Poverty as a Threat to Human Security in Nigeria

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue I, January 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Poverty as a Threat to Human Security in Nigeria

Shehu Enoch Amila¹, Baiyi Viniru Luka^2
1Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Federal University Lafia, Nigeria
²Department of Political science, faculty of Arts, management and Social Science, Federal University Gashua, Nigeria

Abstract: – The paper examines the concept of poverty, threat, security and human security in Nigeria, making use of library research and content analysis methodology in a qualitative analytical perspective. Apart from the afford mention conception, the paper establishes the causal relationship between poverty and human security adopting modernization and dependency theories. It outline some causes of poverty (unemployment, corruption, poor education, laziness and environmental degradation) and the seven dimension (economic, food, health, environment, personal, community and political) of human security which are all threaten. In order for Nigeria to attain freedom from wants, recommended among others: Nigerians should develop the habit and mind set of self-reliance in order to reduce the rate of unemployment and under employment in the country; afforestation policy and punishments of illegal cutting of tree should be put in place; patriotism is a remedy to high rate of corruption in Nigeria. Policies, programs and their execution should be done in the interest of the state only.

Key words: poverty, threat, Nigeria, security and human security

I. INTRODUCTION

In 21st century, conflict, peace, development and security seem to be the most recurrent terms gaining wide currency. Security, especially in the second decade of 21st century in Nigeria has become the national vernacular. The problem of Nigeria in this era is not how to keep individuals, tribes, religion etc. peaceful apart but how to bring them peaceful together.
The democratic space seemed to have contributed immensely to the rise of violence conflict in the country. It seems that the freedoms of expression and right of self-determination which the democratic rules promotes is being negatively exploited by the citizens, hence their acts of impunity which leads to these violence conflicts, Alabi (1). Akeem, opinion that “poverty is major root cause of Nigeria’s violence conflicts’ given the emerging flow from the economy of violence. In different area of Nigeria, the unemployed and underemployed youth have embarked on a range of violent activities in search of livelihood’ and this situation has produced heroes in context of political thug, assassinations, militancy and ethnic massacre” (2).

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