Political Thuggery and Insecurity in Nigeria, 2015 2021

Abstract

Political thuggery is the intentional use of physical force threatened against another person that either result in injury, death, or psychological harm within a Political circle. In recent times, The Nigerian political system has witnessed increased political thuggery and at the same time experienced rising insecurity ranging from kidnapping, armed robbery, ritual killings, terrorism etc. these have created a lot of concerns both at the national, regional, and international levels. Based on those mentioned above, this paper examined Political thuggery and insecurity in Nigeria, 2015-2021. The paper utilized Elite theory as its theoretical framework and relied on secondary sources of data from books, journal articles, periodicals, newspapers, working papers and magazines. Data collated were analyzed using content analysis and the findings revealed that; there is a link between political thuggery and insecurity in Nigeria, this is because political thuggery provides a breeding ground for kidnapping, terrorism, ritual killings, armed robbery, and drug addiction and all these threaten the safety of citizens and the country as a whole, thus recommended stiff penalty for both the politician and the thug, establish a mechanism for demobilizing, recovering weapons, re-orientation of the thugs and politicians, and proper education. The paper concluded that political thuggery is responsible for the rising insecurity in Nigeria.