IMPACT OF BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY ON HUMAN SECURITY IN NIGERIA

Nigeria has witnessed insecurity and criminality in various forms in the last two decades ranging from armed robbery, arms smuggling, human trafficking, and militancy. However, the greatest security challenge facing the country after the return to democracy in 1999 is the Boko Haram insurgency. The group Boko Haram is an Islamic insurgent group that is poised to create an Islamic state in Nigeria based on Sharia.1 Other scholars have also argued that due to the nature of their operational dynamic; they are promoting all manners of criminality and undermining Islam, hence has referred to them as a sector that promote haram Islam.2 Borno State, like many other states in the Northern Nigeria, has witnessed several attacks emanating from the dreaded Boko Haram Islamic insurgent group operating in that region of the Country. Contemporary discussions on the activities of this terrorist group revealed that Borno State is its base.3 Analysis of the activities of the group is replete with issues surrounding insecurity, due to the linkages with economic, social, political and governance, with spiraling effects on the people of Borno State.4