Volume 25 Number 2
Nigeria is currently besieged by multiple threats to its national security, some of which impact on West Africa as a whole. Prominent among these is the militant Islamic group Boko Haram, which has been responsible for thousands of deaths, mass human displacement, widespread terror and the destruction of property and infrastructure.
Militants are re-emerging in the highly volatile region of the Niger Delta. The state security forces – the military and the police – have been widely accused of committing violence against civilians, including extrajudicial murders. Ethnic and religious tensions continue to bubble on the surface, contributing to rates of communal violence that are double the average continental rate in Africa. State governance is weak, with a political system that has neither transparency nor accountability, and this is compounded by the problems of unequal economic growth and the failure to meet some of the basic human rights of its civilians.
Despite this internal insecurity, which also impacts on Nigeria’s immediate neighbours, Nigeria is considered a major player both in Africa and internationally. It currently has Africa’s largest GDP, surpassing South Africa in 2014. Nigeria is also an important player at the United Nations (UN); it contributes the tenth highest number of peacekeepers to UN peacekeeping missions in the world (the fifth highest in Africa), and it has just served a two-year term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC). If UNSC reform was to go ahead, South Africa and Nigeria would vie to become the permanent member for Africa on the council.
The seeming contradiction between being one of Africa’s undisputed powerhouses while beset by intractable inner turmoil and violence makes Nigeria a fascinating case study and worthy of the focus of an entire issue of the African Security Review.
Romi Sigsworth (Editor)
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