The Military Dimension of Niger Delta Crisis and Its Implications on Nigeria National Security

摘要

This article uses qualitative research method to obtain information from high-profiled respondents through verbal interaction in semi-structured interviews in addition to some secondary data to examine the military dimension of Niger Delta crisis and its implications on security sectors in Nigeria. The Nigerian militarized political system attests to the influence of long-term military rule in the country thereby the perpetual deployment of Nigerian armed forces to complement the duty of police in ensuring internal security has been found unassailable within Nigerian democratic governments. Consequently, there have been numerous cases of civilian casualties characterizing the historical record of these military interventions in which the case of Niger delta crisis has been no exception. This article finds it worthwhile to examine the outcomes of these military operations in Niger delta crisis over security sectors in Nigeria and finds them to be terrifically counterproductive. The result unveils the impracticality of military armed forces becoming instrumental in addressing economic and environmental insecurities of a state as well as the need to expand the agenda of security beyond the military armed forces. Theoretically, this article uses the Copenhagen School of Security Studies’ (CS) conceptualization of security sectors as conceptual and structural framework of the study.