Hello, and welcome. Over the past months, I’ve spent countless hours researching this question, interviewing Nigerians from Maiduguri to Lagos, reading government reports late into the night, and watching the unfolding situation with a mixture of professional concern and personal heartache. What you’re about to read is the conclusion of that investigation, drawn from years of experience covering Nigerian affairs and months of intensive research into why Africa’s most populous nation finds itself in this particularly challenging moment.

The term crisis has become almost synonymous with Nigeria in recent years, rather like how we once spoke optimistically about the Giant of Africa. I remember arriving at a checkpoint near Kaduna last year where soldiers checked our papers with weary eyes. “Another day in paradise,” one of them joked darkly, gesturing towards the deserted farmland beyond. That moment crystallised something I’d been observing for years. Nigeria faces multiple, overlapping crises that have transformed daily life for its 220 million citizens in ways both dramatic and insidious.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, at least 2,266 people were killed by bandits or insurgents during the first half of 2025 alone. Think about that for a moment. That’s not a year. That’s six months.

The situation has deteriorated so significantly that food inflation climbed to 39.93 per cent in November 2025, whilst overall inflation hovered at 34.60 per cent. When your grandmother’s market budget needs to double just to buy the same bag of rice, you’re looking at a crisis that touches every household across the federation.

What are the Causes of the Crisis in Nigeria Today?

The roots of Nigeria’s current predicament stretch deep into soil that’s been troubled for decades. If you ask ten Nigerians what caused the crisis, you’ll likely get twelve different answers (we do love a good debate over pepper soup), but certain themes emerge with uncomfortable consistency.

Insecurity forms the backbone of Nigeria’s crisis architecture. Boko Haram’s insurgency in the northeast, banditry across the northwest, separatist agitations in the southeast, and farmer-herder conflicts spreading southward from the Middle Belt have created a security nightmare that defies simple categorisation. The International Organization for Migration reported that over 1.3 million people were internally displaced in the Northcentral and Northwest regions by April 2024 alone, up from nearly 1.1 million in December 2023. These aren’t just statistics. They’re families who’ve lost everything.

I spoke with Amina, a farmer’s wife from Zamfara State, who described watching armed men arrive at dawn. “We ran with only the clothes we wore,” she told me, her voice steady but her hands shaking as she recounted the story. Her family now lives in an IDP camp near Gusau, unable to return to the farmland that had fed three generations of her husband’s family.

Economic instability compounds the security crisis in ways that create a vicious feedback loop. President Bola Tinubu’s decision in June 2023 to remove fuel subsidies and float the Naira seemed economically rational on paper. In practice, it triggered a cascade of consequences that pushed millions deeper into poverty.

The Naira collapsed from about 750 to the dollar in 2022 to approximately 1,750 by 2024. Transport costs tripled overnight. Businesses that relied on imported raw materials found their operating costs suddenly untenable. Nigeria’s economic trajectory shifted from cautious optimism to defensive survival mode.

Poor governance and institutional weakness pervade every sector. You see it in the way project funds disappear, how security intelligence fails to prevent repeated school abductions, and in the disconnect between policy announcements and actual implementation. The gap between what government says and what citizens experience has widened into a chasm that breeds cynicism and disengagement.

Corruption remains Nigeria’s cancer. It’s present in the police checkpoint where officers demand “something for the weekend,” in the civil servant who won’t process your application without “facilitation,” and in the billions of Naira that vanish from budgets whilst hospitals lack basic supplies. This isn’t just about stolen money (though ₦14.8 trillion spent on security over nine years with worsening outcomes suggests serious questions about accountability). It’s about the slow erosion of citizens’ faith that their country can function properly.

Climate change impacts manifest in ways that amplify existing vulnerabilities. The Alau Dam collapse in Borno State in September 2024 wasn’t just about heavy rain. It was about infrastructure neglected for decades finally failing when tested. Flooding displaces communities, destroys crops, contaminates water supplies, and creates conditions where diseases spread rapidly through displaced populations living in overcrowded temporary shelters.

What are the Main Causes of Crisis?

Looking beyond Nigeria’s specific circumstances, crises generally emerge from predictable patterns. They don’t appear overnight, despite how they might seem.

