A Professor of Political Science, Adele Jinadu, has urged governments in Nigeria to focus on youth empowerment and improved citizens’ welfare to tackle the root causes of insecurity.

Jinadu spoke on Sunday at the First Anniversary Lecture of The Apex Club House of Lagos, under the theme “Nigeria’s Security Challenges and the Way Forward,” held at the Nigerian Air Force Officers’ Mess, Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Jinadu outlined key steps to reverse the security crisis, noting that Nigeria must redefine national security around human welfare, justice, and inclusive governance.

He said, “The country must invest massively in social protection, education, health, and youth development; rebuild trust between state and citizens through fairness and constitutional reforms; reform policing, enhance accountability, strengthen local conflict-resolution systems, and address structural inequalities fueling agitation and violent extremism.”

Jinadu said Nigeria’s failure to grasp the real meaning of security had led to decades of misguided policies, escalating violence, and the weakening of national cohesion.

The professor and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja, said Nigeria’s security problems are rooted in the country’s distorted political foundations, poor governance culture, deep inequality, and structural injustices that have fueled citizen frustration and violent resistance across regions.

Jinadu said Nigeria had, for decades, equated security with regime preservation and coercive force, rather than the welfare and protection of citizens.

He noted that insecurity in Nigeria is not merely about terrorism, banditry, or crime but a product of the state’s inability to guarantee human security, which he described as the protection of people from chronic threats such as poverty, unemployment, marginalisation, and social injustice.

Drawing from the work of Indian economist and philosopher Amartya Sen, Jinadu stressed that development is freedom, and that Nigeria must expand access to political, economic, and social freedoms if it seeks lasting stability.

The professor traced the roots of insecurity to Nigeria’s constitutional evolution from the 1954 Lyttleton Constitution to post-independence arrangements. He stressed that structural imbalances, ethnic mistrust, and the manipulation of political power had produced cycles of resentment, secessionist agitations, militia violence, and inter-group distrust.

According to him, Nigeria’s post-1970s democratic experiments and military interregnums worsened tensions, weakening state institutions and entrenching a political culture where “a few privileged actors capture resources while the masses remain excluded.”

He linked the rise of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, political assassinations, armed herder-farmer clashes, and communal conflicts to structural deficiencies.

He described human security as the non-negotiable foundation for economic growth, political stability, and national unity.

At the event, the Chairman, Board of Trustees of The Apex Club House, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin (retd.), in his remarks, described the lecture as timely, noting that no nation can progress without first securing its people.

Petinrin, a former Chief of Defence Staff, said Nigeria’s security agencies must be better equipped—not just with weapons but with intelligence, training, and collaboration with communities.

He urged political leaders to implement expert recommendations rather than repeatedly convene conferences while insecurity worsens.

During the panel session that followed, which featured Prof. Samuel Oni, Dr. John Abolurin, and Dr. Tony Ofoyetan, the discussants highlighted the need to decentralise the security architecture, improve inter-agency coordination, invest in data-based intelligence, and confront socio-economic inequalities driving violence.

They also warned that unless Nigeria adopts a holistic, citizen-centered approach to security, the cycle of criminality, ethnic conflict, separatist tensions, and terrorism could intensify.

Insecurity in Nigeria has ranged from terrorism, banditry, and kidnapping to communal clashes.

Violence in the North-East, North-West, and Middle Belt in particular has, over the decades, left many dead, displaced thousands, and affected livelihoods even amid government efforts to tackle the menace.