Table of contents
1. Introduction 3
2. The research problem 4
3. Methodology 4
3.1 Scope of the project 4
3.2 Clinical case studies 5
3.3 Argumentation for the choice of theory 6
3.4 Data collecting methods 7
3.5 Country profile – Nigeria 8
4. Theory 13
4.1 Human security 13
4.1.1 Security – from state to the individual 14
4.1.2 Criticism of state security 15
4.1.3 The “new” human security 17
4.1.4 Human security and human development 19
4.1.5 UNDP Human Development report 20
4.1.6 Threats to human security 22
4.1.7 Developing the human security concept 23
4.2 Criticism of human security 27
4.3 Rethinking human security 28
4.3.1 Measuring human security 30
4.3.2 Enhancing human security 32
5. Analysis 34
5.1 Methodology 34
5.1.1 Environment as a domain of human well being 35
5.1.2 Choosing indicators 36
5.2 Income 38
5.2.1 Current state of information regarding income security 39
5.2.3 Recapitulation 41
5.3 Health 42
5.3.1 Current state of information regarding health security 43
5.3.2 Recapitulation 45
5.4 Education 46
5.4.1 Current state of information regarding education 47
5.4.2 Recapitulation 49
5.5 Political freedom 49
5.5.1 Current state of information regarding political freedom 51
5.5.2 Recapitulation 54
5.6 Democracy 54
5.6.1 Current state of information regarding democracy 55
5.6.2 Recapitulation 58
5.7 Environment 59
5.7.1 Current state of information regarding environment 60
5.7.2 Recapitulation 62
5.8 The Niger Delta Crisis 62
5.8.1 Recapitulation 71
6. Conclusion 72
7. Bibliography 76
1. Introduction
“Nigeria has no business with poverty. With our human and material resources, we shall strive to eradicate poverty from our country.”[1]
-Former Head of State and President Olusegun Obasanjo
In 1960 when Nigeria won independence they had all the potential to become a rich and influential country. Nigeria is blessed with an abundance of both human and natural resources; it is the largest black nation in the world with up to 160 million people, it is one of the biggest producers of both oil and natural gas, it possesses 34 types of solid minerals, 44 exportable commodities and huge areas of arable land.[2] Despite the great potential it remain a fact that Nigeria are placed low on almost all parameters in economic and social development and thus continue to belong to the group of “underdeveloped” countries in the world. The authors’ interest in Nigeria is based on a personal experience working and living six months in Nigeria. Nigeria is an enhancing country; beautiful nature, diverse culture and most of all the most welcoming people, but Nigeria is also marred by many problems that affect the well being of ordinary Nigerians. One example is from a journey made by the author between Badagry and Lagos in the southwest Nigeria; the stretch between the two cities is less than 50 kilometres but still there were 13 roadblocks manned by soldiers demanding bribes to let cars through. This is already a terrifying high number but the chauffeur said that on an ordinary day when people were not home in their villages for Christmas there can be as many as 30! Would you like to commute there??
The example above is just one out of many and every day you are confronted with the long list of the challenges Nigeria is facing through television, newspapers and radio. As a consequence of this bombardment the author had a growing feeling that it was difficult to comprehend all the information, and out from that developed a desire to systematise the developmental issues Nigeria are facing in order to understand the country and its challenges in a holistic way.
2. The research problem
The first objective of the thesis, which is based in personal experiences, is to provide a frame through which development issues in Nigeria can be grasped. In order to do this it is important to have theory to guide the study and determine the focus,[3] in this project the concept of “human security” acts as the guiding theory. In other words; it is human security that frame reality and determine the angle upon which the reader understand the case.
Letting human security guide the collection and analysis of information from the case provide the second objective of the thesis; the study can detect vulnerable areas in a Nigerian context and therefore it acts as a kind of warning system for threats to human security in Nigeria and thereby it can help to prevent future human crisis.[4]
Based on the above considerations and in an endeavour to systematise challenges Nigeria is facing in the area of development the study will be conducted around this problem formulation:
“HOW CAN NIGERIAN DEVELOPMENTAL CHALLENGES BE POSITIONED IN A HUMAN SECURITY FRAMEWORK IN ORDER TO ABTAIN A BROAD UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VERY SAME CHALLENGES?”
3. Methodology
3.1 Scope of the project
In order to answer the problem formulation it is necessary to do the following two things;
1. Develop a human security framework.
2. Position Nigerian developmental challenges in the framework.
There are two main approaches to research in general and the role of theory in particular; that is theory testing (deductive) and theory building (inductive).[5] In the theory testing approach the research begins with the theory and uses theory to guide what observations to make. In this particular project, the researcher, if adopting the theory testing approach, would start off with step number one above and then move on to step number two letting the framework decide what developmental challenges that are included in the study.
If one adopts the theory building approach, the research begins with observations and uses inductive reasoning to derive a theory from these observations. The theory building approach tries to determine if the observations fit into a pattern or a story. As opposed to the theory testing approach the theory building approach would begin with step number two and the observations about the developmental challenges would be decisive in the construction of the framework. The approach adopted in this project is both theory testing and theory building, in other words; the human security have to some extent decided what developmental challenges include, but observations about the developmental challenges Nigeria is facing has also decided the structure of the human security framework. By letting theory guide which indicators that are included in the framework ensure that the selection is not arbitrary, and thus secure some degree of comparability where the study can be reproduced and the observations made can be compared to observations made in other countries. It is also important that the “reality” in Nigeria is deciding for the structure of the framework, this provide a fuller picture of the case and makes sure that challenges that are important in a Nigerian context are not excluded from the study.
