INSECURITY IN NIGERIA: GENESIS, CONSEQUENCES AND PANACEA

Insecurity is one of, if not the most glaring and much talked about thing in Nigeria today. Acts of insecurity occur on daily basis throughout the country. Right thinking and sane Nigerians are really concerned about this ugly trend. This paper digs into the root causes of insecurity in Nigeria, its effects on the country and proffers/suggests ways out of this nightmare. The causes amongst so many include fundamentally illiteracy, unemployment/joblessness, poor leadership, porous nature of our boarders, proliferation of arms, non-compliance with the rule of law. The effects are also there – underdevelopment, poverty, hunger, insurgency, militancy, youth restiveness, kidnapping, armed robbery, fear, drug abuse, political thuggery, etc. As part of the way out of this, this paper suggests that ‘career’ (technical) education be emphasized rather than the ‘degree’ (non-technical) education. Civics as a subject should be restored in the primary school curriculum; the country be restructured as demanded by most of the populace, community policing introduced and supported; rule of law and quality leadership firmly established and spirit of nationalism enshrined in the minds of the citizenry