Ifeanyichukwu Charles Nweke

Leiden University, Institute of Security & Global Affairs, Graduate Student

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Research Interests:
Securitisation, Modernity/coloniality/decoloniality, International Security, Political Violence and Terrorism, Terrorism, Fieldwork in Anthropology, and Critical Security Studies edit
About:
Ifeanyichukwu Charles Nweke is a doctoral Researcher in Terrorism and Political Violence at the Institute of Security & Global Affairs, Leiden University. My research explores Nigeria's security politics, paying close attention to the emergence of non-state security actors like Amotekun and Ebube Agu in southern Nigeria. Through securitisation and decolonial frameworks, I pursue a layered understanding of the unique security challenges confronting Nigeria and other postcolonial African nations.edit
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The Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced the alleged threats posed by the Almajirai among the wider Nigerian society, but how are the Quranic students produced as threats in the first place? Previous studies have not addressed this question directly. Relying mainly on the economic deprivation thesis, scholars have advanced claims linking the Quranic students with extremist groups active in northern Nigeria. In contrast, this research combines data from interviews with Critical Discourse Analysis and securitisation theory to show that these claims linking the Almajirai to terrorism are flawed and part of a broader process that produces the Quranic students as threats. The study further demonstrates the embeddedness of this process within Nigerian socio-political contexts. Despite this, however, Nigerian state actors were found to be reluctant to advance extraordinary measures against the Quranic students before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Hence, in addition to confirming the political agency of disaster in general, this study also demonstrates the centrality of the Covid-19 pandemic in facilitating the production of the Almajirai as a threat.

Keywords: Almajiri, Securitisation, Critical Discourse Analysis, Quranic Students, Terrorism, COVID-19 Pandemic, Nigeria