The vandalism of Nigeria’s important public infrastructure has not solely triggered a big leakage within the economic system but in addition undermined funding within the sectors. From drop calls occasioned by fibre cuts to vandalism-induced nationwide grid collapse, stakeholders reckon that in an ever-evolving panorama fraught with challenges, severe efforts have to be made to safeguard these belongings from threats by terrorists, bandits, financial saboteurs, malcontents, cyber-attacks, and different malicious threats, ADEYEMI ADEPETUN and WALIAT MUSA report.
As the Lagos rain hammered persistently on the weather-beaten corrugated iron roof of his store, the relentless drumming mirrored Daniel Chidi’s pulsating frustration as he held aloft his cell phone towards the gray gentle filtering in by his tiny store window. “No community!” he muttered twice in a sound that was barely louder than the heavy downpour.
Chidi was not trying to stream a soccer match or scroll by social media pages for enjoyable. He wanted to achieve his provider, whose supply of yam flour, a neighborhood delicacy within the South-West, was already two days late. His clients, primarily ladies from the neighbourhood, relied on his store for day by day family meals. With out the flour, his already struggling enterprise can be hobbled and should finally grind to a halt.
Because the seek for the elusive community continued, he climbed on a wobbly picket stool, hoping to catch a sign by slight openings slightly below the rafters of the roof. Nonetheless unfortunate, he walked to a specific nook of the store the place he as soon as briefly obtained a weak sign a couple of days again. In any case failed, he resorted to cursing the community suppliers for failing him in his hour of want – a standard observe in his group.
“This nation, eh?” sighed Mama Ekaete, a daily buyer who had sought shelter from the rain in Chidi’s store. “They only carry on amassing cash within the title of service supply when in truth, nobody is getting his/her cash’s value.”
Regardless of not being happy with the standard of service, Chidi nonetheless purchases an information bundle weekly with a big chunk of his meagre earnings simply to communicate with the remainder of the world despite the fact that the Web just isn’t extra dependable than a Lagos “danfo” throughout rush hour – sluggish, erratic and vulnerable to sudden, unexplained stops.
Calls dropping mid-sentence, textual content messages arriving hours late, and information pace fluctuating wildly are simply a few of the traits of the Web companies offered by many companies.
The issue of poor Web service just isn’t restricted to Chidi’s neighbourhood however is skilled throughout completely different elements of the nation, starting from bustling markets to quiet villages and even within the coronary heart of Abuja.
Aisha, a Kano State-based pupil, was furious with rage after lacking an important on-line lecture for the umpteenth time due to a sudden community outage. She lamented that her desires of changing into a software program engineer had been continually being hampered by unreliable Web service, making on-line studying a Herculean activity for her and lots of.
In Port Harcourt, a small enterprise proprietor, Ann Daniel, who runs a sequence of outlets promoting frozen meals, has a operating battle with stability of energy due to fixed grid collapse and the remainder. Daniel’s case is made worse by the skyrocketing worth of a litre of petrol, which has greater than doubled in the previous couple of 15 months.
Sadly, by January 2025, the rising price of operating the outlets pressured her to close down six shops out of 10.
Whereas she licks her wounds personally, Chidi’s complaints about poor telephony companies solely elicited from the community supplier, lame apologies with blame heaped on every thing from defective tools to vandalism of important infrastructure and different “unexpected technical challenges.”
In a rustic of over 200 million folks, many are aghast relating to how telecommunication firms promote quick Web speeds and seamless connectivity when the fact is much from the shiny ads.
Like thousands and thousands of others, Chidi feels trapped in Nigeria’s unreliable telephony cycle, the place guarantees are not often stored.
These situations performed out someday final 12 months when a serious subsea cable serving Nigeria and the area suffered a serious infrastructure collapse, which arose from vandalism, subsequently impacting companies each giant and small throughout the area. Painfully, these situations have continued to be expressed in service supply.
Certainly, fibre cuts, theft, and vandalism of infrastructure are quick changing into a serious supply of concern, particularly for a rustic striving to meet up with the remainder of the world in digitising its economic system.
