THE RISE OF ETHNIC MILITIA, BANDITRY AND IMPLICATION ON NATIONAL SECURITY IN NIGERIA

Nigeria is experiencing increasing waves of ethnic conflicts,Since 2015 while its leaders engage in a series of ‘dialogue of the deaf’. For now, a great deal of literature has explored the causes of ethnic crisis and unsuitable solutions are being proposed for a wrongly diagnosed structural social malaise. Thus, this article examines the fundamental causes of ethnic violence, being championed by the various ethnic militia movements in post[1]military Nigeria, by emphasizing the impacts of institutional failure. Hence, it contends that the extreme dissatisfactions of some ethnic nationalities with the Nigerian post-colonial state are clear manifestations of the government failure to provide the necessary infrastructure and enabling environment required to ease the inordinate human degradation, disillusionment, anger, rural decay and high crime wave prevailing in the country. Thus, ethnic such as IPOB,OPC violence is created and maintained by militia movements in a vicious circle of frustration and repression as the Nigerian leadership tries to consolidate itself in power while the marginalized categories (ethnic minorities) of the population claim for their fair share in national resources. Frustration aggression theory and Relative deprivation theory was used. Finally, the study suggests that for the interest of peace and stability, there is the urgent need for immediate redress to the inherent lapses in Nigeria’s inherited federal structure, through a programmed professional participation that would be reflective of its peculiar socio-historical experiences