By
Kolade Umoru
National Judicial Institute, Abuja
Being a paper submitted at course on Non-Kinetic Coordination organized
by National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Nigeria
Introduction
The problem of insecurity in Nigeria is on the increase and this has been
aggravated by the unprecedented rate of terrorism, insecurity and banditry in
the last twelve years. Thus, the practice of federalism in the Nigeria no doubt
has been distorted by overwhelming dominance of the federal government that
distributes resources to other sub-nationals of its whims and caprices. The
demands for true federalism, fiscal and political restructuring by different
ethic nationalities and incursions by foreign criminals across trans-national
bounders have contributed to violent rebellion and counter rebellion among
groups, endangering the security, unity and corporate existence of Nigeria.
These threats to national cohesion and peace and ultimate lost in national and
international direction has undermined our collective interest as a nation.
Based on figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, the total crime figure
which is synonymous to insecurity was 31,553 in 2006. However, in 2016, the
total national crime figure was 125,790, which means between 2006 and 2016,
insecurity increased by 298.66% within a period of ten years. This is a big
challenge to security administrators. Data from United Nations Development
Program showed that Nigeria’s Human Development Index were 0.466 and
0.527 for 2006 and 2016 respectively.
This paper therefore identified insecurity as a major cause of Nigeria’s poor
national development profile. The paper identified enhanced welfare package
to security personnel, community policing, purging of security outfits of
undesirable elements, revamping the judiciary to strengthen the criminal
justice system, economic empowerment for the teaming population of youths
as some of the solutions to address the insecurity situation in Nigeria in order
to achieve accelerated national development and suggested a common platform
to solving the in security challenges.
Insecurity is a major concern for everybody in Nigeria and this has created a
lot of fear and uncertainty in the society. Every region in the country is battling
with various challenges of insecurity (Mahmoud &Madori, 2013) which
include the activities of Boko Haram in which millions of lives have been lost
and the increasing cases of kidnapping. In the last eighteen years, the Federal
Government earmarked not less than N10 trillion for the defense of the
territorial integrity and internal security of the nation (Falana, 2010).
The various state governments equally allocated hundreds of billions of Naira on
law and order. In fact, individual citizens and communities pay levies and
salaries to young men and women engaged to secure them and their properties.
In spite of the huge funds spent on security, it is common knowledge that the
country is currently grappling with the menace of kidnapping, hostage taking,
terrorism and armed robbery. The deficiencies in regular security forces and
shortage of personnel have led to the upsurge of private security outfits.
These security entities are hired by banks, oil companies, educational
institutions and hospitality businesses to fortify corporate security
arrangements. There is no gainsaying that Nigeria has formidable security
change as insecurity is reported daily in both electronic and print media.
Although most of these insecurity occurrences were under-reported, the current
security statistics from the Nigeria Police Force, collated by the National
Bureau of Statistics show that the crime rate is on the increase.
Insecurity and National Development.
Insecurity, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (2017)is a bane of the
development stride of Nigeria. According to the 2016 report released by the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Abuja, Nigeria retained
its 2015 status with a computation of 0.527 which was two points above the
2014 computation of 0.525. The Human Development Index (HDI), a
composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita income
indicators, is used to rank countries into four tiers of human development.
Nigeria’s HDI value for 2016 positionons it at 152 out of 188 countries and this
puts the country on the Low Human Development (LHD), Mahmoud &
Madori, (2013)are of the opinion that high level of insecurity leads to low life
expectancy rate, low level of development in education and low investment in
economy to promote sound economic growth and development as a result of
local and foreign investments. In order to ameliorate the incidence of crime,
the federal government criminalized terrorism by passing the Anti-Terrorism
Act in 2011.
This led to increased fundamental surveillance as well as
investigation of criminal related offences, heightening of physical security
measures around the country aimed at deterring or disrupting potential attacks,
strengthening of security agencies through the provision of security facilities
and the development and broadcast of security tips in the mass media. Despite
these efforts, the level of insecurity in the country is still high. In addition,
Nigeria has consistently ranked low in the Global Peace Index (GPI, 2012),
signifying a worsened state of insecurity in the country. With the lingering
security challenges and the inability of the security apparatus of the
government to guarantee safety and security in the country, the question that
borders everyone in Nigeria today is “can there be security?” Is security of
lives and properties achievable?. now the victims of kidnapping, the question
is: who is safe? Despite huge budgetary allocations to security and subsequent
establishment of various units in security forces to control the activities of
criminals. Armed banditry, child rape, ritual killings and food insecurity are
the order of the day.
The concept of insecurity According to Ali (2013) is “the state of fear or
anxiety, stemming from a concrete or alleged lack of protection.”. It refers to
lack or inadequate freedom from danger. This definition reflects physical
insecurity which is the most visible form of insecurity, and it feeds into many
other forms of insecurity such as economic and social security. Insecurity
connotes absence of safety, danger, hazard, uncertainty and lack of protection.