With theft and vandalism quick changing into the norm throughout all sectors of the economic system, many extra sectors, together with telecommunications, power, and transport, simply to say a couple of, are equally being uncovered to the menace, therefore the declining high quality of service.
Due to its profitable nature, vandalism is quick changing into a thriving enterprise for steel scavengers and criminally-minded Nigerians, amongst others, therefore the nationwide unfold that it has witnessed. From Lagos to Kano, Rivers to Enugu, Ondo to Taraba, and Kaduna to Abuja, hardly any sector is spared as every at the moment battles its share of the problem.
Even rail and street infrastructure are usually not insulated as vandals are getting environment friendly in breaking beams to metal rods, rail tracks and creating manholes on main roads.
Whereas the disaster seems unabating, vandalism, in response to telecom operators, is a serious hindrance to reaching improved telephony companies in Nigeria. It has equally impacted energy era and distribution within the nation.
Right now, the spate of vandalisation of important nationwide infrastructure has escalated right into a full-blown nationwide disaster with far-reaching results, spreading throughout all main sectors to turn into a giant hurdle to nationwide growth in addition to crippling nationwide safety. From energy installations to transportation programs, telecommunications infrastructure, and public utilities, no core sector is untouched by this menace, which is essentially exacerbating the challenges a near-comatose economic system faces.
Apparently, these heinous acts are perpetrated not by spirits however by Nigerians, who’re concurrently decrying the parlous state of the nation’s public infrastructure and demanding reforms.
Ailing energy infrastructure in vandals’ gripINCESSANT acts of vandalism within the energy sector have severely crippled electrical energy era and distribution, thereby deepening the nation’s power disaster.
Certainly, there was a troubling rise within the vandalism of energy, oil, and gasoline infrastructure over the previous couple of years. Between 2021 and 2022, the issue intensified, with the Transmission Firm of Nigeria (TCN) reporting the vandalism of 90 high-voltage transmission towers in 2022 alone.
In 2023, the quantity escalated to 111 towers, reflecting a 23.3 per cent enhance. In 2024 alone, the TCN reported the vandalisation of 128 transmission towers. The corporate spent roughly N8.8 billion on repairs to revive these towers to useful standing.
Earlier in 2025, over 18 transmission towers had been vandalised between January 9 and 14, 2025, throughout Rivers, Abia, and Kano states. The monetary impression of those incidents is staggering, as every transmission tower, which is a important element of the nationwide grid, prices roughly N110 million to restore.
In 2022 alone, Nigeria spent about N9.9 billion on repairs, whereas in 2023, this determine rose to N12.8 billion and almost N9 billion in 2024. These restore prices don’t account for the oblique losses incurred as a result of disrupted energy provide, financial downtime, and decreased productiveness.
Between the primary and third quarters of 2023, vandalism accounted for 13 per cent of power-related accidents, underscoring the direct risk to each infrastructure and human security.
Whereas the repercussions of vandalism lengthen far past monetary prices, the repeated destruction of infrastructure has considerably undermined the steadiness of the nation’s nationwide energy grid.
In 2024, the grid skilled a number of collapses, with the tenth incident occurring in November.
This persistent act of sabotage has put an enormous burden on energy distribution firms’ meagre sources, as they’re required to switch and restore broken infrastructure repeatedly.
Telecom operators rely lossesDAILY, damages to telecom infrastructure proceed to intensify the probabilities that drop calls, poor community protection, and sluggish infrastructure upgrades will tarry within the sector, no because of the frequent focusing on of telecom masts, fibre-optic cables, and base stations by vandals, a growth that causes main disruptions.
Business sources preserve that greater than 50,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cables had been destroyed in 2023, whereas vandalism was accountable for 30 per cent of community failures, and restore works price a princely N14.6 billion.
In confirming the widespread injury within the sector, the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) confirmed that over 50,000 instances of main injury to telecoms infrastructure and amenities had been reported throughout the nation up to now 5 years up until 2023.
MTN Nigeria reported dealing with over 6,000 fibre cuts in 2023, forcing the operator to relocate 2,500 kilometres of weak fibre strains between 2022 and 2023. This large enterprise price MTN over N11 billion.
