Nigeria’s Insecurity: Why Quick Fixes Fail, and Why Continuity Matters in 2027

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*Nigeria’s Insecurity: Why Quick Fixes Fail, and Why Continuity Matters in 2027*

Insecurity is not an easy switch you just flip off. If it were that simple, former President Muhammadu Buhari would have ended it in his 8 years. 

He couldn’t. For over two decades, Nigeria has deployed military force against insurgency, yet the problem persists.

The hard truth: guns alone don’t solve what parental Irresponsibility and bad governance created.

*Poverty + governance deficits = insecurity*

*Citizens Responsibility*

Some irresponsible citizens giving birth to number of children they can't cater for are part of the root cause - that's the rootcause of Northern Almajiris that have become easy recruits of Bokoharam and ISWAP.

The same parental Irresponsibility is responsible for easy recruitment into IPOB/ ESN terrorists, drug addicts, human trafficking, online scammers, ritualists and Kidnappers, etc

The uncivic citizens that refused to come out on election day to vote candidates with track records of good governance are another root cause.

*Two decades of military pushback haven’t ended the insurgency*

From the early 2000s to today, successive administrations have leaned heavily on kinetic operations. Analysts note that “two decades ago Nigeria's military was seen as a force for stability across West Africa. 

Now it struggles to keep security within its own borders as an Islamist insurgency in the northeast kills thousands.” 

A lack of investment in training, failure to maintain equipment, and dwindling cooperation with Western forces damaged the armed services, even as Boko Haram became “increasingly well-armed, determined foe.” 

Despite repeated government claims of military victory, “violence persists in the country’s northeast. 

Abductions, ambushes, and deadly suicide bombings continued in the first half of 2018.” Nigerian security forces “are failing to protect the region’s vast rural areas from militant attacks.” 

Research also shows that “Boko Haram’s resilience highlights the limits of a purely military solution to the conflict.”

Violent insecurity in much of northern Nigeria is “not a ‘new war’ between ethnoreligious groups per se but more of an outcome of governance and development deficits that have trapped the masses in affliction while a handful of governing elite live in affluence.” 

Decades of underinvestment, unemployment, and weak institutions created fertile ground for extremism. You cannot shoot poverty. You must out-develop it.

*What PBAT is doing differently: Jobs, roads, and youth at the center*

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration is attacking the root, not just the symptom. 

The strategy is simple: build infrastructure, skill the youth, and create millions of jobs that pull people away from the lure of violence.

- *Construction on a national scale*: The Federal Executive Council approved N147.89bn to complete Section II of the Oyo-Ogbomosho highway, with the contract awarded to Nigerian-owned JRB Construction Co. Ltd to “build Nigeria with Nigerian firms,” retain jobs, and build local capacity. 

Other active corridors include the Onyoma-Omokpa Highway at 81% completion, Ibadan-Iwo, Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode, and Akure-Ado-Ekiti links. The Tinubu administration is also pushing the 1,068km Illela-Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway, Kano-Kaduna rail, Trans-Saharan Road, and multiple power and water projects across the North. At the Omosi Road site, the FG is building with reinforced concrete “to withstand rain and serve future generations” 

- *Mass youth skilling and employment*: FG is “training and empowering 100,000 youths in culinary and hospitality skills to boost employment” and partnering with ITF/CTIN to train “100,000 artisans in construction skills.” 

Another programme announced “millions of youths to get jobs, skills, as FG launches new programme.” On-site reports show thousands of job openings tied to these projects, with job drives promising “more than 1,000 vacancies” in various categories.

- *Local content = retained wealth*: By insisting on Nigerian firms and workers, the administration ensures money circulates at home. Artisans, welders, surveyors, and equipment operators are being hired directly off project sites. 

These are not press-release projects. They are excavators in the ground, concrete being poured, and paychecks going to young Nigerians weekly.

*3 years vs 8 years: The timeline reality*

Security took two decades to unravel. It won’t be fixed in 30 months. Buhari’s 8 years proved that military operations without economic reform stall. 

PBAT’s 3 years have prioritized the economic flank: roads that connect farms to markets, power that keeps factories running, and jobs that give youth a stake in peace. Expecting total victory now ignores the scale of the rot we inherited.

*2027: Vote records, not rhetoric*

To every Nigerian reading this: 2027 will test our memory. Ask every candidate:

1. *What have you built?* Roads, power, jobs—show us.

2. *Who did you empower?* If your record didn’t put tools in young people’s hands, don’t ask for the country’s steering wheel.

3. *Are you continuing what works?* Abandoning ongoing superhighways, rail, and skills programs midstream is economic sabotage.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, has earned the constitutional right to seek a second term. 

Continuity allows the Oyo-Ogbomosho road to be finished, the 600 federal roads to be delivered, and the 200,000+ skilled youths to enter a labor market that’s ready for them. Discontinuity risks resetting the clock to zero.

Sentiment won’t pay salaries. Tribe won’t stop bullets. Only development will. If we vote based on anything other than verifiable, pro-development records, the backlash will hit all of us—God forbid.

*To PBAT: Finish your two terms. May God help you, Daddy Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Ameen.*

*Call to Action*

1. *Register to vote* ahead of 2027.

2. *Track the projects* in your state: visit the sites, ask questions, hold contractors accountable.

3. *Reject nostalgia politics*. Nigeria cannot afford to recycle failure.

4. Give birth to only those you can cater for 

Insecurity is a bad thing. But building a Nigeria where it can’t thrive is better. That work has started. Let’s not interrupt it.