Security Sector: FROM CIVIL WAR TO INSURGENCY, BANDITRY AND SEPARATIST AGITATION

By Richard Odeh (Security/Defense Correspondent)

Nigeria's security challenges have evolved in the past 66 years of independence and nationhood.

The civil war was followed by periods of relative stability, but later came communal conflicts, Niger Delta militancy, Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, farmer-herder conflicts and separatist tensions.

The security problem is now inseparable from economic development. The World Bank currently identifies insecurity, including banditry and kidnapping, insurgency and separatist agitations, among Nigeria's continuing structural challenges.

Security policy therefore needs two dimensions. The first is effective policing and military capability and the second is prevention.

A young person without education, employment or hope is more vulnerable to criminal recruitment.

Security expenditure must therefore be complemented by investment in education, employment, justice and local development. NNL.