Airtel Nigeria Restricted, whereas deploring the unabating destruction, which has jeopardised the sector, emphasised that regardless of the sector being severely challenged, telecom operators have by no means stopped investing to make sure improved companies.
Based on Airtel’s Director of Company Communications and CSR, Femi Adeniran, other than a number of taxations and stagnant tariffs, “the sector is consistently battling vandalism and fibre cuts. We’ve got had over 7,000 fibre cuts within the final six months, and Airtel recorded above 40 day by day cuts.”
Adeniran mentioned that this impacts service choices and limits upgrades and growth of infrastructure, particularly within the hinterland.
Shedding extra gentle on the onslaught towards the sector, the Government Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr Aminu Maida, mentioned: “The telecoms trade faces important challenges, together with frequent fibre cuts, vandalism, and theft, which price operators billions of naira in income and restore bills. Moreover, restricted entry to telecom amenities by property homeowners and authorities entities hampers community growth efforts, limiting connectivity and impacting service high quality.”
Based on him, as these incidents enhance, the monetary burden on telecom operators grows, pushing up operational prices and finally affecting service high quality.
Maida famous that these disruptions pose a extreme danger for companies like banking that rely on seamless telecommunications for day by day transactions.
Transportation infrastructure not sparedTHE nation’s burgeoning transportation sector has had its share of vandalisation, with criminals focusing on elements of bridges, railroads, and public transit infrastructure. Railway tracks have been sabotaged quite a few instances, making the Nigerian Railway Company (NRC) a frequent sufferer.
The Lagos-Ibadan rail line has suffered a number of assaults and theft of steel elements, which endanger passengers’ lives and trigger service disruptions.
A latest report confirmed that the Abuja-Kaduna practice line has additionally confronted vandalisation, which led to derailments and disruptions in operations. Additional undermining Nigeria’s transportation infrastructure normal is the vandalism of public bus terminals and bridges.
As a result of frequent looting, repairs of the Third Mainland Bridge have price taxpayers N15.6 billion over the past six years. Final 12 months, the growth joints on the not too long ago commissioned Second Niger Bridge had been additionally vandalised. There may be an growing development of manhole cowl theft in city centres like Abuja and Lagos.
Financial system stalls as $593.6m is misplaced to disruption, othersWHENEVER the nationwide grid collapses, a transmission line goes off, or the Web is shut down as a result of vandalism, theft, or fibre lower, the economic system suffers massively, and this rubs off on the citizenry.
Not way back, the World Financial institution estimated that Nigeria’s unstable energy provide, exacerbated by vandalism, leads to financial losses of $29 billion yearly.
That apart, throughout final 12 months’s undersea cable lower, NetBlocks, a cybersecurity and Web governance watchdog, used the Price of Shutdown Software (COST) to estimate the financial impression of an Web disruption, cellular information outage, or app restriction utilizing indicators from the World Financial institution, the Worldwide Telecommunication Union (ITU), and others, revealed that Nigeria misplaced N273 billion ($593.6 million) in 4 days of the disruption.
In January 2024, Top10vpn, a world VPN assessment web site, revealed that Web shutdowns price the worldwide economic system greater than $9 billion in 2023, affecting 747 million folks.
Sub-Saharan Africa got here in second after Europe, with $1.74 billion in losses unfold over 30,785 hours and affecting 84.8 million Web customers.
Additionally, oil and gasoline sector vandalism has led to extreme financial repercussions, affecting nationwide income and environmental well being.
Based on the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), from 2017 to 2021, Nigeria recorded 7,143 instances of pipeline vandalism, leading to crude oil and product losses amounting to 208.639 million barrels, valued at roughly $12.74 million.
Over the identical interval, the nation spent about N471.493 billion on pipeline repairs and upkeep as a result of vandalism.
Information from the Nationwide Oil Spill Detection and Response Company (NOSDRA) indicated that the nation recorded about 589 oil spills in 2024, with 471 spills attributable to oil theft and sabotage.
It additionally confirmed that the primary half of 2024 noticed a excessive sabotage and oil theft price, with a median of 53.6 month-to-month spills. This dropped to 24.8 spills month-to-month within the second half of the 12 months, suggesting fewer incidents of theft and pipeline vandalism.
