Former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi has blamed Nigeria’s worsening insecurity on decades of failed leadership, systemic corruption, and neglect of human development, insisting that poverty and insecurity are fundamentally linked.

In a statement shared via his official Facebook page on Tuesday, Obi argued that no amount of military action can solve the crisis without tackling the underlying socio-economic roots.

“I have consistently maintained that the more we pull people out of poverty, the more we reduce criminality — and the reverse is also true,” Obi stated.

He criticized the government’s continued investment in “white elephant projects” and extravagant contracts, noting that the real path to security lies in investing in education, healthcare, and poverty alleviation rather than political patronage or hollow infrastructure.

“You cannot separate security from human development. They are inseparable,” he said.

Obi warned that with nearly 100 million Nigerians in extreme poverty and over 140 million living in multidimensional poverty, the country risks a full-scale security collapse unless immediate, people-centered action is taken.

His comments echo those of General Christopher Musa, Chief of Defence Staff, who recently admitted that military solutions alone are insufficient to curb the unrest.

“We abandon the masses and then criminalise their hunger,” Obi lamented, stressing that vulnerable populations—especially out-of-school children and impoverished families—are easily exploited by criminal networks and extremist groups.

Quoting Mother Teresa, Obi called out the moral failure of ignoring the hungry and vulnerable in society and urged a shift from reactive security policies to proactive governance rooted in human development.

“Every naira we invest in people today is one less bullet we need to fire tomorrow,” he concluded.
“That is the real meaning of security. That is how we build a new Nigeria that is possible.”