Rising Insecurity and Development in Nigeria

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue X, October 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Rising Insecurity and Development in Nigeria

 Uebari Samuel N-Ue, Ph. D¹, & Dr. Goodnews, Wabah^2
1Department of History & Diplomatic Studies Ignatius Ajru University Fo Education, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt
²Department of Social Studies/Sociology Faculty of Social Sciences Ignatius Ajuru University of Education
Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt

Abstract: Nigeria returned to democratic rule 1999 after many years of military autocracy. Since then, the country has come under array of complex security threats. This paper, therefore, examined these security threats like insurgency, terrorism, banditry and cattle rustlings, pastoralists/farmers skirmishes, militancy and communal conflicts among others and their profound repercussions on national security and development. Adopting the multi-disciplinary approach, this study revealed that at the root of these emerging threats lie mass misgvings over the perceived political thuggery, poverty and hunger, unemployment, lack of government responsibility, collapse of social infrastructure, and corruption within the system. The findings of the paper showed that the insecurity with its frightening and unprecedented dimensions had serious adverse effects on the State’s security architecture, personal safety, national stability and development. It recommends among other things, that priority attention should be focused more on people-centred measures that could more easily deliver the good life to the entire citizenry than on military hard ware and institutions.

Key words: Security, Insecurity, National Development, Insurgency, National Stability.

I.INTRODUCTION

Nigeria returned to democratic governance after many years of military rule and authoritarian dictatorship. Since then the country has persistently continued to witness diverse manifestations of array of complex security threats on daily basis despite its many governance challenges. While it is unarguably true that insecurity has reached alarming dimensions, it is historical that Nigeria has never experienced security challenges before the transition to civilian rule. Corroborating this position, Nigeria’s former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd) documents:
We (Nigerians) have, as a nation, always been confronted with security challenges since independence in 1960, and sometimes so threatening that one would expect total collapse, but for some unexplained reason it appears that Nigeria has developed some resilience in her ability to bounce back whenever it was almost knocked down by these challenges. (Dambazau, 2013 p. 1)
Thus, there is no pretense to the obvious fact that due to negative legacies of prolonged military dictatorship in the decades of the 1980s and 1990s virtually every geo-political zone of Nigeria is always been confronted with the phenomenon of insecurity in contemporary times. The evolving intensive and disturbing wave of insecurity that is threatening the very foundation of the country’s existence, unity and stability takes various forms in different parts of the country. In the South – South, there is the renewed Niger

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