Aborisade made this known during a keynote lecture in Benin City on Thursday.
Human rights lawyer and activist, Femi Aborisade, has declared that physical insecurity in Nigeria is rising to unprecedented levels, driven primarily by systemic poverty and the exclusion of the masses from political participation.
Aborisade made this known during a keynote lecture in Benin City on Thursday.
Speaking at a birthday lecture themed “Abolition of All Forms of Poverty in Nigeria: Whose Task?” in honour of renowned activist, Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, Aborisade painted a grim picture of Nigeria’s security and governance landscape, linking mass poverty to increasing violence and banditry.
“According to HumAngle Tracker, in March 2025 alone, 363 people were killed and 101 abducted across Nigeria in violent circumstances. In the first quarter of 2025, no fewer than 1,420 people were killed and 537 kidnapped,” Aborisade said, citing verified security data.
Explaining further from data compiled by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), he revealed that under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's first year in office—between May 29, 2023, and May 22, 2024—over 4,500 Nigerians were killed and 7,000 abducted, compared to about 2,000 killed and 3,000 kidnapped in the previous year.
He cited the case of Brigadier General M.I. Tsiga, kidnapped from his home in Tsiga Town, Katsina State, for whom military colleagues reportedly raised N400 million to pay a ransom.
“This incident shows the rot and helplessness in our security structure,” Aborisade remarked.
According to him, the root cause of these tragic statistics is poverty, which he believes is not accidental but structurally embedded in the political and economic systems maintained by Nigeria’s ruling elites.
“Empirical studies have confirmed that the main driver of banditry is economic. The root cause of insecurity is poverty, which is traceable to the character of those holding power,” Aborisade said.
“They loot public funds, buy jets and yachts, while their unelected wives donate billions without owning any productive factory. They impose policies misnamed ‘renewed hope’ that worsen the people’s suffering.”
He criticised President Tinubu’s security approach, which focuses on military firepower rather than addressing underlying economic inequality.
Quoting the president’s inaugural speech, he noted the emphasis on increasing training, equipment, and firepower without corresponding efforts to tackle poverty.
Aborisade insisted that the abolition of poverty must start with fulfilling Nigeria’s constitutional provisions.
He cited Sections 14, 16, 17, and 18 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which mandate the government to ensure welfare, adequate shelter, food, healthcare, employment, and education for all citizens.
“If these constitutional provisions were implemented, the army of the poor fueling kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism would have been avoided,” he asserted.
He condemned the denial of the right to peaceful protests as a form of poverty itself, referencing recent protest movements such as #EndSARS, #EndHunger, and #FearlessInOctober.
“The right to protest is not a favour from the state but a constitutional right,” he said.
“Sections 39, 40, 41 and 83 of the Police Act 2020 guarantee this. The repression of peaceful protests is a constitutional coup and a denial of citizenship.”
Aborisade also decried the commercialisation of politics, noting that restrictive constitutional provisions on political party formation, like Section 222 and 223, systematically exclude the poor from political participation.
“The party structure is rigged in favour of the rich. The constitutional demand for national spread and Abuja headquarters only empowers moneybags while disenfranchising grassroots political movements,” he said.
The human rights lawyer identified politics itself as the “most critical cause of poverty,” arguing that the wealth of the elite is directly proportional to the suffering of the masses.
“The masses are poor because the rich are rich. Resources meant for the people’s welfare are diverted into luxuries for the elite,” he said.
Aborisade’s address was delivered under the chairmanship of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Secretariat in Benin City.
The event celebrated the lifelong activism of Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, whom Aborisade praised as a “fearless, consistent fighter for social justice.”
He recalled his first interaction with Dr. Obayuwana in 1989 while both were detained by the State Security Service and lauded his contributions to pro-democracy struggles during the military era.
“The history of the June 12 struggle cannot be complete without Dr. Obayuwana’s militant efforts from his Ebute Meta base. He united youth movements into a formidable political force,” Aborisade noted.
However, he charged ordinary Nigerians to invoke their constitutional rights through peaceful protests to compel the government at all levels to prioritise the welfare and security of the people.
“The masses must organise to enforce their rights. Poverty and insecurity are not inevitable — they are manufactured by anti-people policies and can be reversed through collective struggle,” he added.