3.2 Clinical case studies
This research was undertaken as a single and clinical case study with the purpose of understanding to the most possible extent the developmental issues Nigeria is facing. According to De Vaus, clinical case studies are case centred and use theories to understand a case and gather information to build up a picture of what is going on.[6] The nature of the study is descriptive; it tries to provide as complete picture of the case as possible. Usually it is not a good idea to choose a descriptive design, because it tends to be purely referring to existing information and thus contain little independent work.[7] Despite the pitfalls there are cases where a descriptive design can be rewarding; one is if the subject or approach is new and therefore it is time to describe the case in a systematic way guided by theory. This is exactly what this project intends to do as it moves into a relatively new and unexplored area; Nigeria developmental issues in the light of human security. As described later in the theory the concept of human security is a much debated concept, and there is little consistency in the wide range of definitions of the concept. Usually studies in human security tend to be thematic and limits its focus on single issues and do not try to understand the human security in a country as a whole. What is new in this project is that it broadens the use of the concept human security and tries to understand the case as a whole in the light of human security. One can say that existing studies seek to deepen the understanding while this project seek to broaden it, this off course mean that the project loose some depth, but it will be compensated for by the gain in broadness. Much research have been conducted on Nigerian issues, but not with the specific approach adopted by this project. In an interview with a senior UN officer in Nigeria he expressed his concern that many development workers knowledge on developmental issues were limited to their specific working areas, therefore a study that could broaden the knowledge would be of great value to all people working with development in Nigeria. By using human security and adopting a broad approach to Nigerian development challenges the project shed new light on the case und thus justify the use of the descriptive design.
3.3 Argumentation for the choice of theory
In this project human security acts as the guiding theory for which observations to make. Since the United Nations Development programme (UNDP) coined the concept in 1994, since then it has been adopted by a great number of scholars, states and international organizations. Despite the great interest in the concept no coherent definition has been developed and mainstreamed. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) human security has; “ultimately, not been operationalized as it should have been”[8]
This project seek to narrow down the broad definitions presented by especially the UNDP and operationalise the concept in order for it to act as a frame in which Nigerian developmental issues can be placed and understood. Therefore human security is valuable to this project as it provide the possibility to study a broad spectre of a country’s developmental issues.
A part from being able to broaden the understanding of a country and its developmental challenges, this study into the state of human security in Nigeria is also a risk assessment and ultimately it can act as a warning system and possible point out risk areas in order to prevent future human crisis. Christopher K.L Murray[9] and Gary King[10], who is behind the definition adopted by this project, argue that a process of enhancing human security begin with risk assessment and prevention. A risk assessment can provide important knowledge about the risks to human security and thus enable politicians and development workers to design more effective policies. Another advantage of risk assessment is that it looks not only at what is going on now, but it is also looking forward, thereby detecting risks that doesn’t influence human security today.[11]
3.4 Data collecting methods
This project began with a review of the literature on human security, this involved primary resources that were later used to construct the theories utilised in the study. The study relies heavily on web sources run by international organizations, mainly the UN and the World Bank and NGOs working in relevant areas. The study also makes use of secondary web resources such as news portals on African issues. The broad base of data is important when conducting a study on a country which is notorious for its lack of data. It also ensures that the project is up-to-date and that it corresponds to the reality the people in Nigeria are experiencing.
3.5 Country profile – Nigeria
Map of Nigeria
Nigeria is located within the tropics in the heart of the West African sub-region. It is bordered to the south by the bights of Benin and Biafra, which are in the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. To the west Nigeria is bordered by the republic of Benin, to the east by Cameron and to the north by Niger. In the far eastern corner Lake Chad separates Nigeria from Chad. The country is roughly 1120 km from west to east and 1040 km from north to south, and has some 800 km coastline. The total landmass is 932.768 square kilometres, making it the biggest country in West Africa. Nigeria is watered by two main rivers, the River Niger and the River Benue. The River Niger is the third longest river in Africa running 1160 km from the northwest corner and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean through the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta is the largest delta in Africa, 150 km wide and it stretches inwards about 50 km.[12]
Nigeria exhibit great diversity in geographical characteristics, ranging from tropical to arid. The area around the Niger Delta comprises mostly of dense mangrove swamps, wile the rest of the southern part is heavily forested. Further north the forests gives way to hills and plateaus, an area known as the middle belt. In the northern part of the country are the plains of the savannah and in the extreme north is the semi-dessert area known as the Sahel. There are two main seasons in Nigeria, the wet season and the dry season. During the dry season, a cool wind, called the Harmattan sweeps in from the Sahara, bringing relief from the warm weather but it also carries particles of sand from the Sahara, resulting in the air being full of these sand particles, especially in the north. The geographic diversity means that Nigeria has a big variety of natural resources, mineral resources include large deposits of coal, iron, tin, columbite, lead, copper and zinc, most of this is found in the hills and plateaus of the middle belt. There are also small amounts of gold, silver and diamonds.[13] Another natural resource Nigeria has is an enormous work force; the World Bank world places the population at almost 148 million.[14]