A prominent leader within the Peoples Democratic Party has issued a stark warning that Nigeria’s escalating insecurity has transformed into a lucrative business enterprise, with criminal elements and opportunists exploiting the crisis for financial gain. Anthony Ehilebo, speaking candidly about the state of the nation’s security apparatus, painted a troubling picture of how systematic failures in accountability have created conditions ripe for exploitation.
During an appearance on News Central’s Politics HQ programme on Friday, Ehilebo traced the origins of the current crisis back to unresolved atrocities that have gone unpunished for years. He pointed specifically to the Boko Haram kidnapping of schoolgirls in Borno State, an incident that shocked the world but has yet to result in any meaningful accountability for those responsible. The Buni Yadi followed a similar pattern, with perpetrators escaping justice and emboldening others to carry out similar atrocities across educational institutions throughout the country.
The PDP chieftain outlined what he described as multiple dimensions to Nigeria’s security crisis, distinguishing between ideologically motivated terrorism and economically driven criminality. Boko Haram, he explained, derives its name from a radical interpretation of Islamic teachings that views Western education as forbidden. Yet this religiously motivated violence represents only one facet of a far more complex landscape of insecurity that now grips multiple regions of Africa’s most populous nation.
Perhaps most disturbing are the revelations about how kidnapping has evolved into what Ehilebo characterized as a full-fledged commercial industry. He cited a recent case involving a senior special assistant to a state governor who allegedly orchestrated her own abduction in an attempt to defraud her employer through ransom payments. Such incidents illustrate how economic desperation and moral decay have converged, creating a criminal ecosystem where even government officials participate in schemes that further deilize their own communities.
At the heart of this metastasizing crisis, according to Ehilebo, lies a fundamental failure of political will and consequence management. Without serious repercussions for those who perpetrate violence or exploit insecurity for profit, the cycle continues unabated. Terrorists operate with near impunity, criminals calculate the risk-reward ratio and find kidnapping lucrative, and communities remain trapped in cycles of violence that show no signs of abating under current policy frameworks.
As Nigeria approaches another election cycle and debates intensify about leadership and governance, the question of how to reverse this trajectory becomes increasingly urgent. Whether through reformed security architecture, genuine political commitment to prosecuting offenders, or comprehensive economic policies that address the root causes driving people toward criminality, soing must ce. Until accountability becomes the norm rather than the exception, Ehilebo’s grim assessment suggests that insecurity will remain not just a national crisis but a self-perpetuating commercial enterprise that threatens the very fabric of Nigerian society.
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