Security Agents, Security Threats and the Culture of Impunity: Antithesis to Nigeria’s Socio-Economic Development and Political Stability

Abstract

The issue of security has taken the front burner in Nigeria in particular and the world at large in recent time. However, security situation in Nigeria did not deteriorate just within a day but has been on a sliding drift for sometime as a result of failure on the part of authorities to attend to security threats or put in place counter measures to contain risk events. Situations that exemplify security threats in Nigeria includes the political thugs that are being equipped with arms and ammunitions, the police force that extort money from the polity with impunity, elections that are blatantly manipulated and rigged, the degradation of the environment, extreme poverty, political marginalization and exclusion, general corruption, etc. This paper has therefore explored the impact of insecurity and impunity on Nigeria’s socio-economic and political development and has also suggested measures such as good understanding of the concept of security, security threat, capacity building, reduction in poverty rate, political inclusion, etc. as way out of our present security quagmire. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n6p147