Vice-Chancellor of the African School of Economics, Prof. Mahfouz A. Adedimeji, has said literature can serve as an early-warning mechanism for identifying social conditions that may eventually lead to insecurity and violent conflict.
Adedimeji made the assertion on Friday, October 30, 2026, while delivering the keynote address at the 45th International Convention and Conference of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), held at the Mamman Vatsa Writers’ Village, Abuja.
Speaking on “Literature, National Security and the Place of Nigeria in the World,” the don said literature was not merely an instrument of entertainment or academic study but an important resource for national consciousness, peacebuilding and security.
He said writers often identify alienation, injustice, humiliation, exclusion and institutional distrust before such conditions develop into organised violence.
According to him, while security institutions typically respond when threats become identifiable, literature can expose the social conditions from which those threats emerge.
“Literature remembers. Literature questions. Literature warns. Literature humanises. Literature imagines,” he said, stressing that national security must take account of the narratives through which citizens understand identity, justice, history and belonging.
Adedimeji said this was particularly important for Nigeria, which continues to face terrorism, violent extremism, banditry, kidnapping, communal conflicts, organised crime and displacement.
He argued that force alone could not resolve the conditions that continually reproduce insecurity, noting that a broader security approach must examine the social narratives and grievances underlying conflict.
The professor cited the works of Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ken Saro-Wiwa and Helon Habila as examples of literature that have explored political instability, abuse of power, environmental injustice, marginalisation and conflict.
He said literature could also preserve national memory and help societies confront the human consequences of conflict, citing Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun as an example of how the Nigerian Civil War could be understood through human experiences rather than statistics and military history.
He further warned that language could either contribute to insecurity or help prevent it, noting that political rhetoric, ethnic stereotypes and narratives of “us” and “them” could deepen divisions and legitimise violence.
Adedimeji also expressed concern over the growing influence of social media and artificial intelligence on Nigeria’s information environment.
He said fabricated stories, manipulated images, recycled videos and synthetic audio and video could spread rapidly, making critical thinking and media literacy increasingly important to national security.
“In an age of information warfare, these are no longer merely classroom questions. They are citizenship skills,” he said.
The don, however, cautioned against using literature as government propaganda, stressing that writers must remain free to question authority and expose problems within society.
He said criticism should not automatically be interpreted as disloyalty, as writers could sometimes identify approaching crises before they become security emergencies.
“The writer can function as a national alarm system,” he said.
Adedimeji called for greater investment in literature, theatre, film and storytelling as tools for engaging young Nigerians and providing alternative narratives to those used by extremist groups to promote violence and radicalisation.
He also advocated what he described as “narrative security”—the capacity of a society to maintain inclusive and credible narratives about itself without allowing differences in ethnicity, religion, region or identity to become permanent sources of conflict.
On Nigeria’s international standing, he said literature was a major source of the country’s soft power, noting that Nigerian writers have helped shape global perceptions of the country and Africa.
He urged government to strengthen reading culture, support libraries and Nigerian authors, promote literature in peace education and national integration, and incorporate the humanities more deliberately into national security and peacebuilding policies.
Adedimeji concluded that Nigeria must secure not only its territory and citizens but also the narratives through which the country understands itself and is understood by the world.
“We must secure Nigeria. And we must secure the Nigerian story,” he said.