AN EVALUATION OF THE SECURITY CHALLENGES CONFRONTING NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper evaluated the security challenges confronting Nigeria. Specifically, the objectives of the study were: to evaluate the security challenges confronting Nigeria; to examine the dimensions of internal security; to identify the security challenges confronting Nigeria. The study used secondary data. It also adopted the frustration-aggression theory to provide a direction for the paper. The study found that Nigeria is faced with the burden of security challenges which resulted loss of live and property. The evil activities of Boko Haram terrorists, farmers-herders crashes armed banditry, kidnapping, and Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) are among the security challenges threatening the peace and stability of Nigeria. The Federal Government aims to curtail these activities, using various efforts but the security challenges persist, such as killing of innocent people, damage critical national infrastructure and displacement of hundred s of thousands of people across the country. The paper recommends that the government should address poverty and other causes of social exclusion which push young ones into crime and criminality in Nigeria; adopt both kinetic and non-kinetic strategies in the fight against insurgency and other criminal activities as well as ensure robust interagency cooperation among the security agencies involved in fighting insecurity in the country, especially in the area of information sharing and dissemination.