Resource scarcity or mismanagement typically initiates trouble. Nigeria’s paradox of poverty amidst plenty exemplifies this perfectly. The country produces millions of barrels of oil daily yet imports refined petroleum products. It has vast agricultural potential yet faces acute food insecurity. According to relief organisations, between 17 and 18 million people required humanitarian assistance during the June to August 2024 lean season.

Weak institutions fail to provide the stability that prevents small problems from becoming existential threats. When courts can’t deliver justice, when police lack resources to maintain order, when healthcare systems collapse under minimal pressure, citizens lose faith in the state’s ability to protect their most basic rights. That erosion of trust becomes its own crisis.

Political instability or contested legitimacy creates power vacuums that armed groups exploit. The rise of insurgencies across Nigeria’s northern regions didn’t happen in isolation. They took root in areas where government presence was weak, where young men saw no economic future, and where ideological narratives found fertile ground in communities that felt abandoned.

External shocks test systems already under strain. COVID-19 pushed Nigeria into recession just as it was recovering from the 2016 downturn. Global oil price fluctuations devastate an economy dependent on petroleum exports. Geopolitical tensions affect food imports and foreign investment flows.

Social divisions along ethnic, religious, or economic lines provide fault lines that can fracture under pressure. Nigeria’s incredible diversity (we’re home to over 250 ethnic groups and 520 languages) becomes a vulnerability when politicians exploit these differences for electoral advantage rather than building national cohesion.

What are the Problems in Nigeria Right Now?

Let me be direct about where Nigeria stands today. The situation is serious, multifaceted, and requires honest assessment.

H3: Regional Crisis Indicators (As of December 2025)

The table reveals patterns that government statistics sometimes obscure. Northern Nigeria bears the brunt of both violence and economic devastation, whilst southern regions experience secondary effects through disrupted supply chains and population displacement.

Security deterioration accelerates despite massive spending. In October 2025, President Trump designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” over alleged religious freedom violations, threatening potential military action if killings of Christians continued. That international pressure exposed how deeply Nigeria’s security crisis had damaged its global reputation. The singular threat provoked different reactions from both government and terrorist groups, who seemed to dare the U.S. government to make good on its threat.

Economic hardship deepens for ordinary citizens whilst macroeconomic indicators show modest improvements. Headline inflation eased to 16.05 per cent by October 2025, down from 18.02 per cent the previous month. That sounds encouraging until you realise food prices remain 40 per cent higher than last year, wages haven’t kept pace, and the Naira’s gains remain fragile. Your average Lagos trader dealing in imported goods will tell you the numbers don’t match their lived reality.

Foreign Direct Investment cratered by more than 70 per cent, plummeting from $421.88 million in the last quarter of 2024 to just $126.29 million in the first quarter of 2025. That capital flight starves the economy of long-term investment needed for infrastructure, industrial concerns, and job creation. When investors retreat, they take employment opportunities with them.

Agricultural production suffers catastrophically in conflict zones. The sector grew just 0.07 per cent in the first quarter of 2025 against a population growth rate approaching 3 per cent. You don’t need advanced mathematics to see that equation doesn’t balance. Farmers chased from their land by terrorists and bandits can’t plant crops. Fields left fallow don’t produce harvests. Empty granaries mean hungry children and skyrocketing food prices.

Human rights violations escalate under the guise of counter-terrorism operations. Security forces stand accused of extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, excessive force, and arbitrary detention. In September 2025, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women found Nigeria responsible for grave and systematic violations of women and girls’ rights amid ongoing mass abductions. Since 2014, more than 1,600 children have been abducted or kidnapped. In 2024 alone, at least 580 civilians, primarily women and girls, were kidnapped across several states. The actual figures are likely much higher.

Journalists and activists face increasing persecution. At least 69 attacks on journalists were recorded in 2025, with 74 per cent perpetrated by state actors according to Media Rights Agenda. Nigeria slipped ten places to 122nd in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, reflecting deteriorating conditions for reporters. The Cybercrime Act’s Section 24 is weaponised to intimidate critics under the guise of enforcing law.

