Social protection in Africa is a mirroring of (neo)colonial structures and institutions of Europe. Post-colonial Nigeria and its social interventions typifies this neocolonial ideology of extraversion and exploitation. This paper explores the coloniality of social protection as a transmutation of colonial legacy aimed at disempowering the people. It examines why and how social protection reproduces chaotic conditions of socioeconomic deprivation, political exclusion and resource extraversion. To understand social protection in Nigeria, we employ the crucial questions of decoloniality’s how, why, what, for whom, and for what. -How has the matrix of power and institutional functionality created by colonialism and its aftermath (post-colonialism) shaped the content and direction of social protection in Nigeria? -How can a decolonial interpretation enable us deconstruct the content and logic of social protection policies in Nigeria? -Why is a decolonial interpretation of social protection in Nigeria necessary? -What explanatory frames can emerge from a decolonial interpretation of social protection in Nigeria? -Can a decolonial inflection and analysis enable us frame in whose interest social protection policies are implemented in Nigeria? While social protection interventions continue to fail to protect the needs of Nigerians, this paper contends that this failure represents an expressive form of same existential continuum as everyday post-colonial politics in Nigeria. The paper posits that the incomplete post-colonial transmutation of the state continues to shape social protection as a functional transactional tool in ways that are unaccountable. Herein lies the roots of colonialism and the instrumentation of the state to aid state capture and elite accumulation.