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INSECURITY IN NORTHERN NIGERIA: CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES AND RESOLUTIONS

ABSTRACT

Since Nigeria got her independence from Britain in 1960, the country’s political structural arrangement has been under one central government called Federal Government (via a Federal Republic) and was blessed with unquantifiable natural, human and material resources. In spite of that, the average Nigerian’s income per capita does not give the real picture due to the high income inequalities in the country. As majority of Nigerians are living in abject poverty, particularly in the Northeastern area. However, under the Federal system arrangement, instead of having a smooth level of interaction among individual ethnic groups, cultures, traditions and religions, there thrives a persistent lack of trust among Nigerians due to fear of domination, marginalization, control and intolerance. This ugly development led to the acquisition of fire arms among ethnic, political, religious and social militia groups. Similarly, with the return of the country to democratic rule, the situation has worsened with the politicians prosecuting their political ambitions. Furthermore, the situation also became more terrible when these groups started fighting government and its agencies. As a result, many people were killed while millions of people were displaced and properties worth millions of naira were also destroyed more especially in the North-east and north central areas. The insecurity situation in the country was alleged to have been attributed to some factors. Among this include poor government policies, corruption, poverty, unemployment, poor leadership, weak judiciary system etc. Consequently, this affected the region economically, socially, politically etc. Finally, recommendations were made and that Government should improve standard of living of the people through the creation of more entrepreneurship centers across the country more especially in the North and North-east in particular. Also, government should intensify more effort in fighting against corruption and this can be done through good legislation and stiff penalties for those found wanting.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Nigeria is a West African country with more than 250 ethnic groups and with an estimated population of about 170,123,740, according to the 2006 census (Akinjide 2013). It is by far the most populated country in the whole of Africa. Although Nigeria’s GDP per capita has been increased through the course of time in nominal US dollar terms, many Nigerians, unfortunately, are still living in abject poverty in spite of huge amount of human and material resources. The average income per capita does not give the real picture due to the high income inequality in the country. However, since Nigeria got her independence from Britain in 1960, the country’s political structural arrangement has been under one central government. This was to maintain some degree of independence and interdependence and as well as create supremacy authority centrally while component states retain a considerable amount of semi autonomy.

Consequently, under this arrangement, the level of interaction between individual ethnic groups, cultures, traditions, religions from different backgrounds was not easy thereby translated into ethnic and political misunderstanding, mistrust, dominations, conflicts and crises as one may not be considerate with one another. As a result, there are fear, suspicions, intolerance, grieves and greed domination among most communities in the country and especially in the North which has so many ethnic minorities.

Furthermore, it also created fear of not getting one’s fair share of scarce commodities (Daily Times, 1984). However, in an attempt to bring this over 250 groups of people under Federal state system, it created more problems than solving due to fear of deprivation

The North occupies about 70% of the land mass of the country; it also has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the country (World Bank 2001). Similarly, it has the lowest rate of child enrolment in schools, highest number of unemployed young people in the country, highest levels of poverty as compared to the other parts of the country. Consequently, the region is faced with challenges of security of lives and property and has remained a major issue today. These problems include inter-ethic and inter­religious conflict, insurgency and terrorism such as the Boko-Haram among others. According to Temple, (2013), the indices that measure human development are by far poorer in the 19 northern states of Nigeria compared with the rest of the country ranging from the girl-child education to the Almajiri system, from women empowerment to the economic viability of states, from an immediate marshal plan­like attempt at addressing the areas in conflict to how to create cooperation between states and groups. He further concluded that as a result of the above, the region was faced with the worst security challenges since independence.

Similarly, other security challenges facing the region include armed robbery and kidnapping, apart from insurgency and terrorism that have spread across the region like a wild fire across the polity, which seriously needs to be given adequate attention by the Government at all levels as pointed out by Salawu (2010). Kidnapping is still young in the north, but is fast developing and penetrating almost every area in the region. Kidnapping means taking a person away against the person’s will, usually for the purpose of ransom. Today, people are getting kidnapped almost on a daily basis across the region, through so many criminal and terrorist activities (Innocent, 2012).