Infrastructure decay accelerates whilst maintenance budgets disappear. The allocated ₦1.32 trillion for infrastructure in 2024 falls dramatically short of both the World Bank’s suggested 70 per cent infrastructure-to-GDP benchmark (Nigeria currently manages 30 per cent) and the yearly $150 billion requirement specified in the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan for 2021-2025. You see the consequences in collapsed bridges, failed power grids, and impassable roads that isolate communities.

What is the Major Conflict in Nigeria?

Identifying a single “major” conflict oversimplifies Nigeria’s predicament, rather like asking which leg of a three-legged stool matters most. However, if forced to prioritise, the interconnected security crises across northern Nigeria deserve particular attention for their cascading effects on every other challenge the nation faces.

The Boko Haram insurgency, which began around 2009, has evolved into something more complex and dangerous. The group splintered in 2016, creating the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and both factions have escalated campaigns throughout 2025. They launch daily attacks on civilians and security forces, particularly in their stronghold regions of Yobe and Borno states. Between 12 and 13 May 2025, ISWAP perpetrated its most sophisticated assault since launching a renewed offensive in March, attacking military installations, towns, and roadways whilst seizing control of strategic sites in Borno.

These aren’t random acts of violence. They’re calculated campaigns designed to make territory ungovernable, destroy citizens’ faith in government protection, and create zones where state authority effectively ceases to exist. In inaccessible local government areas of Abadam, Guzamala, Marte, and Bama in Borno State, Emergency (IPC Phase 4) food insecurity persists because people literally cannot farm, cannot trade, cannot move freely.

Banditry in the northwest has transformed from opportunistic criminality into organised terror that generates massive profits through mass kidnappings. Mass abductions surged mainly in Northwest and Northcentral zones throughout 2025. Armed groups kidnapped over 500 people across several states in November alone, including 303 pupils and 12 teachers seized from a Catholic school in Agwara area, Niger State on 21 November (about 50 pupils later escaped).

The willingness to pay ransoms has turned mass kidnapping into arguably the most lucrative criminal enterprise in the northwest zone. When taking hostages becomes more profitable than selling stolen cattle, you’ve created economic incentives that ensure the violence continues. Families sell land, borrow from moneylenders, and mortgage their futures to retrieve abducted children. Schools close because parents fear sending children to classrooms that might become hunting grounds.

Farmer-herder conflicts, spreading from the central belt southward, kill hundreds annually whilst displacing communities and destroying agricultural productivity. These clashes stem from competition over shrinking resources (climate change reduces available grazing land and water points), population pressure, ethnic tensions, and the proliferation of weapons. Over 100 people were killed in Benue and neighbouring Plateau State between April and June 2025, continuing a pattern of violence that undermines stability across the Middle Belt.

Why does this conflict matter most? Because insecurity is the crisis multiplier that makes every other problem worse. It destroys agricultural production, creating food shortages and price spikes. It drives away investment, strangling economic growth. It displaces populations, straining services in host communities. It diverts government spending from development to defence whilst failing to deliver actual security. It traumatises entire generations of children who’ve known nothing but fear and displacement.

Understanding and Addressing Nigeria’s Crisis: A 7-Step Framework

After covering Nigeria’s challenges for years, I’ve developed a framework for understanding how we arrived here and what pathways might lead us out. This isn’t a magic solution (there isn’t one), but rather a way to think systematically about an overwhelmingly complex situation.

1. Acknowledge the Crisis Without Despair

The first step requires honest assessment. Nigeria faces serious, interconnected crises that won’t resolve themselves through wishful thinking or nationalist denial. However, acknowledging problems doesn’t mean accepting defeat. I’ve watched too many conversations derail because someone either minimised the challenges (“Things aren’t that bad”) or descended into hopelessness (“Nothing can be fixed”). Both positions prevent productive action. Countries have recovered from worse. Rwanda rebuilt after genocide. South Korea transformed from war-torn poverty to developed prosperity in a single generation. Nigeria has the resources, talent, and potential to overcome its current troubles, but only if citizens and leaders first agree on the reality of what needs fixing.

