Scholars and security experts have urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take immediate and strategic action toward addressing Nigeria’s escalating insecurity, stressing that impunity and lack of accountability are major enablers of violence across the country.
The appeal was contained in a communique issued at the end of the 2nd Virtual Symposium organized by the Centre for Peace Studies, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (CPS-UDUS), signed by its Director, Prof. Uthman Abdullahi AbdulQadir, which serves as the official source of this report.
In the communique, the symposium called on President Tinubu to urgently convene meetings of the National Defence Council (NDC) and the National Security Council (NSC), to conduct a thorough assessment of institutional challenges and review the nation’s security response mechanisms.
Experts noted that the inability of the Nigerian state to prosecute perpetrators of violence has continued to embolden criminal actors, contributing to repeated cases of kidnappings, mass abductions, destruction of communities, and ransom-driven crimes that generate nationwide panic.
The symposium clarified through the communique that violent attacks in Nigeria remain indiscriminate, affecting citizens across all communities, with perpetrators showing no exclusive pattern of targeting any single religious or ethnic group.
Discussions highlighted that the fragility of Nigeria’s security is also worsened by failed social integration, recurring political violence, and the presence of some unqualified religious leaders spreading inciting rhetoric, a combination that threatens community peace and national cohesion.
The communique emphasized that Nigeria’s insecurity is not a crisis rooted in its diversity, but one driven by the failure to manage that diversity through justice, structured accountability, and inclusive governance.
A total of 98 participants from academic and policy-making circles within and outside Nigeria joined the symposium, where deliberations examined the intersection of religious pluralism, national security, state accountability, and international narratives shaping Nigeria’s image.
The communique urged both Federal and State Governments to treat national security as a governance survival priority, insisting that peace can only be restored when institutions are strengthened and criminal actors are swiftly arrested, prosecuted, and punished without delay.
Part of the communique’s recommendations also called on the President to urgently appoint Ambassadors to major and other Nigerian foreign missions, to ensure full diplomatic representation during a time of intense security discourse around Nigeria.
