INSECURITY IN NIGERIA

Ethno-religious conflicts began in Nigeria as far back as the 1980s. There was the Maitatsine riot in 1980 when Mohammad Marwa attempted to force his religion on other religious groups in the country. Mohammad Marwa was a migrant from Cameroon and declared himself a Prophet. The conflict became so serious that the military intervened and there was a loss of at least 5000 lives and lots of properties destroyed (12). Several countless conflicts have occurred between then and now.

1. Farmer-Herder clashes: The interaction between farmers and herders is inevitable. This relationship however, is what has led the herders and their hosts into a tussle for land, water and natural resources. According to International Crisis Group, the conflict between herders and farmers was six times deadlier than boko haram insurgency and there has been a body count of 19 000 since 1999 (6).
2. Niger Delta Militancy: The activities of this group dates as far back as the 1990s. Minority groups in the region rose as a result of degradation of the environment by oil companies. According to Vanguard Newspaper (13), between January 2000 and January 2020, there were 19, 101 deaths from militant attacks. Politicians, in their bid to advance their aspirations reward gang members for acts of political violence (14). This resulted in the emergence of other militant groups who now cause problems in the region.

There is a sporadic increase in violence in Nigeria. Lawless sects arise on a daily basis in different aspects of the country and claim responsibilities for bombings, killings, kidnappings and armed robbery. Many causes have been postulated to cause insecurity. Some of them include:

• Porous borders: The border is the first line of defense against insecurity (15). Nigerian borders are characterised by the unmitigated flow of migrants between Nigeria and other neighbouring countries. Even though the porosity of Nigerian borders dates back as far as the colonial era, it has also been observed that successive governments have failed to 4 properly manage them (15). The borders are not adequately guarded and hence promote the free entry and exit of criminals and arms and weapons. Edeko (16) reported that Nigeria hosts over 90% of about 80 million illegal weapons in West Africa. Nigeria is the only country where people troop in and out without adequate checkmating (17).
• Unemployment/poverty: The idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Most of the perpetrators of crime in the country are youths who were recruited because they could not find honest means of survival. In Nigeria, unemployment is projected to rise as high as 32.5% in 2021 with the youths mainly affected since they occupy a huge chunk of the population (18). According to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)(19), 34.2 per cent of youth population between 15 and 24 years of age are unemployed. Between 2006 and 2020, Nigeria averaged an unemployment rate of 13.55 per cent. In the last quarter of 2020, unemployment rate was 33.3% from a 27.1% in the second quarter (20). According to International Fund for Agricultural Development 2007, Poverty is a threat to human existence and reduces a man to a perpetual state of infancy. Between 2017 and 2019, an average of 9.1% of Nigerians experienced hunger which is an increase from 6.4% which was experienced between 2014 and 2016(21).
• Electioneering and bad governance: In most African countries, elections are riddled with uncertainties (22).The electoral politics of Nigeria has been riddled with violent conflicts, political thuggery, assassinations and arson from the 1960s, all being sponsored by members of the political class (4, 22, 23). This has deprived Nigerians rulership from good leaders because most of their political leaders occupy offices for personal gains only (17).
• Ethnic and religious violence: This is as a result of distrust between the ethnic and religious groups in the country. Most conflicts in Nigeria have been linked to ethnicity and religion (12). Ethno-religious conflict is defined as a situation in which the relationship between members of the ethnic or religious group and another of such group in a multi ethnic and multi religious society is characterised by lack of cordiality, mutual suspicion, fear and tendency towards violent confrontations (17). Nigeria has been bedeviled with these conflicts since independence and they occur in all areas of the country. This can also be attributed to inability of the government to equitably distribute resources of the country (4, 17). It has been reported that 40% of ethno-religion based conflicts are credited to this republic (24).
• Weak security systems: This is as a result of inadequate equipment supply to the security forces. Also, often times, security personnel assigned to deal with a situation lack the necessary skill and expertise to handle it. Nigeria has a police to citizen ration of 1:400 which is far better than the United Nations standard which is 1:450 (10). Unfortunately, the level of insecurity in the country does not justify this number.

The list is inexhaustive. The above is just to mention a few.