2. Trace Root Causes Beyond Symptoms

When another school gets attacked, when food prices spike again, when the Naira weakens further, these are symptoms of deeper problems. Effective responses require understanding what drives the surface crises. Security issues stem from decades of marginalisation in certain regions, youth unemployment, weak governance, porous borders, and ideological radicalisation that finds fertile ground in communities that feel abandoned by the state. Economic instability reflects structural dependence on oil exports, weak manufacturing sectors, inadequate infrastructure, and policies that inadvertently harm the very citizens they’re meant to help. Tracing these roots doesn’t excuse anyone’s actions, but it does help identify intervention points where change might actually make a difference.

3. Recognise Interconnections Between Crises

This step transformed my own understanding of Nigeria’s challenges. I used to think about security as one issue, the economy as another, and governance as something separate. Reality is far more integrated. Insecurity destroys agriculture, which drives food inflation, which impoverishes families, which makes young men vulnerable to recruitment by armed groups, which increases insecurity. Poor governance enables corruption, which diverts security funds, which weakens military capabilities, which allows insurgencies to persist, which damages Nigeria’s international reputation, which reduces foreign investment, which constrains economic growth, which limits government revenue, which further weakens governance. Breaking these vicious cycles requires interventions at multiple points simultaneously, not silver bullets aimed at isolated problems.

4. Demand Accountability at Every Level

Security spending hit ₦14.8 trillion over nine years, yet insecurity worsened. That fact alone demands investigation. Where did the money go? Why aren’t outcomes improving despite increased expenditure? Who benefited from contracts that delivered little security? Accountability isn’t just about punishing wrongdoing (though that matters). It’s about creating systems where public servants know their performance will be evaluated, where results matter more than connections, and where stealing from education or healthcare budgets carries real consequences. As a journalist, I’ve watched accountability initiatives begin with fanfare then quietly disappear when they threaten powerful interests. Sustained pressure from citizens, media, and civil society is essential to make accountability stick.

5. Support Local Peace-Building Initiatives

Whilst federal responses grab headlines, some of Nigeria’s most effective conflict resolution happens at community levels. Local peace commissions established to mediate inter-communal tensions and build early warning systems, such as those in Adamawa, Kaduna, and Plateau states, have prevented escalations that would otherwise have cost lives. These initiatives understand local dynamics in ways distant policymakers cannot. They leverage traditional authorities, religious leaders, and community structures that carry legitimacy with residents. Government should support and replicate successful local models rather than imposing one-size-fits-all solutions from Abuja that ignore cultural and regional specificities.

6. Diversify Economic Foundations

Nigeria’s economy remains dangerously dependent on oil exports, which contributed just 4.60 per cent to GDP in the 2024 rebasing yet still dominate foreign exchange earnings and government revenue. That vulnerability to global commodity price fluctuations keeps Nigeria perpetually unstable. Genuine diversification means developing agriculture beyond subsistence farming, building manufacturing capacity that adds value to raw materials, investing in technology sectors that create high-skilled employment, and reforming the business environment to make legitimate enterprise easier than rent-seeking. This requires long-term commitment that survives election cycles. It means accepting short-term pain for long-term gain. It demands we stop announcing transformation programmes every few years whilst changing nothing fundamental about economic structures.

7. Invest in Human Capital and Social Cohesion

Nigeria’s greatest asset isn’t oil or agricultural land or our strategic location. It’s our 220 million citizens, particularly the youth who constitute a demographic dividend if properly educated and employed, or a demographic disaster if left idle and angry. Investment in education, healthcare, skills training, and social programmes builds the foundation for future prosperity whilst reducing the pool of vulnerable young people that armed groups recruit from. Simultaneously, we must rebuild national cohesion across ethnic, religious, and regional divides. Politicians who inflame these tensions for electoral advantage are slowly destroying the social fabric that holds Nigeria together. Citizens must reject such divisive politics and demand leaders who prioritise national unity over sectional dominance.

Can Nigeria Overcome Its Crisis?

Here’s where I need to step carefully between honest assessment and the hope that keeps people going.

Yes, Nigeria can overcome its current crisis, but it requires changes that won’t come easily or quickly. The question isn’t really about capability. Nigeria has survived civil war, military dictatorships, economic recessions, and countless predictions of imminent collapse. The country possesses significant advantages including vast natural resources, a large and young population, entrepreneurial citizens who create opportunities despite rather than because of government, and cultural production (Afrobeats, Nollywood, literature) that influences the entire continent.

