Insecurity as a Bane to National Development in Nigeria’s 21st Century

Nigeria is faced with diverse insecurity situations with virtually all states grappling with one or more challenges ranging from the Boko Haram insurgency, Niger Delta militancy, banditry, herder-farmers crisis, kidnapping for ransom, ritual killings, and separatist attacks to armed robbery. These acts have cost the country a lot of fortunate in term of finances and human capital as billions of dollars have been budgeted by government to fight insecurity and also thousand souls have been lost since 1999 when the Fourth Republic commenced.The paper identified and examined the impacts of insecurity in Nigeria on the country’s national development as security plays a vital role in the development process of states globally, it also examined the relationship between insecurity and national development. It made use of qualitative method and adopted frustration-aggression theory as theoretical framework to explain and analyze the security challenges ravaging the nation and also to explain the challenges insecurity bestowed on Nigeria. Data were gathered from secondary data source such as publications, newspapers, journals and relevant internet materials. The paper revealed the lackadaisical dispositions of successive government from 1999 to fight insecurity head-on due to primordial factors such as religious believe, sectionalism and ethnicity resonating among the political gladiators in the country. It therefore recommended the germane need for the political class to wake-up to their responsibilities by shedding off primordial factors impeding the fight against insecurity and hydra-headed corrupt practices in Nigeria. Government should also focus more on the provision of basic amenities for the less privilege ones, government should provide good investment in human development especially in education, social services and shelter for her people.