NATIONAL SECURITY

This study examines the role of immigration in Nigeria’s national security, with particular attention to the opportunities and challenges associated with cross-border migration. Immigration has become a major issue in contemporary international relations due to increasing globalization, economic integration, armed conflicts, and regional mobility within West Africa. Nigeria, as one of Africa’s largest economies and a strategic regional power, experiences significant inflows of migrants from neighboring countries, which has implications for its political stability, economic development, and internal security. The study explores how irregular migration, porous borders, human trafficking, smuggling, terrorism, and transnational crimes contribute to national security concerns in Nigeria. It also investigates the positive contributions of immigration, including labor supply, cultural integration, economic growth, and regional cooperation. The research adopts a qualitative approach using secondary data obtained from textbooks, journal articles, government publications, reports from international organizations, and relevant media sources. Theoretical frameworks such as the Human Security Theory and Migration Theory are employed to analyze the relationship between immigration and national security. Findings reveal that weak border management, inadequate immigration policies, corruption, and limited surveillance mechanisms have increased Nigeria’s vulnerability to insecurity, including insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, and illegal arms trafficking. However, the study also finds that effective immigration management can enhance national development, regional peace, and socio-economic stability. The study concludes that immigration plays a dual role in Nigeria’s national security by serving as both a potential threat and a tool for national development when properly regulated. It therefore recommends stronger border control measures, improved intelligence sharing, modernization of immigration systems, regional collaboration among ECOWAS member states, and comprehensive policy reforms aimed at balancing national security with human rights and regional integration.

The study examined the impact of banditry and kidnapping for ransom on the people of Nigeria with implications for National security. The general objective of the study was to examine the extent to which banditry and kidnapping activities have affected the right to life, personal liberty, freedom and progress of people in Nigeria and to determine the implication for Nigeria’s
National security. The scope of the study covered the period between 2014 and 2022. The paper posits that banditry and kidnapping for ransom activities have negatively affected the life and freedom of people living in Nigeria and thus are a problem for National security. The study adopted the critical discuss analysis approach in the analysis of the phenomena of the study. Themes were generated from the research questions and the phenomena of the study were thus examined under various sub-headings for patterns and analysis. The findings show that banditry and kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria have negatively and mostly affected the right to life, freedom and progress of people in Nigeria and hurt National security; hence, the Nigerian
security architecture is weak. Consequently, the study recommends that the government security forces should be complemented by private security outfits and vigilantes in all towns and villages; the security and intelligence capacity of the military and the police forces should be built up for effective management of information; and that people in Nigeria should be allowed by an act of parliament to carry arms for self-defence among others.

Nigeria's national security landscape has undergone significant transformations since independence in 1960. The country's security challenges have shifted from traditional state-based threats to non-state actors, asymmetric warfare, and transnational crimes.1 This study examines the changing nature of national security threats in Nigeria from 2009 to 2022, exploring historical roots, contemporary challenges, and government responses. Nigeria's national security trajectory is deeply rooted in its colonial legacy. The British colonial administration's divide-and- rule policy created ethnic and regional tensions that persist today. Post-independence, Nigeria's national security concerns shifted from internal stability to regional and global issues, including the Nigerian Civil War and the Cold War. The post-Cold War era saw the emergence of non- state actors, terrorism, and insurgency.2

This research work seeks to explore the herder/farmer conflicts and human security in Enugu State, Nigeria, with a view to situating its nature, causes, dynamics, effects and implications. By way of historical analysis of previous and present studies anchored on the political ecology perspective, the research posits that the conflicts have been informed by the desperate struggle
for competitive survival and subsistence in an environment characterized by ecological scarcity and livelihood insecurity. The study had the following specific objectives; determine the socio- economic attributes of the rural crop herders/farmers; identify the sources of herders famers conflicts in rural farmers on rural development and describe the methods adopted to resolve
herders assess the ecological effects of migration but others farmers on rural development and describe the methods adopted to resolve others from us conflicts with rural crops in the area. The research finds that the situation has been exacerbated by the phenomenon of climate change, whose dynamics tend to have been aggravating natural resource conflicts across the world. The research submits that the conflicts situation under review portends negatively for sustainable societal progress especially national security in Nigeria.