As affirmed by Beland (2005), it is a state of fear or anxiety as a result of
absence of protection. Adeola and Oluyemi (2012) provide two definitions of
insecurity. First, as the condition of being subject to danger or threat of danger,
where danger is the condition of being susceptible to harm or injury and
secondly, as the condition of being vulnerable to risk or anxiety, where anxiety
is a vague unpleasant emotion that is experienced in expectation of unfortunate
incident. These definitions of insecurity underscore a major point that those
affected by insecurity are not only uncertain or unaware of what would happen
but they are also vulnerable to the threats and dangers when they occur. As far
as this paper is concerned insecurity is defined as a breach of peace and
security.
It must be understood that insecurity has impacted negatively onour
development. According to Soyombo (2005), the problem of insecurity in
Nigeria is on the increase and this has been aggravated by the unprecedented
rate of terrorism since the country returned to civil rule in 1999. The incursion
of the military into governance, and the consequent imposition of military
command structure in a federation set the tone for the distortion of Nigeria’s
federalism. Thus the practice of federalism in Nigeria no doubt has been
distorted by overwhelming dominance of the federal government that
distributes national resources to lower level government at its own whims and
caprices. Since independence, the demand for true federalism, fiscal and
political restructuring by different ethnic nationalities in Nigeria has not
abated. These agitations have contributed to violent rebellious reactions by
aggrieved ethnic groups in the country, endangering the security, unity, and
corporate existence of Nigeria as one country. Federalism that undermines the
independence and autonomy of its federating units will only bring about
conflict, threat to national cohesion and peace, and ultimate disintegration
(Chandler, 2007).
History of Insecurity in Nigeria Insecurity challenges can be traced to the early
years of military rule when large quantities of arms were imported into the
country for the use of the military during and after the Nigerian Civil War,
some of which got into the hands of civilians. Soon after the civil war these
arms were used by civilians and former military men for mischievous purposes
such as armed robbery. There is also a large number of unemployed youths
some of whom lost their jobs during the civil unrest and ethnic agitations. The
level of insecurity assumed dangerous dimensions in the prolonged years of
military rule beginning from 1970 during which people procured arms and light
weapons for personal defense. Some of these arms and light weapons got into
the hands of unemployed youths who used them for deviant purposes. While
some researchers attribute youth violence to peer group influence and other
psychological factors associated with growing up, others emphasized the
impact of political and economic factors such as ethnic agitation, political
agitation, unemployment, Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) as triggers
of violent reactions among the youth (Ubong, 2014). Since the return of
democracy in 1999, the security situation in Nigeria has been quite disturbing,
and in the past fifteen years things have been worsening on a daily basis. Of
course, like any other human society, conventional crimes have always been
part of the experience, especially after a civil war. But the more recent
experience in violent extremism, insurgency and other forms of militancy have
made the situation much more complex (Adagba, Ugwu & Eme, 2012).
Rapid improvement of the standard of living of an average Nigerian has always
been a major objective in Nigeria’s national development plans; other key
objectives are reduction in the level of unemployment, and more even
distribution of income. In this context, concrete indices of national
development can be said to include: reduction in the incidence of poverty,
improvement in the quality of life of the people, more employment
opportunities, greater access to and ownership of houses, more importantly,
security of life and property.
“Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for personal gain” and each year
since 1995, the organization has published Corruption Perspective Index that
scores the world`s nations out of 100 for their public sector honesty. According
to Jose Ugaz, Chair of Transparency International, “In too many countries,
people are deprived of their most basic needs and go to bed hungry every night
because of corruption while the powerful and corrupt enjoy lavish lifestyles
with impunity” (Transparency International,2017). Corruption is at the root of
many of Nigeria’s problems in totality (Adigwe,1979). Corruption takes many
forms and infiltrates all political institutions and economic sectors (Ogundiyan,2006).
It is so sad to hear that the government which is set up to build the
country and fight any form of corruption is now stealing from her own people.
Chapter II Section 15 subsection 5, of the Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria states thus: “The State shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse
of power”. The question is: is this State really adhering with the above
instruction? The government personnel who are constituted to abolish Table 2:
Nigerian Development Index in 2014-2017 Source: (United Nation
Development Index, 2017), Modified by the author.
According to Ejeviome (2011), the following factors breed insecurity either
directly or indirectly, hence they retard Nigeria’s national development strides,
these factors are also among the existing causes of insecurity in Nigeria. Year
Development Index Year Development Index 2014 0.48 2015 0.483 2016
0.530 2017 0.532 Insecurity as an Impediment to Development in Nigeria .
According to Sanusi (2014), there is need for more proactive measures to curb
insurgency in the country, stressing that government owes it a duty to provide
means of livelihood for the citizens. According to him, “No matter how much
we spend on security, no matter how many guns we give to security forces,
there will not be security until these people have food on their table.”