An extra image of the loss that the nation is recording might be gleaned from information equipped by Bloomberg ship-tracking, which attributed Nigeria’s 20 per cent drop in Liquified Pure Fuel (LNG) exports to persistent vandalism and sabotage of pipelines within the Niger Delta area.
As a result of substantial loss attributable to pipeline vandalism, it was revealed that shipments deliberate for export subsequent month could face delays of not less than 10 days.
Nigeria’s gasoline exports have confronted disruptions as a result of safety points within the Niger Delta area, though shipments from the NLNG complicated skilled a rebound in 2024.
With the persistent sabotage of oil and gasoline installations, Nigeria is dropping its latest good points in manufacturing and provides, rendering the nation unable to fulfill rising calls for.
The NLNG’s Normal Supervisor for Exterior Relations and Sustainable Growth, Sophia Horsfall, said that the lack of amenities as a result of vandalism and sabotage considerably impacts feed-gas provides to the NLNG and disrupts supply timelines.
“The NLNG continues to interact its feed-gas suppliers and related authorities safety businesses for an improved safety regime for upstream manufacturing and transmission,” she mentioned.
Leveraging consciousness creation, CNII Invoice to stem disruptionWITH the growing reliance on digital infrastructure for important companies in Nigeria, the Designation and Safety of Important Nationwide Data Infrastructure Order 2024 supplies a sturdy authorized framework to make sure Nigeria’s important infrastructure’s continued safety and resilience.
The safety and safety of those Important Nationwide Data Infrastructure (CNII) will assist enhance the standard of telecoms companies, which have usually been affected by disruption and intentional injury.
Certainly, the Federal Authorities formally gazetting the Important Nationwide Infrastructure (CNI) Invoice, particularly within the telecoms sector, could have introduced some succour and deterred indiscriminate vandalism of important infrastructure within the trade.
Tagged: “Designation and Safety of Important Nationwide Data Infrastructure Order, 2024,” the Invoice for CNII, which has been advocated by the Affiliation of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) for a number of years, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu formally signed it into legislation final 12 months.
The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Financial system, Dr Bosun Tijani, described it as a big step that may strengthen and shield investments within the ICT sector by lowering incidents able to damaging the operations and performance of our technological programs, infrastructure, and networks.
Tijani mentioned the safety and safety of the CNII is a precedence for the administration and can assist enhance the standard of telecom companies, which have fairly often been affected by disruption and intentional injury.
“This gazette now makes it an offence to willfully injury belongings equivalent to telecommunications towers/websites, change stations, information centres, satellite tv for pc infrastructure, submarine and fibre optic cables, transmission tools, e-government platforms, databases amongst many others.”
Based on him, the federal government will proceed to work to create an enabling and supportive atmosphere and insurance policies for our digital economic system to thrive.
The Minister of Energy, Adebayo Adelabu, mentioned challenges equivalent to vandalism of energy infrastructure pose a big risk to Nigeria’s electrification efforts as transmission towers, pipelines, and distribution tools have been focused, disrupting provide and deterring potential traders.
He harassed that defending energy belongings is essential to making sure uninterrupted electrical energy provide and sustaining progress, including that the federal government is intensifying efforts to curb vandalism by enhanced safety, stricter penalties, and improved surveillance applied sciences.
The Government Director of PowerUp Initiative, Adetayo Adegbemle, who emphasised that vandalism needs to be handled as a nationwide concern, criticised the TCN for not doing sufficient to persistently interact all stakeholders, significantly safety outfits.
“Vandalisation just isn’t restricted to the grid infrastructure as we now have additionally been having assaults on distribution transformers. This emphasises {that a} nationwide marketing campaign is urgently wanted towards vandalism, and insurance policies like whistleblowing that reward reporting of any suspicious actions across the energy sector infrastructure are wanted; we have to transcend paying lip service and being pained each time these vandals convey any infrastructure down. The safety outfits also needs to be up and doing as a result of vandalism wouldn’t be engaging if there are not any consumers,” he mentioned.
An power associate at Bloomfield, Dr Ayodele Oni, mentioned there’s a must put money into orientation and re-orientation of the populace to know the impression of vandalism and oil theft.
