GOVERNANCE AND SECURITY IN CONTEMPORARY NIGERIA: A RELATIVE DEPRIVATION THEORY APPROACH

Abstract

Attributable to the state as a sovereign entity is the provisions of both social and physical security to the
citizen living within the state. If this fundamental ingredient of a state is denied as a result of state
failure, the citizens would be desperate which in most cases lead to social deviance. This paper posit that
contemporary security challenges in Nigeria where government is loosen some parts of its territory to the
insurgents and bandits is the function of state failure to provide socio-economic goods the citizens. The
paper relied on primary and secondary materials as a source of data. With the help of relative deprivation
theory, it is the arguments of this paper that current security challenges in the country could not be
tamed if government does not address citizens social deprivation. Beyond military intervention in the
course of the current insecurity in the country, the paper recommends socio-economic intervention
among other recommendations.