Poor Leadership Is Causing Nigerians Deadly Migration – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called for urgent action to address worsening insecurity, unemployment and poverty in Nigeria. He recently had his say during a panel session themed “Lest We Forget” at the Creative Africa Nexus Weekend 2026, organised by the African Export-Import Bank in Lagos State.

Warning that leadership failures are forcing citizens to seek better opportunities abroad, often through dangerous migration routes, OBJ recalled returning to Nigeria in 1959 after completing his military training in Britain.

Contrasting that experience with the current security situation, he questioned how Nigeria has deteriorated to the point where citizens could no longer travel safely across several parts of the country.

His words, “We just have to do what we should do to provide job opportunities, to stem the tide of impunity, to stem the tide of poverty, to stem the tide of kidnapping and insecurity.

I came back to this country after my commission as an officer in Britain in 1959. And I could go anywhere; I was posted to the North; I could go anywhere in the North, by myself alone, by day, by night.

Now, if you can’t do that, what has gone wrong? We have to correct what has gone wrong.

I have got those people who have attempted to cross, and the story they told me is pathetic. Some die in the Sahara, some die in the Mediterranean.

We have to improve our leadership to deliver, and once our leadership delivers, what does any man want in the world?

But if they have nothing here, they will look for whatever they can get anywhere else, and you can’t blame them.

Africa is not where it should be, and that Africa is not where it should be is substantially the responsibility of our leaders. It’s as simple as that.

These countries should eliminate visas among themselves, about 25 of them, and if they can do it successfully, then maybe in a matter of a few years, the whole of Africa will be able to move,” he said.

Obasanjo further criticised the limited recognition of the African passport and urged African governments to grant automatic citizenship to people of African descent seeking to return to the continent.

I believe that all African states should have such a policy. That anybody from the diaspora who wants to be a national of any African country should automatically be given.”