GLOBALIZATION AND AFRICAN SECURITY: THE CHALLENGE OF NIGERIA'S UNGOVERNED SPACES

Abstract

Nigeria is a vast country covering 924,000 square kilometers. The country shares border with Chad, Cameroon, Benin and Niger republic. Nigeria's ungoverned areas are physical or nonphysical areas where there is absence of state capacity or political will to exercise control. These ungoverned territories are generally rugged, remote, maritime, or littoral areas not effectively governed by the sovereign state. It is imperative to note that the large stretch of Nigeria's territorial spaces poses great challenge to the efforts of relevant security and law enforcement agencies. The objective of this article is to find out the challenges posed by Nigeria's ungoverned spaces to its National security. Data was obtained through secondary sources. The findings of the study depict that Security challenges advanced by Nigeria's ungoverned spaces have the damaging consequences which gives the signal to the rest of the international community that Nigeria is not a safe and secure place and as such not suitable for economic investment and activities. Therefore, the study recommends that Concerted effort should be made to develop the vast area of land usually tagged as 'Government Reserve Areas' by establishing Institutions, Military cantonments, industries, farm houses, resorts centers, etc. This will enable activities in those areas and will prevent retrogressive elements from using it as hideouts.