to contribute to national solutions.
Alao added that the club hopes to support the government with strategic ideas aligned with its Chatham House-style model of public policy engagement.
“Most Nigerians are in pain; everybody is living with only one eye closed. We cannot let this continue forever. As a responsible organisation, we put this together.”
