In the wake of Nigeria’s worsening security crisis, particularly the horrific mass abductions targeting schoolchildren, Dr Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili, former Minister of Education and a globally recognized anti-corruption advocate, has powerfully articulated a central thesis: the root cause of the country’s decaying security situation is systemic corruption. Her argument transcends mere political finger-pointing; it is a deep-seated institutional critique that links the failure to protect citizens directly to decades of malfeasance and the collapse of governance structures.
Ezekwesili, who co-founded Transparency International and served as Vice President of the World Bank’s Africa division, speaks with authority derived from her extensive governmental and global anti-corruption experience. She maintains that the escalating violence—from banditry and kidnapping-for-ransom in the North-West to insurgency in the North-East—is not a standalone security problem but a symptom of a deeper malaise: the absence of good governance fueled by entrenched, systemic corruption.
For Ezekwesili, corruption has metastasised into a ‘cancer’ that has fundamentally compromised the capacity of the Nigerian state to execute its primary duty: the protection of life and property. She argues that the failure to defeat non-state actors like Boko Haram and the rising bandit gangs stems from corruption that permeates the security sector itself. This systemic decay manifests in multiple, critical ways:
- Compromised Military Procurement: Funds meant for equipping and training the armed forces are routinely diverted, leaving security personnel with inadequate weapons, outdated technology, and low morale. This directly impacts their effectiveness in confronting heavily armed criminals.
- Weakened Intelligence Infrastructure: Corruption erodes trust and incentivises impunity, preventing the kind of deep, communal intelligence gathering necessary to preempt attacks. When officials prioritise personal gain over national security, critical warnings are ignored, or, worse, information is sold to the criminal elements.
- Erosion of Accountability: The normalisation of corrupt practices means there are few consequences for failure. When political and military leaders are not held accountable for security lapses—even mass atrocities—it creates a climate of impunity where criminal activity can thrive without fear of professional sanction or legal prosecution.
Ezekwesili emphasises that addressing corruption merely through punitive measures (i.e., arresting and prosecuting a few individuals) is insufficient. She advocates for a comprehensive, structural overhaul, insisting that the priority must be establishing credible leadership that possesses the political will to fundamentally reform the system. This reform requires building strong, transparent, and accountable institutions that make corrupt behaviour a high-risk, low-reward venture, rather than the national norm.
The veteran policy expert criticises the growing tendency in Nigeria to normalise corruption, suggesting that generations of opportunities have been drained for short-term illicit gains. She describes this as a profound betrayal of the future. The sheer scale of wealth plundered over decades, she suggests, could have been invested in robust social infrastructure—quality education, healthcare, and massive youth employment programs—which act as natural buffers against recruitment into armed criminal gangs. In essence, systemic corruption has created the socio-economic petri dish in which insecurity proliferates.
By framing the security crisis as a governance crisis first and foremost, Ezekwesili shifts the public debate from tactical military operations to the necessary, but politically difficult, task of achieving institutional integrity. Her call to action is clear: Nigeria will continue to bleed from insecurity until it decisively addresses the “bad behaviour at the top” that sustains the very criminal ecosystems currently holding the nation hostage. The fight against banditry, she posits, is inextricably linked to the fight against the corruption that shields incompetent and compromised leaders.