However, overcoming the crisis requires political will that hasn’t yet materialised consistently. It demands that those who benefit from current arrangements accept reforms that might reduce their advantages. It necessitates citizens moving beyond ethnic and religious loyalties to demand competence and accountability from leaders regardless of their origins. It requires sustained effort over decades, not quick fixes that generate headlines but change little.

I’m cautiously optimistic because I’ve seen what Nigerians can accomplish when properly supported. I’ve watched teachers in under-resourced schools still inspire students. I’ve reported on healthcare workers who deliver babies by torchlight when power fails. I’ve interviewed farmers who return to threatened lands because feeding their communities matters more than safety. That resilience and determination exists. The question is whether Nigeria’s systems can finally harness that citizen capacity rather than constantly frustrating it.

The crisis will not resolve itself through waiting. It won’t disappear because of one president’s initiatives or one election’s results. Progress requires sustained pressure from citizens who refuse to normalise dysfunction, media that holds power to account despite intimidation, civil society that mobilises around concrete demands, and political leaders who finally prioritise national welfare over personal enrichment.

The path forward exists. Whether Nigeria walks it depends on choices made today and tomorrow and every day after by millions of individual citizens deciding whether to accept things as they are or demand something better.

Building on Previous Insights

This crisis analysis connects directly to questions I’ve explored in previous articles. When examining whether Nigeria is a third world country, the current crisis represents the culmination of development challenges that have prevented the country from achieving its potential despite vast resources and human capital. The security, economic, and governance problems detailed here explain why Nigeria continues to struggle with poverty and instability despite decades of oil revenues.

Similarly, understanding who named Nigeria and the colonial origins of current borders helps explain some of the ethnic and regional tensions that fuel today’s conflicts. The artificial boundaries that Flora Shaw’s naming represented created a nation-state that encompasses tremendous diversity, which becomes either Nigeria’s greatest strength or a source of persistent division depending on how leaders manage those differences.

Conclusion: Why is there a Crisis in Nigeria?

Nigeria’s crisis stems from the convergence of multiple failures spanning decades. Security collapses because governance remains weak, corruption diverts resources from defence, and marginalised populations provide recruitment grounds for insurgents. The economy struggles because oil dependence creates vulnerability, infrastructure decays from neglect, and policies meant to reform instead create hardship without corresponding benefits. Governance fails because accountability mechanisms don’t function, institutions remain weak, and political competition prioritises winning over governing well.

The question “why is there a crisis in Nigeria” doesn’t have a single answer because Nigeria doesn’t face a single crisis. It faces overlapping emergencies that feed each other in ways that make solutions frustratingly complex. Understanding this complexity is itself important. Too many proposed fixes target one symptom whilst ignoring the interconnected system that produces persistent problems.

Yet complexity doesn’t mean hopelessness. It means effective responses require comprehensive approaches that address security, economy, and governance simultaneously. It means quick fixes won’t work, but sustained effort might. It means every Nigerian has a role in either perpetuating current arrangements or demanding something better.

The crisis exists because we’ve allowed conditions that create crises to persist. It continues because change threatens powerful interests who benefit from dysfunction. It can be overcome only when enough citizens decide the cost of continuation exceeds the difficulty of transformation.

Nigeria’s crisis is serious, but not irreversible. The country has resources, resilience, and talent sufficient to build something dramatically better than what currently exists. Whether that potential gets realised depends on choices made now by citizens, leaders, and institutions who must decide whether Nigeria’s best days lie ahead or behind.

Key Takeaways:

• Nigeria’s crisis results from interconnected security, economic, and governance failures that amplify each other, with insecurity killing thousands whilst food inflation exceeds 40 per cent and 17-18 million people require humanitarian assistance.
• Solutions require comprehensive approaches addressing corruption (₦14.8 trillion security spending with worsening outcomes), economic diversification beyond oil dependence (4.60 per cent of GDP), and strengthening institutions to deliver accountability and basic services.
• Recovery is possible but demands sustained political will, citizen pressure for change, support for local peace-building initiatives, and investment in human capital rather than quick fixes that generate headlines whilst changing nothing fundamental.

