In this post we will be looking at The Concept of Insecurity in Nigeria, Economic Growth and Development effects in an economy, Causes of Insecurity and Strategic Security Management Models.
INTRODUCTION
Twenty years into the twenty first century, all efforts are being made globally to accelerate economic growth and development in different nations. The recession of 2007 that started in USA spilled over the world and presented a shock in the pace of global economic growth and development. To worsen the situation, COVID- 19 pandemic pushed over 100 million people globally into extreme poverty (World Bank, 2020); with the result that hardship, criminality and insecurity become order of the day.
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Nigeria is not left out in the global economic growth and development meltdown; and consequent hardship that brought increase in crime and other social vices. These led to unprecedented insecurity situation. Nigerian national security threat increased phenomenally which prompted increase in National budget allocation on security and criminalization of terrorism by passing Anti- Terrorism Act in 2011.
Despite the government effort at ensuring security in Nigeria, the level of insecurity in the country did not improve as Nigeria has consistently ranked low in the Global Peace Index (GPI 2012), signifying a worsened state of insecurity in Nigeria. Towards the end of 2015, the state of insecurity took a different turn as people living in Nigeria are not sure of what will happen to their lives and properties at any point in time. In the Northern Nigeria, Boko Haram constitutes a big threat, in the South the Niger Delta Avengers, Eastern Security Network (ESN), Fulani Herdsmen and Unknown Gunmen also parade their might, claiming lives and destroying properties worth millions of dollars.
In fact, there is complex insecurity problem in Nigeria, as the threat has paralyzed every reasonable activity going on in the country. No reasonable investor will like to invest where his investment is not secure. Many companies and businesses in Nigeria stopped operations; some moved away from high-risk areas to low-risk areas. Others left the country to nearby countries, like Ghana where there is relatively low insecurity threat. Insecurity in Nigeria does not only affect Foreign Direct Investment and business activities, it also affects business confidence as there is loss of confidence in establishing businesses.
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The Concept of Insecurity
Security means absence of threats to peace, stability, national cohesion, political and socio-economic objectives of a country. Security is an ongoing state involving ability of the state to combat threat on its core values and interests. This suggests that Insecurity is not absence of crime, but inability to rise to the challenges posed by these threats with expediency and expertise conceptualized Security to mean protection against all forms of harm, which include physical, economic and psychological.
Insecurity on the other hand, means different things to different people; including: danger, hazard, and uncertainty, lack of protection and lack of safety. All these terms have been used to explain insecurity, which ultimately refer insecurity to mean a vulnerable state of harm and loss of life, property and livelihood. Hence insecurity is a state of fear stemming from absence of protection from attack or threat or lack of freedom from danger. These definitions are directed to physical insecurity which is the aspect we are projecting in this paper; as opposed to economic and social insecurity.
Economic Growth and Development
Economic development involves improvement of the economy and quality of life by building the capacity to adapt to economic change. Economic growth represents expansion of jobs and income of a people, or expansion of economic activity; whilst economic development includes growth in jobs and income, sustainable productivity and increase in overall well-being of average citizenry and the quality of life.
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Economic development is mostly measured using the rate of growth of income per capita or per capita GNP. It is the ability of a country’s output to expand at a faster rate than the population growth rate (Monetary growth of GNP per capita minus rate of inflation). economic development is seen as the quality of life of majority of the citizenry. The use of per- capita GNP to measure development is not realistic because it fails to capture sections of the population favored by growth and level of welfare derived by great number of the population.
A better measure or indicator of well- being is Human Development Index (HDI); as it measures income, health indicator and access to knowledge indicator. Economic development is also seen as a multi-dimensional process involving changes in structures, attitudes and institutions as well as acceleration of economic growth, reduction of inequality and eradication of absolute poverty.
Causes of Insecurity
It is important to outline the causes of insecurity as each will require different tackling procedures. Given that causes of insecurity have severally been classified by different interest groups to include: internal and external factors, remote or proximate and immediate sources/ causal factors.
The focus of this paper in meeting our objective is on internal sources, as the external factors will not infiltrate without the existence of the internal factors. We then present some of the internal causes of insecurity in Nigeria that are inimical to economic growth and development, as identified. These are:
- Ethnicity and Religious Chauvinism: Ethno- religious conflicts as the major causes of insecurity in Nigeria. The ethno-religious conflict arises when the relationship between members of one ethnic or religious group and another is marked by lack of cordiality, mutual suspicion and fear; which tend to violent confrontation. Such clashes present Nigeria with a serious insecurity challenge; with the result that political consciousness and identity are often molded on ethno- religious identities. Claims over public goods have led to several killings and violence amongst Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.
- Unemployment and Poverty: The incidence of poverty and unemployment is on the high side in Nigeria, especially the youths, forcing them to violent crime. This is fueled by failure of successive administrations to address these ills of poverty and inequality in wealth distribution amongst different regions. Unemployment, a situation where people willing and able to work cannot find a job, surely affects the national output as these able-bodied hands cannot contribute to growth and development of the country.
