When the Donald J. Trump style message emerges from the U.S., aimed at the Nigerian government it is not just diplomacy or social media posturing. It is proof that we have given them the opening. We have allowed our domestic security failures, politics, PR spin and denials to erode our credibility and thus invited outside voices to dictate the narrative.
At its core this is about accountability. The primary function of government is to protect its citizens. If it cannot do that, it fails. And that vacuum invites external commentary, interference, or worse.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria recorded 614,937 deaths between May 2023 and April 2024 as a result of insecurity (banditry, kidnapping, insurgency) across the country. The Northwest accounted for ~206,000 of those deaths, the Northeast ~189,000, with the Southwest the lowest at ~15,693.
In the first half of 2025, the National Human Rights Commission reported at least 2,266 people killed by bandits or insurgents in Nigeria already surpassing full-year 2024 totals.
In the Southeast region only, between January 2021 and June 2023, 1,844 people were killed in attacks involving non-state actors, protests, abductions, mob violence and clashes.
A study on violence-related deaths called it “a public health crisis” rooted in insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, and the disintegration of the social contract.
These statistics underscore the magnitude of destabilisation: when hundreds of thousands of lives are lost annually to insecurity, the government has lost the narrative of being in control.
Why the U.S. feels entitled to speak and why we should not let that calm us.
When you cannot protect your citizens, others will speak for you or about you. The narrative emerging is: Nigeria is failing; if you cannot handle this, we will step in.
In other words: we have handed the optics to others. We’ve spent too much time on denial, counter-denials, political optics, blame games, instead of visible, credible, consistent action. When the message comes from abroad especially a super‐power, it signals that the world no longer trusts us to fix this ourselves, and quite candidly, we’ve not shown it that we can.
Let me be clear: no external actor can fix our internal faults. Not the U.S., not any military partner, not any foreign donor. The root causes: weak institutions, porous borders, politicised security agencies, neglect of local intelligence, underlying socioeconomic grievance are ours to fix. External pressure only magnifies urgency and risk.
What this says about leadership and domestic politics:
- When the president or the security apparatus is more focused on next election, political positioning, image management rather than delivering results, then the fundamental contract with citizens is broken.
- When “PR responses” such as press conferences, stock phrases of “we will capture them soon” or “the perpetrators will be punished” dominate, while villages burn, lives are taken and people abducted, then you are playing politics while your citizens pay the price.
- When leadership surrounds itself with jobbers, loyalists and spin-teams rather than career diplomats, seasoned negotiators, security-strategists and lifelong public servants, the global dimension of the threat is undersold and the internal crisis remains unmanaged.
What must happen now, a call to action:
- Engage globally but lead domestically: We must deploy real, seasoned diplomats, people who understand high level lobbying, foreign policy, security cooperation, not merely party hacks. Nigeria must appear serious to the world while acting decisively at home.
- Stop the politics-of-sound-bytes: Security is not a campaign promise or photo-op. It must be funded, equipped, audited, and held accountable. We must shift from reactive denial (“they killed X, we’ll investigate”) to protective proaction (“we prevented Y, we stopped Z, here are the results”).
- Set measurable outcomes and publish them: If banditry is rising in Northwest, then we should have clear metrics—numbers arrested, villages secured, return of displaced, ransom reduction. Not just press statements.
- Put Nigerians first—they must feel protected: The security of citizens must outrank electoral calculations. Leadership must prioritise lives over votes. Deliver for the people now; election gains will follow trust.
- Communicate cohesively and honestly: Admit what we don’t know, act on what we can, show progress. Foreign commentary becomes acceptable only when we refuse to show progress.
- Internal reform meets external diplomacy: Yes, engage the U.S. and other partners. But engage from strength show capacity, not weakness. Otherwise we invite foreign leaders to treat us as a failed state rather than sovereign partner.
Also see: Delta Hospitals Record Major Service Improvements Under Oborevwori’s Health Reforms
The fact that the U.S. feels compelled to public-ally warn Nigeria is not the end of the world, but it should be a wake-up call. Because what it reveals is: we have allowed the impression that we cannot protect ourselves. That is not a reputation Nigeria should have.
We must act decisively, transparently and with urgency. The cost of inaction is not just more lives lost, it is the surrender of our narrative, our sovereignty, and the faith of our people.
If this generation of leadership cannot shift from politics to performance, then the consequences will be borne by millions of Nigerians who simply want what any citizen deserves: safety, dignity, security.
It’s time to stop talk. It’s time for action. Let’s lead.
By Olugbenga Onitilo
