Democracy Day: ‘Nigeria Changing Driver But Still Heading In The Wrong Direction’ – Omole

Renowned author, Dr. Charles Omole, has warned that Nigeria’s security challenges will persist unless the country rethinks its approach beyond leadership changes, insisting that structural reform, rather than personnel shifts, was required to achieve meaningful progress.

He made the remarks on Friday at The Platform Nigeria Special June 12 Lecture held in Lagos. The event, themed “Governance, Democracy, National Security,” was organised by the Covenant Christian Centre led by Pastor Poju Oyemade as part of activities marking this year’s Democracy Day celebration.

Describing Nigeria’s security crisis as increasingly existential, Omole said the country must be willing to abandon conventional approaches in favour of more experimental and adaptive solutions.

“We’re changing the driver, but we’re still heading in the wrong direction.”

“If a patient is at Stage 4, experimental treatments are allowed. Nigeria’s security situation has become existential, which means in rethinking our solutions, we have to abandon convention and invent solutions that work,” he said.

He attributed Nigeria’s persistent insecurity partly to systemic weaknesses across governance structures, noting that failures in key policy areas often fuel instability.

“Bad land policy can create conflict. Bad education policy can produce extremism. Bad economic policy can turn education into violence.”

Omole also raised concerns about the reliability of information available to decision-makers, arguing that poor data can distort national responses to insecurity.

“The President of Nigeria is limited by the data presented to him. What if those facts are wrong?”

He stressed that security must be treated as a collective responsibility across government institutions, rather than being left solely to security agencies.

“Security is the duty of every department in government.”

The author also highlighted what he described as a growing culture where criticism is misinterpreted as disloyalty, urging greater openness to policy-driven feedback.

“Constructive criticism is seen as disloyalty. Our leaders should be open to receiving practical solutions even through constructive criticism.”

“Nations rarely fail because they lack intelligent people.”

Omole called for stronger government intervention in addressing insecurity, including the adoption of state police, creation of secure economic zones, improved crime prediction systems, reforms in intelligence operations, and the establishment of an independent framework for ranking state-level security performance.

According to him, such a system would strengthen accountability and ensure security outcomes remain a measurable political responsibility.

“If we are serious about solving insecurity in Nigeria, we must begin to challenge the status quo. The challenge before us demands a new approach,” Omole added.