Frequently Asked Questions About Nigeria’s Crisis

Why is there a Crisis in Nigeria?

Nigeria’s crisis stems from the convergence of protracted insecurity (Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, and farmer-herder conflicts), economic instability driven by fuel subsidy removal and Naira devaluation, governance failures including corruption that diverted ₦14.8 trillion in security spending without improving outcomes, and institutional weakness that prevents effective responses to these interconnected challenges. Climate change, population pressure, and external shocks like COVID-19 amplified vulnerabilities in systems already strained by decades of mismanagement and neglect.

What are the Causes of the Crisis in Nigeria Today?

The immediate causes include escalating security threats that killed over 2,266 people in the first half of 2025 alone, economic reforms (subsidy removal and currency floating) that pushed millions into poverty despite long-term economic benefits, record inflation reaching 34.60 per cent with food inflation at 39.93 per cent, governance failures that undermine public trust, corruption that enriches elites whilst starving essential services, and climate impacts including the September 2024 Alau Dam collapse that displaced communities and destroyed agriculture. These factors interact to create cascading crises that make each problem worse.

What are the Main Causes of Crisis Generally?

Crises typically emerge from resource scarcity or mismanagement (Nigeria produces oil yet imports refined petroleum), weak institutions that fail to prevent small problems becoming existential threats, political instability or contested legitimacy that creates power vacuums armed groups exploit, external shocks like COVID-19 or global oil price fluctuations that test already strained systems, and social divisions along ethnic, religious, or economic lines that provide fault lines for fracture under pressure. These universal crisis drivers explain why similar patterns emerge across different countries facing serious challenges.

What are the Problems in Nigeria Right Now?

Current problems include deteriorating security despite massive spending (Foreign Direct Investment fell 70 per cent from $421.88 million to $126.29 million between Q4 2024 and Q1 2025), deepening economic hardship with food prices 40 per cent higher year-on-year whilst wages stagnate, catastrophic agricultural production (0.07 per cent growth against 3 per cent population growth), human rights violations by security forces, journalist persecution (69 attacks in 2025 with 74 per cent by state actors), infrastructure decay (₦1.32 trillion allocation falls far short of $150 billion annual requirement), mass kidnappings (over 500 people in November 2025 alone), and widespread displacement affecting 1.3 million people. The humanitarian crisis intensifies as 17-18 million Nigerians require assistance.

What is the Major Conflict in Nigeria?

The interconnected security crises across northern Nigeria represent the most significant conflict, with the Boko Haram/ISWAP insurgency in the northeast conducting daily attacks, banditry in the northwest generating massive profits through mass kidnappings (303 pupils and 12 teachers seized from a Catholic school in November 2025), and farmer-herder conflicts spreading from the Middle Belt killing hundreds whilst destroying agricultural productivity and displacing communities. This conflict matters most because insecurity multiplies every other crisis by destroying agriculture, driving away investment, diverting government spending from development to defence, displacing populations, and traumatising generations of children.

How Does Insecurity Affect Nigeria’s Economy?

Insecurity devastates Nigeria’s economy through multiple channels including agricultural collapse as farmers abandon land threatened by bandits and insurgents (agriculture grew just 0.07 per cent in Q1 2025), investor flight (Foreign Direct Investment cratered 70 per cent quarter-on-quarter), business closures particularly in northern Nigeria where persistent violence makes operations impossible, skyrocketing food prices driven by supply disruptions (food inflation 39.93 per cent), transport cost increases as dangerous routes require security convoys, infrastructure destruction that requires rebuilding resources better spent on development, and international reputation damage exemplified by President Trump’s October 2025 designation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern.” The economic costs far exceed direct security spending.

Why Did Nigeria’s Economy Decline?

