NIGERIA’S NATIONAL SECURITY

The Webster Encyclopedia Cambridge Dictionary of English defines Security as “establishment and maintenance of protective measures which are intended to ensure a state of inviolability from hostile acts or influences”. Another defines Security as arrangements made to protect important personalities or to secure nations and their institutions from possible economic and political harm that can occur from unfriendly relations through organized sabotage, subversion or espionage.
Thus, National Security will be defined as the ability of nations to prevent all forms of threat to its survival ranging from external aggression to threat of economic, political, social and environmental insecurities whilst grappling with the challenges of nation-building and good governance.
Until recently, national security was understood, or more appropriately misunderstood by most people to be the job of the defense forces of the national frontiers and the police inside the country. This perception sums up national security to be a system of law and order maintenance, and of course VIP protection. The dynamics of the growth and sophistication of the society in general have altered that consideration of national security to now include societally generated crises such as riot, cultism, terrorism, drug and human-trafficking, advance fee fraud, anti-government campaign, armed robbery and a host of others that threaten lives, property, peace and tranquility in the society. These are general and enormous national security nightmares and problem for a democratic state, as they have to be tackled democratically.
Consequently, the problems are largely shaped by the nature of their causative factors. In Nigeria, the general causes of the security problems may include unemployment, poverty, ignorance, political competition, ethnic rivalries, poor security management, corruption, inefficiency of the judicial system, general indiscipline, foreign cultural influence, environmental issues and so on.
Against the background of the foregoing scenario, national security has been broadly categorized to embody both military and civil security affairs. This explains why we have the defense Intelligence Agency as the umbrella outfit for Nigeria’s National Military Security, and the State Security Services and the National Intelligence Agency in charge of our National Civil Security Affairs from within and without respectively.
It is a known fact that the governed in Nigeria have little or no confidence in government. Corruption apart of smearing our image has done incalculable damage to the national psyche. It has partly jeopardized our internal security by breading poverty and promoting crime.
The situation in the Niger-Delta where insensitivity and corruption degenerated into little neglect of the area aptly demonstrated the danger of bad governance. The militancy of the youths and their distrust for the elders has become real threat to internal security.
The ongoing debate on constitutional review and revenue allocation formula are also by products of fear of misrule. Also, the current environment speaks for itself: Incessant ethnic and religious conflicts; fetid environmental conditions; encroachment on Nigeria’s national boarders and sovereignty; lackadaisical attitude towards international terrorism; institutional corruption and the pilfering of her oil and other natural resources by local and international crooks.
The age of associating national security with just external military aggression is over. Nigeria is to redefine “National Security” to include no just military protection, but also environmental security, economic well being, international health and demographics, and good governance. Our present democratic settling thus requires good governance in order to assuage people’s feelings over several perceived and misperceived injustices and build a united and indivisible nation.
AUTHOR: Bassey Duke, bassey4us@yahoo.com,+(234)8052765945.
All questions and comments should be directed to the author