EXPLORING THE NATURE AND DYNAMICS OF INSECURITY IN BORNO STATE, NIGERIA
A. Adeniyi Farinola 1, Chinyere N. Alimba 2 & Francis O. Awodoyin 3
Center for Peace and Security Studies, Modibbo Adama University, Yola, Nigeria 1, 2, & 3
Corresponding Email: cnalimba@mau.edu.ng 2
Abstract
Insecurity has become a critical challenge to the achievement of peace, stability, and development in Borno State, Nigeria. With its protracted nature, based on the manifestations of the activities of Boko Haram, herdsmen militancy and banditry, insecurity trigered devastating havocs in the state. Thus, the nature and dynamics of insecurity were explored to bring to limelight its nature, factors driving it and measures adopted to address it. Drawing from primary data collected through a strutured questionnaire, the study uncovered that trans-border criminal activities, Boko Haram insurgency, armed criminality gangs; electoral violence, and excessive availability of small arms were the causes of insecurity manifesting in the state. The major driving forces remain illiteracy; poverty; unemployment; corruption; increasing numbers of out-of-school children and bad governance. These forces overlapped to create a complex web of insecurity, consequentially bringing about the displacement of communities, humanitarian crises and breakdown of laws and orders, with adverse impact on social cohesion in the state. It was revealed further that the problem also generated development challenges that distabilised education, livelihoods, and the deaths of people. The study therefore recommended that provisions should be evolved that will create a pathway for the creation of robust security reforms, provision of social amenties, socio-economic empowerment and developing community resilience to enhance cooperation in order to address the root causes and evolving dynamics of insecurity in Borno State.
Keywords: Insecurity, Borno State, Boko Haram, Herdsmen, Insurgency, Armed Criminality.
