This paper examined the vulnerability of travelers to kidnapping, abduction and armed robbery att... more This paper examined the vulnerability of travelers to kidnapping, abduction and armed robbery attacks and in some extreme cases, death along Nigeria's highways. Insecurity on the nation's highways became a contemporary criminological discourse following the emergence of new strands of criminality like militancy, terrorism, kidnapping, herdsmen-farmers violence, communal conflicts and banditry. Nigerian highways have become the major operational hotspots for criminals who harass, terrorize, and traumatize travelers at will. With the ever-rising insecurity on Nigerian highways, the military and paramilitary offensives deployed by the Federal Government have not yielded the desired results culminating in the description of government's inertia as a form of state slumber. Data for this study were sourced from a content analysis of reported violent highway crimes by credible mainstream Nigerian newspapers, spanning a period of one year, from July 2020 to July 2021. Adopting the Social Disorganization Theory, the study indicated that the worrisome nature of insecurity on Nigeria's highways resulting in the high rate of abduction and murder of people of diverse military, professional, socioeconomic and political backgrounds has engendered a sense of helplessness, trauma and vulnerability among Nigerian road travelers. The paper recommends the decentralization of Nigeria Police Force structure to create State Police that will encourage and electrify effective and better people oriented patrolling and management of insecurities on the Nigerian highways.
Over the years, the view that a negative correlation exists between natural resource endowment an... more Over the years, the view that a negative correlation exists between natural resource endowment and development outcomes in resource-abundant developing countries has become something of an article of faith in development literature with the causal link said to run from resource abundance to negative development outcomes. Also, from the myriad of contending theoretical assumptions, rentierism has since emerged as the dominant theoretical postulate for the explication of the contradiction between resource endowment and development. Consequently, the focus of discussion has since shifted to the domain of prescribing appropriate policy tools to mitigate the consequences of this paradox. This paper takes as its point of departure the minority view that the context of natural resource discovery matters and actually shapes, to a high degree, the development trajectories of such states. It interrogates the explanatory utility of rentierism as the central organising concept for the explicati...
Central European Journal of International and Security Studies, 2019
This article seeks to examine the phenomenon of boundary disputes in East Africa. By way of a cas... more This article seeks to examine the phenomenon of boundary disputes in East Africa. By way of a case-study approach, guided by the theory of territorial materialism, the study posits that the ‘colonial causation’ narrative, exemplified in the ethnic partitioning/disintegration hypothesis, does not wholly explain contemporary boundary/border disputes in East Africa, but also elsewhere in the continent. The article posits that contemporary boundary disputes in the focal area are largely associated with territorial struggles motivated by the quest for the control of geostrategic and economic resources on the affected borderlines. The article also advances an agenda for a sub-regional mechanism for border governance and security as the way forward.
The devastation of lives, livelihood and property in Nigeria caused by over a decade of insurgenc... more The devastation of lives, livelihood and property in Nigeria caused by over a decade of insurgency by the Boko Haram terrorists is a subject of security, policy, humanitarian and academic concern. Several counter-measures have been adopted by both state and non-state actors to combat the insurgency with limited successes recorded. Consequently, studies have examined several efforts taken by the Nigerian government toward ending the Boko Haram insurgency, including the challenges confronting such efforts. However, Nigeria’s de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration programme for ex-Boko Haram fighters, known as Operation Safe Corridor, has received marginal attention in literature. The Operation Safe Corridor programme which was established in September 2015 is aimed at de-radicalizing, rehabilitating and reintegrating repentant Boko Haram insurgents into society. Using a field survey method involving key informant interviews and focus group discussions as well as documenta...
IKENGA Journal of Institute of African Studies, 2021
In November 2017, there was an online protest against police brutality and highhandedness in Nige... more In November 2017, there was an online protest against police brutality and highhandedness in Nigeria. By October 2020, the citizens’ discontent and dissatisfaction with the activities of the police led to a mass revolt against the institution, specifically against the Special Anti-Robbery Squads (SARS) of the force. The response of the Nigerian state to the protest was total repression and subjugation of the demonstrators. Given the scale of the protest and the government’s response, this momentous event has attracted scholarly attention. The extant literature has identified governance deficit, illiteracy of police officers, the dynamics of the political economy and youth activism as factors that fueled the protest. The present study, therefore, explores the character of the state in the post-colonial society as a link towards the understanding of the fundamental issues that triggered the protests. Through the use of secondary sources of data collection and content analysis, the wor...
