CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA: A STRATEGIC ROADMAP TO ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDG)

Over 25 million Nigerians go hungry every year, making it one of the most food-insecure countries in the world despite its abundant agricultural resources. Although agricultural production is frequently highlighted in development discourse, this study turns its attention to corporate governance, a more profound and frequently disregarded factor that contributes to food insecurity. It makes the case that food security is a governance deliverable that is influenced by institutional conduct, policy enforcement, and moral leadership rather than just being a result of farm output. The structural function of corporate governance in the Nigerian food system is not sufficiently examined in the literature currently in publication. The direct effects of board effectiveness, regulatory openness, stakeholder inclusion, and ESG frameworks on food supply, access, and resilience are not well understood empirically. By presenting the GOV-FS Nexus Model, a governance-based intervention paradigm, this study closes that crucial knowledge gap. Developing and validating a diagnostic and implementation model that incorporates corporate governance concepts into Nigeria's food security policy is the main goal of this study. The study examines the effects of governance mechanisms on important food security outcomes that are in line with SDG 2: Zero Hunger, as mediated by institutional integrity and ESG adoption. The study employed a mixed-methods sequential explanatory approach, combining 24 qualitative interviews with regulatory leaders, smallholder farmers, and agri-executives with quantitative data from 250 respondents in six geographical zones. Findings were triangulated using theme coding and structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings support a strong positive correlation between food availability and governance, which is tempered by ESG integration and institutional integrity. Glaring differences did, however, surface: many businesses just use ESG as branding; stakeholder participation is still merely surface level; and climate policies are frequently only in place on paper. Due to elite capture and opaque procurement procedures, nations with high governance self-ratings have low access to food, according to regional anomalies. Food security is reframed in this study as a governance-driven outcome rather than a goal of altruistic policy. It provides a scalable blueprint for national food policy reform by operationalising the GOV-FS Nexus Model, where boardrooms—rather than just farms—become crucial levers for ending hunger. Other developing economies dealing with comparable institutional vulnerabilities can use the model.