Mitigating Insecurity in Nigeria through Social and Institutional Interventions

Insecurity stemming from varying acts of violence by men against their fellow humans has been on a steady rise in Nigeria. Most of these violent crimes are perpetrated by youth who constitute one of the vulnerable groups in society and are those on whom our posterity is expected to depend. Sadly, some of the fodder on which this violence thrives is provided by the failures on the part of stakeholders like the family, civil society, lawmakers and the government or its law enforcement agencies to undertake measures to effectively stem the tide. The paper attempts to provide a framework for analyzing and tackling youth engagement in violence and criminal activities. The framework derives from an overview of the prevalent types of violence within the Nigerian society and the mechanisms for nipping them in the bud based on the postulations of the violence prevention perspectives. Data for this paper were derived from primary and secondary sources. Furthermore, the paper proffered recommendations such as public-private partnerships, youth empowerment and human and material capacity building for law enforcement agencies and social and psychological care givers. These are aimed at engendering human security by encouraging the responsibility, involvement and innovativeness of the government and relevant civil society groups