- Terrorism and Kidnapping: Terrorism is use of violence to achieve political goals or force another party into taking certain steps. There are various terrorist groups in Nigeria e.g., are Boko Haram, Herdsmen and Niger Delta Avengers. These illicit groups have caused a lot of harms to Nigerian polity including loss of life and property, especially in the Northern region. They also engage in kidnappings, suicide bombings and assassinations. Communities have been displaced from their homes and farmlands. These ills have negative effects on growth and development of Nigeria.
- Weak Judicial System: The Nigerian judicial system is very weak that criminals go to court and walk away free without prosecution. This gives a sense of insecurity to Nigerians.
- Corruption: Corruption has become the bane of Nigerian development as it is seen in every facet of life of an average Nigerian. In 2019, Transparency International placed Nigeria on 14th position amongst 198 countries in Corruption Perspective Index (CPI), with a score of 26 out of 100. Due to high corruption rate in Nigeria, investors shy away from investing in Nigeria as they do not only look at returns on investment, but also security of their investments. Also, some of the businesses move to other African countries for fear of losing their businesses. This has adverse effect on economic growth and development of Nigeria.
- Poor Security System: The Nigerian security system is weak because of inadequate equipment and training for the security services; both in weaponry and training. In addition, the security personnel are corrupt, compounded by the fact that they lack the expertise and equipment to act proactively in insecurity situations. Also, they are influenced by ethnic and religious sentiments and personal interests. This makes them to sabotage security systems in place, leaving the people vulnerable to attack.
- Bad governance: the issue of insecurity in Nigeria on breakdown of institutional infrastructures which is as a result of government failure. This is seen in government’s inability to provide for the people, protection of lives and properties; and instill confidence in people. Due to government complacence in providing public services and basic needs of the people; frustration became order of the day, especially the youth, who become easily ignited by any event to be violent.In fact, Authors have linked security to the governance system, believing that peace and security are determined by governance system. Credible political leadership characterized by trustworthiness, transparency and visionary attitudes, most often metamorphoses to improvement in wellbeing of citizens and well-articulated economic policies and ultimate accelerated economic growth and development.
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IMPLICATIONS OF INSECURITY IN NIGERIA
The implication of insecurity in Nigeria is numerous, as it affects all facets of our lives and our undertakings locally and the central government. Insecurity affects the entire business organization or all other areas of its operations, which include production, marketing, finance and human resources (HR). To meet the objective of this study, we will be looking at impact of insecurity in Nigeria on business activities (foreign direct investment, FDI), economic growth (Gross Domestic Product) and development (Per Capita Income).
- Insecurity and Business Activities:
The Nigerian insecurity situation usually halts business operations during the violent periods and also caused closure of many businesses, especially in areas where threats of insecurity are rife and on daily occurrence. In this situation businesses relocate to other areas that are relatively secure, some relocate to other African countries. There is evidence of businesses that relocated from Northern Nigeria to Southern Nigeria. increase in defense expenditure affects the pattern and quantum of public expenditure by its negative effects on productivity and growth- enhancing sectors of the economy. insecurity reduces returns on investment, foreign direct investments and portfolio investments.
- Insecurity and Economic Growth & Development in Nigeria
Protection of people and property is critical to growth and development of any nation. Different countries of the world make concerted effort to maintain peace and security within and beyond their borders. Insecurity and anti-national activism have significant effects on the economy, through its effects on price, output, employment, security and defense expenditure, socio- political environment and several others.
The government thus needs to come up with policies that eradicate poverty, income inequality, corruption and enforces good governance. Insecurity and violence have been argued to have negative impact on economic growth in the short run. government spends huge amount of funds that would have been used on growth enhancing initiatives, such as health and education, affecting Nigeria’s long-term growth.
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Insecurity contributes negatively by distorting the equilibrium resource allocation in Nigeria. This has effect on savings, investment and consumption behavior of Nigerians. Insecurity also increases the cost of doing businesses caused by high wages, insurance premiums and security expenditures. This goes a long way to affect profit, lower returns on investment and ultimately affect economic growth and development.
Strategic Security Management Models
There are two Strategic Security Management Models, which are as follows: the two-way approach model and the composite approach model.
- The Two-Way Approach Model: In this model, the creators and perpetrators of insecurity are combated. This is done by removing the factors that cause people to turn to acts of insecurity; and the second part is to combat the perpetrators of insecurity using the long arms of the law and armed forces.
- The Composite Approach Model: with two- way approach model, the composite approach model contends that the traditional assumption conferring national security as solely them responsibility of government is faulty. the Composite approach model ascribe the security of the state on all stakeholders both in public and private capacity government, communities, business organizations, civil society, religious groups and individuals.Insecurity environment in Nigeria is complex to be handled by government agencies alone. There is need for other stakeholders to get fully involved in the struggle to ameliorate the ill situation and achieve enduring security in Nigeria.
CONCLUTION
National security must be of high consideration for sustainable economic growth and development of Nigeria, since significant improvement in business activities will positively affect economic growth and development of Nigeria, we therefore uphold a synthesis of composite security management approach model and two- way approach model in addressing the ills of insecurity in Nigeria. In this vein, all the stakeholders in Nigeria must combine their efforts with the government to ensure that insecurity is ameliorated or controlled in Nigeria.