Nigeria faces a worsening security crisis, with state governors being blamed for exacerbating the problem by allegedly withholding funds from local governments, hindering their ability to address grassroots security challenges. Isaac Ochekliye Agbo, a member of the Benue State House of Assembly, voiced this criticism during a security summit in Makurdi, emphasising that local governments, closest to the people, are being deliberately weakened and left vulnerable to criminal attacks. Agbo also called on the military to step up and defend communities against what he described as a potential conventional war.

Echoing these concerns, Lazarus Mom, a security consultant, highlighted the importance of community policing, citing successful examples in Guma and Katsina-Ala local government areas. Terwase Uche, representing Guma 1 Constituency, criticised the mismanagement of security funds, pointing out the lack of basic equipment, such as vehicles, for local government chairmen, despite significant allocations for security.

Afenifere, a Yoruba socio-political group, has also decried the upsurge in terrorist acts across Nigeria, particularly in the North East, North Central, and North West, as well as kidnapping incidents in the South West. The group attributed the crisis to factors such as ungoverned land expanses, porous borders, weapon proliferation, complicity of state actors, ethno-religious bigotry, and ineffective governance. They also identified foreign interests, illegal mining, instability in the Sahel, and conflicts between farmers and pastoralists as contributing factors.

Afenifere highlighted socio-economic issues like high unemployment, weak state presence, and the desire for wealth at all costs as drivers of kidnapping, ritual killings, and cultism among youths. The group referenced the Chief of Defence Staff's alarm about foreign funding of terrorist groups and Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia's assertion that attacks in his state are carried out by foreign elements, particularly from Mali. Afenifere recalled a 2014 incident where insurgents killed a first-class Emir of Gworza, Borno State, underscoring that the threat to Nigeria's peace predates the current administration.