“Vandalism is a key problem within the sector. Nonetheless, I perceive that the federal government has an association to produce drones for the ability sector. It’s pertinent that that is nicely carried out,” he mentioned.
An power skilled, Prof. Dayo Ayoade, highlighted that vandalism and oil theft are wreaking havoc within the oil and gasoline sector, noting that Nigeria at the moment targets 1.5 million barrels per day to achieve 2.1 million barrels by 2025.
Whereas expressing doubts about reaching this aim with no severe crackdown on the vandalisation of amenities and oil theft, Ayoade emphasised that regardless of important authorities funding in tackling oil theft and vandalism, challenges persist.
He lauded the federal government’s plan to determine a monitoring centre utilizing AI and superior applied sciences to trace crude oil actions in actual time, just like programs in place in Saudi Arabia and different nations. Nonetheless, he expressed skepticism concerning the effectiveness of those measures, citing the dearth of prosecution of high-level offenders as a serious hurdle to utterly eradicating the issue.
Vandalism as a symptom of deeper social frustrationsKEHINDE Aluko, a telecoms skilled, noticed that public infrastructure, utilities, and monuments, which stand as symbols of nationwide satisfaction and repair, have more and more been vandalised. That is principally witnessed throughout protests, significantly in the course of the #EndBadGovernance Protest in 2024 and the #EndSARS protests in 2020.
Based on him, the price of vandalism in Nigeria is immense, draining sources that could possibly be used for developmental initiatives. For every stolen transformer, pipeline break, or destroyed railroad monitor, thousands and thousands of naira are redirected from important industries like schooling and healthcare to cater for this loss.
Be that as it could, the Federal Ministry of Works (FMoW) and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Financial system (FMoCIDE) have established a Joint Standing Committee for the Safety of Fibre Optic Cables to handle the persistent difficulty of fibre optic cuts and damages attributable to street development and rehabilitation actions. These disruptions have had a big damaging impression on telecommunications companies throughout Nigeria.
The primary project of the joint standing committee is to determine and preserve clear communication/coordination channels between the 2 ministries and the NCC to restrict and forestall injury to telecommunications fibre optic cables throughout street development or rehabilitation actions.
NSCDC’s mandate impacted by personnel shortageRECALL that in November 2024, when the Federal Authorities inaugurated the Federal Coordinating Council for Safety of Important Nationwide Property and Infrastructure, the Commandant Normal of the NSCDC, Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi, emerged because the coordinating secretary of the Council.
On the inauguration, the Nationwide Safety Advisor, Nuhu Ribadu, additionally the Council’s Chairman, mentioned that important infrastructure is a veritable software for enhancing a nation’s financial growth and nationwide safety.
The NSA hinted that Mr President strongly holds the nation’s important infrastructure and nationwide belongings very near his coronary heart and, as such, wouldn’t tolerate any lapses or shortfall on this regard.
Ribadu additional defined that CNAI, which incorporates the transition system, power grid, communication community, and important companies, is society’s spine.
The NSA hinted that the Council is not only a response to safety threats however a proactive step in direction of fostering collaboration, innovation, and strategic planning.
“Collectively, we should lay the inspiration for a resilient framework that might safeguard our nation’s Infrastructure,” he mentioned.
The NSCDC CG affirmed the corps’ dedication to the statutory mandate of safeguarding all important nationwide belongings and infrastructure throughout the nation.
Nonetheless, talking with The Guardian, NSCDC Public Relations Officer Babawale Afolabi mentioned the corps is doing its finest to stem the tide of vandalism on important infrastructure despite the fact that it can’t do it alone, as safety is a collective effort.
“A number of arrests and prosecutions have been made. However I’ll say that we want extra fingers and instruments to work. Quickly, the NSCDC will open the method of recruiting extra personnel, which is able to assist us rather a lot. You’ll be able to think about that in a rustic of over 200 million folks and the safety personnel mixed, together with the Police, Military, and the NCSDC, we’re not as much as two million. If we now have extra personnel, we are able to do extra, cowl extra areas, and arrest vandals, amongst others. However, very quickly, we will be recruiting about 10,000 personnel into the NSCDC, and that ought to assist tremendously,” the spokesperson mentioned.