Addressing security problems without addressing the fundamental economic
causes is only a short-term measure.“Yesterday it was Niger Delta militancy,
today it is Boko Haram, tomorrow it will be something else. We have to address
the problem of youth and their future across the country.”He also advocated
“difficult” structural reforms to grow the nation’s economy to scale. He noted
that more than 90 percent of religious, social, and political crises in the country
had their roots in the economy. corruption are negligent of their
responsibilities. Also, the non-governing citizens who are also expected to be
free from corruption are also found guilty. Abuse of power is observed in
almost all the levels of government. Unemployment/Poverty: Unemployment
is a hot issue in Nigeria, and many people are frustrated with widespread
joblessness. Unemployment in Nigeria is like a disease that the cure is not yet
discovered National Bureau of Statistics (2017), 24% of Nigerians are
unemployed. These numbers are worse for young people; 38% of those under
24 are unemployed, but the World Bank estimates this number to be closer to
80%. In March 2014, 16 people were killed in stampedes when 500,000
desperate job-seekers rushed to apply for under 5,000 vacancies at the Nigeria
Immigration Service in Abuja. Students at tertiary educational institutions
often graduate into joblessness and low morale (Ake, 2001).As a result of the
high level of unemployment and poverty among Nigerians, especially the
youths; they are adversely attracted to violent crime. Failure of successive
administrations in Nigeria to address challenges of poverty, unemployment and
inequitable distribution of wealth among ethnic nationalities is one of the major
causes of insecurity in the country (Ali, 2013). Solutions to Insecurity in
Nigeria to Facilitate Development the security of residential and business areas
is the obligation of every Nigerian. Everybody ought to be conscious of this
fact. Corporate organizations, especially financial institutions, should shop for
and deploy more sophisticated protective facilities that would make it difficult
for robbers to achieve their objectives irrespective of how destructive the
weapons in their possession are. As long as there is absence of adequate
specific information and means of security identification for each individual
resident and visitor, exposing criminal intentions before they are executed and
the effective investigation of crimes committed will continue to pose a heavy
challenge to security.
Government should garner enough political will to prosecute and punish caught
offenders of the laws of the land. This will serve as a deterrent to potential
offenders. It is equally important that Nigerian parents give more attention to
the character upbringing of their children as this would help to minimize
insider threat to the security of their own lives and property.
It is necessary for government to understand that the installation of functional
Closed Circuit Television cameras on the streets of Nigeria is as important as
the installation of street lights. Therefore, areas for installation of this critical
facility should not be restricted and monitoring centers should be efficient and
reliable. The challenge of high budgetary implications for such project is
understandable but a properly articulated and phased plan followed by a
judicious implementation is very possible. The unnecessary competition that
allegedly occurs among security agencies in the handling of high profile crimes
should be eliminated in the nation’s interest as this could only impede their
collective performance and further, power insecurity. Again, there is a need for
the authorities to give more attention to the porous nature of the nation’s
borders and sea boundaries which has contributed to the proliferation of
firearms. Security operatives at such locations should be reposted more
frequently to check complacency and a regular profiling of individual
operatives at such duty posts should become a norm. Training of these
personnel should also be intensified while individual agencies should be called
upon to account for each border crime case when they occur.
Besides, to minimize insider threat to security, there is a need for a change in
recruitment process, which must be devoid of corrupt practices such as bribery.
This needed adjustment applies to all security agencies in the country. No one
should be recruited as security personnel simply on the grounds of possessing
a university degree or any academic qualification for that matter.
Considering the increasing rate of cyber-crimes, computer literacy should be
made compulsory for the nation’s security personnel. Training should also be
improved for plain clothes detectives while more of them should be recruited
(Jega, 2002). According to Eric (2017) acquisition of skills will go a long way
in solving Nigerians unemployment challenge. Both the government and the
individuals should work hand in hand to reduce unemployment. Another
alternative to solving unemployment issue in Nigeria is through selfdiscovery.
Embracing the opportunities offered by the internet is a welcome idea in
solving Nigerians unemployment challenge Insecurity as an Impediment to
Development in Nigeria
Summary and Conclusion
Insecurity of any type, ranging from civil unrest, ethnic agitations, insurgency,
terrorism and banditry would continue to be a threat to the existence of
corporate Nigeria, and it is therefore every essential to interrogate the use of
non-kinetic efforts by creating a common platform that can bring civil
representatives, military and judiciary establishment in Nigeria.
14
Having understood the conceptual and practicality of kinetic approaches to
solving our common social and economic problem that has created insecurity
in multi facets.
Therefore, a comprehensive civilian and military action must be created
through a joint platform to be known as CIVIL- Military Joint Operations
Centre (CMJOC) to enable a synchronization of humanitarian and soft skills
through Non-kinetic approach.
This platform would in my view demonstrates how different organizations,
culture, orientations background would look beyond their primordial and
professional callings to accomplish a mission, agreed objectives, establish
Trust, protect trust, insist one Equity and Equality, Promote inclusiveness,
cross boundaries and Generational partnership and celebrate their differences
through Non- Kinetic platform as mentioned above.
Therefore, Nigerian Leaders at all levels must realize that civil- Military
relationships are collaborations and result oriented in nature, and it is
practicable in Nigeria to using CMJOC platform to solving our common
enemy called Insecurity in Nigeria
References
Chandler, D. (2007). The Security-Development Nexus and the Rise of
AntiForeign Policy.
SK Usman, (2023), Examining whole society approach in the Non Kinetic
Operations in Nigeria, a paper presented at Nigeria Army Resource Centre.
Global Security. “Operation Support Hope”. Accessed 27th January, 2023