The State in Conceptual and Theoretical Parlance: Reflection on Security Challenges in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic
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Date
2019-12
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Publisher
College of Mangement and Social Sciences, Fountain University Osogbo Osun State
Abstract
The objectives of this article are in twofold. First, the article undertakes a critical
conceptual and theoretical analysis of the state with focus on concept and the
emergence of the state. Second, it assesses the performance of the Nigerian state vis-à-
vis security issues in the Fourth Republic. Adopting the historical qualitative research
design and through a critical examination of extant secondary data and the adoption of
the social contact theory and the political economy approach as the theoretical
framework of analysis it finds that the inability of the Nigerian state to provide
adequate security for the lives and properties of its citizens is the major driving force of
ethnoreligious cum socio-political conflicts. This has put the nation in the comity of
fragile states. The study, however, concludes by suggesting that there is an urgent need
on the part of the government to put in place adequate and effective security measures
to stem violent conflicts in the polity.
Description
Keywords
State, social contract, Niger-Delta, Boko Haram, herdsmen