Nigeria’s eighteen years of civilian rule has been dotted with incessant ethno-nationalist agitat... more Nigeria’s eighteen years of civilian rule has been dotted with incessant ethno-nationalist agitations which have often threatened the peace and tranquillity of the Nigerian state and the orderly conduct of public and private businesses. The Nigerian state has in turn often responded to these agitations through an admixture of appeasements and the application of force in what is commonly referred to as the carrot and stick approach. While the state has largely been successful in containing such agitations, and ultimately bringing them within the bounds of order, two of such on-going agitations – the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast and the Biafra separatist agitations in the Southeast – appear to have so far defied the military prowess and the strategic ingenuity of the Nigerian state. Both also standout, whereas earlier agitations were merely targeted at redressing certain identified grievances. These lay claim to the very soul of the Nigerian state; that is, the inviolability...
Central European Journal of International Studies and Security, 2019
This article examines the essence and basis of boundary disputes in East Africa. By way of a case... more This article examines the essence and basis of boundary disputes in East Africa. By way of a case-study approach, guided by the theory of territorial materialism, the study observes that the 'colonial causation' narrative, exemplified in the ethnic partitioning/disintegration hypothesis , does not wholly explain contemporary boundary/border disputes in East Africa, but also elsewhere in the continent. The article posits that contemporary boundary disputes in the focal area are largely associated with territorial struggles motivated by the quest for the control of geostrategic and economic resources on the affected borderlines and frontiers. The article also proposes a sub-regional mechanism for border governance and security as the way forward.
This report examines the political impasse in the Gambia, resulting from the December 1 election ... more This report examines the political impasse in the Gambia, resulting from the December 1 election that President Jammeh initially accepted defeat and later retracted his concession. It interrogates the nature and factors that precipitated the deadlock as well as the contending views on how to resolve it. It constructs five possible scenarios that could play out in the Gambia
This paper examined the vulnerability of travelers to kidnapping, abduction and armed robbery att... more This paper examined the vulnerability of travelers to kidnapping, abduction and armed robbery attacks and in some extreme cases, death along Nigeria's highways. Insecurity on the nation's highways became a contemporary criminological discourse following the emergence of new strands of criminality like militancy, terrorism, kidnapping, herdsmen-farmers violence, communal conflicts and banditry. Nigerian highways have become the major operational hotspots for criminals who harass, terrorize, and traumatize travelers at will. With the ever-rising insecurity on Nigerian highways, the military and paramilitary offensives deployed by the Federal Government have not yielded the desired results culminating in the description of government's inertia as a form of state slumber. Data for this study were sourced from a content analysis of reported violent highway crimes by credible mainstream Nigerian newspapers, spanning a period of one year, from July 2020 to July 2021. Adopting the Social Disorganization Theory, the study indicated that the worrisome nature of insecurity on Nigeria's highways resulting in the high rate of abduction and murder of people of diverse military, professional, socioeconomic and political backgrounds has engendered a sense of helplessness, trauma and vulnerability among Nigerian road travelers. The paper recommends the decentralization of Nigeria Police Force structure to create State Police that will encourage and electrify effective and better people oriented patrolling and management of insecurities on the Nigerian highways.
Over the years, the view that a negative correlation exists between natural resource endowment an... more Over the years, the view that a negative correlation exists between natural resource endowment and development outcomes in resource-abundant developing countries has become something of an article of faith in development literature with the causal link said to run from resource abundance to negative development outcomes. Also, from the myriad of contending theoretical assumptions, rentierism has since emerged as the dominant theoretical postulate for the explication of the contradiction between resource endowment and development. Consequently, the focus of discussion has since shifted to the domain of prescribing appropriate policy tools to mitigate the consequences of this paradox. This paper takes as its point of departure the minority view that the context of natural resource discovery matters and actually shapes, to a high degree, the development trajectories of such states. It interrogates the explanatory utility of rentierism as the central organising concept for the explicati...
