Rural Banditry, Regional Security and Integration in West Africa
Journal Title: Journal of Social and Political Sciences - Year 2019, Vol 2, Issue 3
Abstract
Rural banditry is increasingly becoming one of the worst forms of domestic insurgencies affecting West African sub-region. The prevalence and severity of rural banditry has contributed to the rising increase of regional insecurity with a potential threat on regional integration of West Africa. With reference to Nigeria, this paper examines the nature and dynamics of rural banditry and its overall international security implications as well as describe how it inputs into West African states efforts towards regional security and integration. Using secondary sources of data, the study revealed that rural banditry is a resource-based conflict compounded by elite conspiracy, the primitive quest for wealth and general poverty situation which affected the people of West Africa. It has become a lucrative business accentuated by bad governance, political clientelism, the gradual disappearance of grazing lands and routes, urbanization, climate change, and absence of effective conflict resolution mechanisms. The paper revealed that rural banditry has gradually evolved into a sub-regional conflict with socio-economic and political implications on efforts towards West African security and integration. The study found that some of the implications of rural banditry with consequences on regional integration of West African include radicalization of youth, increase rate of youth unemployment and their subsequent involvement in illicit gun and narcotic drug trade across the sub-region, the emergence of a network of miscreants groups, gradual collapse of agricultural and livestock development with effects on income, trade and commerce, proliferation of small firearms and light weapons, bastardization of traditional institutions and hostile ethnic and tribal relations among ethnic groups, illegal migration and refugee problems across the sub-region as well as proliferation and networking of domestic insurgency groups threatening regional peace and stability of the sub-region. In this regard, the paper recommends a comprehensive review of regional security and integration initiatives, regional security and intelligence cooperation among security agencies of ECOWAS countries, increase surveillance and border security, awareness creation and dialogue among local communities as some of the ways of reducing the scourge of rural banditry across West African sub-region.
Authors and Affiliations
Abubakar Abdullahi
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP645695
- DOI 10.31014/aior.1991.02.03.107
- Views 76
- Downloads 0
Determinants of Efficiency of Food and Beverage Companies: The Case of Vietnam in the Period of 2009 – 2018
Based on data from 36 listed Vietnamese food and beverage companies in the period of 2009-2018, the authors aim at studying determinants of the efficiency of Vietnamese food and beverage industry. By using regression res...
Interventions for Occupational Stress Management in Air Traffic Providers
Last decade, the aviation industry was fast-growing, and air traffic providers are under pressure to manage and accommodate demands for more flights. Therefore, aerospace capacity management is anticipated by the air tra...
Transnational Ideologies, Violent Conflict, and Pashtun Social Identity
The Pashtun borderland has assumed enormous international political significance in the wake of 9/11. However, the Pashtun inhabitants of the area continue to be profoundly impacted by the on-going conflict in the region...
Silence in the Islands; An Exploratory Study of Employee Silence in the Maldives
Organizational silence is interpreted as a collective phenomenon that acts as a barrier to the development of the pluralistic organization. Communication and the flow of information between employees and different depart...
The Effect of Dutch Colonial Architecture on Palace in Bali, Indonesia
Dutch colonial architecture is an architecture that combines western and eastern cultures. Dutch colonial architecture was present through the work of Dutch architects and was intended for the Dutch who lived in Indonesi...