Border Communities, Ungoverned Spaces and Nigeria’s National Security

Abstract

The effectiveness of a country's national security is determined to a large extent by the level of protection at its borders, as well as its capacity to enforce border security for its own territorial wellbeing, sovereign integrity, internal socio-economic progress and development. Both border protection and security cannot be defined without factoring in border communities which remain strategic factors influencing the potency or not of the former. In its hypothesis, this paper posits that border communities are ungoverned spaces which impact national security, and there-in lies the crux of the paper's objectives. Adopting an array of relevant secondary data, the theory of border communities as largely ungoverned spaces impacting Nigeria's national security is conceptualised and reviewed, and an analysis conducted. Based on these clarifications, reviews and subsequent analysis, recommendations addressing the core issue of lack of governance, state authority and development are proffered as viable options in addressing the plight of these fringe communities’ vis a vis the enormous threat or risk they pose the nation's national security.