Central European Journal of International and Security Studies, 2019
This article seeks to examine the phenomenon of boundary disputes in East Africa. By way of a cas... more This article seeks to examine the phenomenon of boundary disputes in East Africa. By way of a case-study approach, guided by the theory of territorial materialism, the study posits that the ‘colonial causation’ narrative, exemplified in the ethnic partitioning/disintegration hypothesis, does not wholly explain contemporary boundary/border disputes in East Africa, but also elsewhere in the continent. The article posits that contemporary boundary disputes in the focal area are largely associated with territorial struggles motivated by the quest for the control of geostrategic and economic resources on the affected borderlines. The article also advances an agenda for a sub-regional mechanism for border governance and security as the way forward.
The devastation of lives, livelihood and property in Nigeria caused by over a decade of insurgenc... more The devastation of lives, livelihood and property in Nigeria caused by over a decade of insurgency by the Boko Haram terrorists is a subject of security, policy, humanitarian and academic concern. Several counter-measures have been adopted by both state and non-state actors to combat the insurgency with limited successes recorded. Consequently, studies have examined several efforts taken by the Nigerian government toward ending the Boko Haram insurgency, including the challenges confronting such efforts. However, Nigeria’s de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration programme for ex-Boko Haram fighters, known as Operation Safe Corridor, has received marginal attention in literature. The Operation Safe Corridor programme which was established in September 2015 is aimed at de-radicalizing, rehabilitating and reintegrating repentant Boko Haram insurgents into society. Using a field survey method involving key informant interviews and focus group discussions as well as documenta...
IKENGA Journal of Institute of African Studies, 2021
In November 2017, there was an online protest against police brutality and highhandedness in Nige... more In November 2017, there was an online protest against police brutality and highhandedness in Nigeria. By October 2020, the citizens’ discontent and dissatisfaction with the activities of the police led to a mass revolt against the institution, specifically against the Special Anti-Robbery Squads (SARS) of the force. The response of the Nigerian state to the protest was total repression and subjugation of the demonstrators. Given the scale of the protest and the government’s response, this momentous event has attracted scholarly attention. The extant literature has identified governance deficit, illiteracy of police officers, the dynamics of the political economy and youth activism as factors that fueled the protest. The present study, therefore, explores the character of the state in the post-colonial society as a link towards the understanding of the fundamental issues that triggered the protests. Through the use of secondary sources of data collection and content analysis, the wor...
Nigeria’s eighteen years of civilian rule has been dotted with incessant ethno-nationalist agitat... more Nigeria’s eighteen years of civilian rule has been dotted with incessant ethno-nationalist agitations which have often threatened the peace and tranquillity of the Nigerian state and the orderly conduct of public and private businesses. The Nigerian state has in turn often responded to these agitations through an admixture of appeasements and the application of force in what is commonly referred to as the carrot and stick approach. While the state has largely been successful in containing such agitations, and ultimately bringing them within the bounds of order, two of such on-going agitations – the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast and the Biafra separatist agitations in the Southeast – appear to have so far defied the military prowess and the strategic ingenuity of the Nigerian state. Both also standout, whereas earlier agitations were merely targeted at redressing certain identified grievances. These lay claim to the very soul of the Nigerian state; that is, the inviolability...
Central European Journal of International Studies and Security, 2019
This article examines the essence and basis of boundary disputes in East Africa. By way of a case... more This article examines the essence and basis of boundary disputes in East Africa. By way of a case-study approach, guided by the theory of territorial materialism, the study observes that the 'colonial causation' narrative, exemplified in the ethnic partitioning/disintegration hypothesis , does not wholly explain contemporary boundary/border disputes in East Africa, but also elsewhere in the continent. The article posits that contemporary boundary disputes in the focal area are largely associated with territorial struggles motivated by the quest for the control of geostrategic and economic resources on the affected borderlines and frontiers. The article also proposes a sub-regional mechanism for border governance and security as the way forward.
This report examines the political impasse in the Gambia, resulting from the December 1 election ... more This report examines the political impasse in the Gambia, resulting from the December 1 election that President Jammeh initially accepted defeat and later retracted his concession. It interrogates the nature and factors that precipitated the deadlock as well as the contending views on how to resolve it. It constructs five possible scenarios that could play out in the Gambia
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