Review of History and Political Science

Rethinking Nigeria’s Security System for Sustainable Development: A Consideration of New Options and Strategies
Patrick Ukase

Abstract
The Nigerian state has come under severe and unprecedented security challenges in the last few years. Some of the major security threats currently confronting the nation have been identified to include: political and electioneering conflicts, socio-economic agitations, ethno-religious crises, ethnic militias, boundary disputes, cultism, criminality, and organized terrorism, especially that which is being perpetrated by the Boko Haram sect. These contemporary security threats are intrinsically disturbing because of the dimension, proportion and sophistication it appears to have taken. These challenges, individually and collectively, constitute threats to the peace, security, and development of the country. Unarguably also, these security conundrum have implications for the nation’s continued survival and democratic trajectory. What is even more worrisome is the deteriorated character of our security agencies, which has made it impossible for them to respond to the onslaught of these criminals. In most cases, security agencies are reactive rather than proactive, which is an indication that they lack the intellectual capacity, sophistry, organisational ability, training and the other necessary infrastructure to confront these criminals. This paper, therefore, canvases the need to rethink Nigeria’s security system, by providing an appropriate and alternate conceptual and methodological framework that would assist security agencies in responding to crime. Apart from the need to synergise the activities of all security agencies, the paper further contends that securing the nation must necessarily transcend the mere physical presence of security personnel on the streets, to an improvement in the overall availability of defence cum-security related information/intelligence gathering, through support for research and development of the nation’s data base.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/rhps.v3n1a10