National Security Architecture and Resort to Self-help by Geopolitical Zones in Nigeria

Ben E. Oyombio & John O. Obisung

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Abstract

The underlying idea of the study was based on the assumption that there is an intercourse between the perceived impotency of the country’s security architecture such as the Nigerian police and armed forces in securing the lives and property of the people across geopolitical zones and the resort to alternative security measures by the affected regions in the country. The paper adopted the descriptive research technique and assembled relevant data largely from secondary sources. Building on the contemporary theory of securitization, the study probed the questions: what are the factors responsible for the groundswell resort to self-help in the area of security by some geopolitical zones in Nigeria? To what extent could it be argued that resorting to alternative security measures could correct the security imbalances across the country’s geopolitical zones? What are the prospects for national growth through state and community policing in the country? Findings from the study revealed that it was the loss of confidence in the country’s conventional security architecture that culminated in the proliferation of alternative security outfits across geopolitical zones in the country. The paper recommended that the decentralization of national security architecture through the creation of state and community policing is pertinent in addressing the loopholes in terms of adequate intelligence as well as manpower for effective national security; national security reforms should be carried out in order to check and regulate state police forces against abuses by state political forces; and that government should improve on providing for the welfare of the people through infrastructural development and poverty alleviating schemes in order to reduce the level of insecurity and banditry in the country.

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