Porous borders and banditry in the North-West Zone of Nigeria

Border porousness and its attendant negative impacts on nation’s security and territorial integrity is increasingly becoming a serious concern for third world countries, especially third world countries of Africa. This review paper assesses the relationship between porous borders and banditry in the North-West zone of Nigeria. The paper is anchored on the weak state theory as its analytical foundation. The historical descriptive approach was adopted as a design for generating and analyzing data for the paper. As such the paper relied mainly on qualitative data which were gleaned from Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) and Observations. This was complimented with information gotten from secondary sources such as textbooks, journal articles and periodicals from agencies of government, as well as newspapers. Generated data were analyzed by the use of the qualitative content analysis method. The paper revealed among others; that the porosity of borders along the northwest zone of Nigeria make it possible for arms and criminal elements to be smuggled into the country; and these does not only lead to banditry but it also sustains the act of banditry in this part of the country. Accordingly, the paper recommends that there should be inter-agency collaboration, increased community engagement, regular border patrols, security reenforcement and international cooperation in other to foster collaborative and coordinated border surveillance with the view to enhancing mutual border security.