SECURITY CHALLENGES AND THE SEARCH FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The paper focuses on the impacts of security challenges and the pursuit of democratic development in Nigeria's Fourth Republic. The primary responsibility of the government is to ensure the security of the lives and properties of its citizens to enhance their development. It is the government's responsibility to be actively involved in addressing security issues in every part of the country. This revolves around the relevance of security and peace to development in Nigeria. The study employed secondary data sourced from books, journal articles, magazines, published reports, newspaper reports, and relevant materials from the Internet. The paper discovered that the security challenges in Nigeria are a major impediment to democratic growth and human development. The paper concludes that the government should provide a conducive environment that propagates, strengthens and supports human development and good governance. The paper recommends that government should exhibit and demonstrate the necessary political will to enhance security in Nigeria by massively investing in human capital development, tackling poverty, good educational system prosecuting corrupt public officials, the practice of good governance at all levels, intelligence and information gathering about insurgents' hideouts and their financiers and the practice of good governance at all levels among others