Nigeria’s economy declined due to falling crude oil prices that reduced government revenue from petroleum exports (despite oil contributing 4.60 per cent to GDP, it dominates foreign exchange earnings), the 2016 recession (-1.62 per cent GDP growth) that coincided with currency weakness and manufacturing closures, COVID-19 lockdowns that shut businesses whilst the country was still recovering, currency devaluation from ₦750 per dollar in 2022 to ₦1,750 by 2024 that made imports unaffordable, fuel subsidy removal in June 2023 that tripled transport costs, insecurity that displaced 200,000+ individuals and forced farmland abandonment, corruption that diverts funds from productive investment, and policy inconsistency that discourages long-term planning. The 2024 GDP rebasing revealed Nigeria had slipped to fourth place in Africa behind South Africa, Egypt, and Algeria.

How Many People are Affected by Nigeria’s Crisis?

Between 17 and 18 million Nigerians required humanitarian assistance during the June-August 2024 lean season according to FEWS NET estimates, over 1.3 million people were internally displaced in Northcentral and Northwest regions by April 2024 (up from 1.1 million in December 2023), more than 1,600 children have been abducted or kidnapped since 2014 with at least 580 civilians (primarily women and girls) kidnapped in 2024 alone, at least 2,266 people were killed by bandits or insurgents in the first half of 2025 alone, over 200,000 individuals were displaced from northwestern conflict zones, and millions more face food insecurity with Emergency (IPC Phase 4) conditions in inaccessible areas of Borno State. The crisis touches every Nigerian through inflation, insecurity, or governance failures.

What is the Federal Government Doing About the Crisis?

The Federal Government allocated ₦27.5 trillion for the 2024 budget with priorities including national defence and internal security, promised to overhaul internal security architecture with enhanced law enforcement capabilities, implemented economic reforms including fuel subsidy removal and currency floating intended to stabilise long-term growth (though causing short-term pain), expanded social protection through the National Social Safety Net project to provide targeted cash transfers, negotiated bilateral security agreements with the United States following President Trump’s October 2025 designation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern,” deployed additional military assets to conflict zones particularly in Zamfara and Borno states, and established the Nigerian Education Loan Fund to help indigent students access higher education. However, outcomes remain inadequate given the scale of challenges faced.

Can International Intervention Help Resolve Nigeria’s Crisis?

International intervention could help through targeted security assistance including intelligence sharing, training programmes for Nigerian forces, and technology for counter-insurgency operations, humanitarian aid for the 17-18 million Nigerians requiring assistance during lean seasons, development support for infrastructure projects that government budgets cannot fund (₦1.32 trillion allocation falls far short of $150 billion annual requirement), technical expertise for governance reforms and anti-corruption initiatives, mediation services for farmer-herder conflicts and regional tensions, and pressure on political elites to implement necessary but unpopular reforms. However, external help cannot substitute for Nigerian political will. History shows externally imposed solutions rarely succeed without local ownership and sustained domestic commitment to change.

What Role Does Corruption Play in Nigeria’s Crisis?

Corruption undermines every aspect of Nigerian governance by diverting resources meant for security, healthcare, education, and infrastructure into private pockets (₦14.8 trillion security spending over nine years with worsening insecurity suggests massive leakage), weakening institutions as merit becomes less important than connections and bribery, discouraging foreign investment as legitimate businesses cannot compete with corrupt practices, increasing the cost of doing business through extortion at checkpoints and bureaucratic rent-seeking, undermining citizens’ faith in government when they see leaders enriching themselves whilst essential services collapse, funding political campaigns through stolen resources that perpetuate cycles of corrupt leadership, and preventing accountability mechanisms from functioning as powerful individuals escape consequences through influence and bribes. Corruption acts as the crisis multiplier that makes every other problem harder to solve.

How Long Will Nigeria’s Crisis Last?

Nigeria’s crisis duration depends on political will to implement comprehensive reforms rather than superficial initiatives that change little whilst generating headlines, sustained citizen pressure for accountability that doesn’t fade after election cycles, breaking vicious cycles connecting insecurity, poverty, and governance failures through simultaneous interventions at multiple points, economic diversification beyond oil dependence that requires accepting short-term pain for long-term stability, and building institutional capacity that survives leadership changes. Realistic timelines suggest 10-15 years of sustained effort could achieve transformation similar to what countries like South Korea and Rwanda accomplished through comprehensive approaches, but progress requires starting immediately with consistent implementation rather than waiting for perfect conditions that never arrive.