Insecurity in Northern Nigeria: the Socio-Economic Implications for National Development

Abstract

Northern Nigeria has been a hot-bet of violence and insecurity since 2009 when the Boko-Haram sect appeared on the spot-light and was profiled as one of the deadliest terror groups in the world. Since then, the group has sustained their atrocities for over a decade with the seeming helplessness of the Nigerian government in the fight against the terror group. This study is guided by the following research questions: what are the social determinants of insecurity that could be identified in northern Nigeria? and what are the socio-economic implications of insecurity on national development in Nigeria? and the following objectives: to identify the social determinants of insecurity in northern Nigeria and to examine the socio-economic implications of insecurity in northern Nigeria and its effects on national development. The study employed the Durkheim’s “Anomie theory” and Merton’s “strain theory and as well adopted the ex post facto research design. Secondary data generated from journals and textbook were used for the study while content analysis was used to analyze the data. The study amongst others found out that; thousands of people had lost their lives, while millions are internally displaced in refugee camps both in and outside Nigeria, there is high humanitarian crisis in Nigeria with millions of out-of-school children on yearly basis. The study amongst others recommends that; the federal government should make concerted efforts in securing the nation’s porous borders and flush-out these criminal actors from the nation’s forest reserves by using modern technologies of asymmetric warfare, and that the nation should introduce state policing mechanism were each state will be empowered to police their domain.