Corruption, Marginality and Social Disorder as Threats to National and Human Security in Nigeria

Philip Ogochukwu Ujomu

doi:10.12726/tjp.14.1

Abstract

This essay focuses on the issue of corruption, marginality and the social disorder attending it, as threats to national and human security in Nigeria. It not only examines the problems of corruption in Nigeria and the implications of this for national security, but also, discusses the role of an ethical idea of citizenship in tackling corruption and reinventing the political community. In Nigeria, corruption has played a key role in aggravating the political and economic crisis besetting the country. Depreciation of human dignity and collapse of infrastructures have ensured the systematic elite misappropriation of state power, the primitive accumulation of capital, ethno-cultural intolerance and political manipulation in the society. This paper searches for a set of norms capable of mitigating needless dehumanization and inequalities, and improving welfare of the majority by evolving public citizens oriented to the common good.

Highlights

Introduction and ProblemThe issues of corruption and national security are a matter of urgent concern in Nigeria
We argue for the urgent imperative of evolving public citizens oriented to the common good of an ethical community, and we stress the need for a balance between human personal responsibilities and the broader political concern for others, as the basis of social existence in Nigeria
We focused on the issue of corruption and social disorder as threats to national security in Nigeria

Summary

Introduction and Problem

The issues of corruption and national security are a matter of urgent concern in Nigeria. The estimated $98.8 billion dollars fraudulently appropriated by some Nigerians, had been diverted to the task of national infrastructural and educational development, most of the vital social architecture necessary for the establishment and sustenance of national and human security in Nigeria, would have been in place such as efficient education, military, transport and industrial systems. It becomes clear, how the national and human security of a country can be threatened by an economic crisis triggered by corruption among public officials, leading to government‟s poor resource management ability

Background

Conclusion