scholarly journals ALTERNATIVE SECURITY SOURCES IN NIGERIA: THE AMBIGUITY OF VIGILANTE GROUPS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Idongesit Oyosoro

The rise in crime and insecurity across West Africa and the Sahel has led to the expansion of several regional Non-State Armed Groups (NSAGs). In Nigeria, particularly, the sense of low performance by the security forces has further caused an increase of Community-Based Armed Groups (CBAGs), who have become a fixture in the national security landscape. These CBAGs present a complex challenge to communities, governments, development implementers, and security providers. One of these CBAGs is the Vigilante Groups which are operational at the local and state level. Despite being prohibited by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, armed vigilante groups carry out law enforcement activities in an ever-growing number of states and communities with the tacit, and sometimes explicit, endorsement from the state governments and local authorities. Vigilante Groups have become a double-edged sword: though they provide an apparent needed localized security, they also undermine central authority, violate human rights and commit sporadic violence. Elucidating this ambiguous characteristic of vigilante groups as alternative security sources in Nigeria is the main focus of this paper. We argue that vigilante groups cannot represent a robust and sustained security source due to inadequate security training and the absence of an acclaimed authority, which are inherent characteristics to these groups. This paper utilizes both primary and secondary sources of data collection to arrive at the conclusion that the failure of the federal authorities to both contain and control vigilante groups will further deteriorate and/or disintegrate the internal security apparatus and social fabrics/cohesion of the Nigerian society.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Obado-Joel

Nigeria faces immense internal security challenges, including the Boko-Haram crisis in the northeast and violent farmer-herder conflicts in the southwest and north-central states. Across the Nigerian federation, pockets of violent clashes have sprung and escalated in new locales in the last decade. Community responses to these violent crises have been diverse and included the establishment of armed groups to supplement or act in parallel to the security efforts of the Nigerian state—in some cases with backing from federal or state governments. These local security assemblages, community-based armed groups (CBAGs), are on the one hand contributors to local order, and normative conceptions of peace and security. On the other hand, these groups are often a pernicious actor within the broader security landscape, undermining intercommunal peace and drivers of violence and human rights abuses. This Policy Note focuses on the characteristics, challenges, and opportunities of Amotekun, a recently formed CBAG in Southwest Nigeria. Drawing from the experiences of similar Nigerian groups, the Note details recommendations that may facilitate greater success and lessen poten al risk associated with Amotekun’s formation. These recommendations are aimed primarily at Nigerian government and civil society actors and describe areas where external support could potentially improve local capacity to conduct oversight of Amotekun and similar groups.


Author(s):  
Abigail A. Fagan ◽  
J. David Hawkins ◽  
Richard F. Catalano ◽  
David P. Farrington

This chapter describes a randomized controlled trial of the CTC system to show that it is possible to use this type of rigorous methodology to evaluate a community-based prevention system. This project, the Community Youth Development Study (CYDS), involved 24 communities in seven U.S. states. The methods used to recruit communities and state-level partners to the trial, as well as the measures used to collect data from community key leaders, service providers, coalition leaders, and youth in CTC and control communities, are described. The chapter also summarizes the study’s findings, including desired changes in community-level processes, youth-reported risk and protective factors, and youth-reported behavioral health problems. Estimates of CTC’s cost benefits are provided.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 351-367

This article is based on a presentation at the Colloquium: Being Human Today held in Stellenbosch, South Africa in December 2015. This reflection is inspired by the courage of many women and men, who form part of community-based organisations and local NGOs. These people living in constant threat, and danger and have been attacked by armed groups or security forces, in contexts of violent conflict in Peru and Colombia and many other parts of Global South. For these communities, these threats, attacks and other forms of violence are part of their daily lives. However, they continue to work at building peace and respect for their human rights despite the risks these efforts may bring to their own lives and their families.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Purnendu Kumar Patra

India has around 600,000 villages with around 64% of its 1.3 billion people living in them. It is absurd to imagine growth without the country-side growing as fast as India's towns and cities. This nation has one of the largest pools of unskilled labor waiting to be trained and utilized. In the absence of proper training, awareness and motivation, it is commonplace for the rural unemployed youth to adopt alternative means of livelihood, many of which are shunned by civil laws. Through this paper the author wishes to throw some light on the importance of Skill Development programs, their current status, the gap that exists between the demand and supply of skilled labor and how employability of rural youth is enhanced by imparting skill oriented training to them. Finally, the paper also emphasizes on how skilled and employable youth contribute to overall development of a rural economy in particular and the nation in general. Data has been gathered from reliable secondary sources. On assumed lines, it was also concluded that the need of the hour for India is to aggressively pursue innovative government programs like Skill India and Make in India so that by the turn of the decade, close to half of the projected eligible population could be employed in various state-run schemes, private organizations. Entrepreneurship is also an outcome of innovative skill development that has immense potential for employment and thus, development of the rural landscape. The paper limits itself to the schemes launched by the respective state governments and central governments thus leaving room for improvement as far as measures taken by privately owned organizations and NGOs are concerned.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (S4) ◽  
pp. 17-24
Author(s):  
Hannah Abelow ◽  
Cassandra Crifasi ◽  
Daniel Webster

This article argues that state government actors concerned about gun violence prevention should prioritize enactment of robust firearm purchaser regimes at the state level. First, the article outlines the empirical evidence base for purchaser licensing. Then, the article describes how state governments can design this policy. Next, the article assesses the likelihood that purchaser licensing legislation will continue to be upheld by federal courts. Finally, the article addresses the implications of this policy, aimed at curbing gun deaths, for equally important racial justice priorities. Taken together, these various considerations indicate that purchaser licensing policies are among the most effective firearm-focused laws state governments can enact to reduce gun deaths within the existing federal legislative and legal frameworks.


Author(s):  
Anthony Sparacino

Abstract This article examines the origins and early activities of the Democratic and Republican Governors Associations (DGA and RGA, respectively) from the RGA's initial founding in 1961 through the 1968 national nominating conventions. I argue that the formations of these organizations were key moments in the transition from a decentralized to a more integrated and nationally programmatic party system. The DGA and RGA represent gubernatorial concern for and engagement in the development of national party programs and the national party organizations. Governors formed these groups because of the increasing importance of national government programs on the affairs of state governments and the recognition on the part of governors that national partisan politics was having critical effects on electoral outcomes at the state level, through the reputations of the national parties. To varying extents, the governors used these organizations to promote the national parties and contributed to national party-building efforts and the development of national party brands.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Guidry ◽  
Erica Lubetkin ◽  
Geoffrey Corner ◽  
Jennifer Lord-Bessen ◽  
Mark Kornegay ◽  
...  

2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
William B. Ward ◽  
Alfred K. Neumann ◽  
Matilda E. Pappoe

The Danfa Comprehensive Rural Health and Family Planning Project was a joint effort of the Ghana Medical School, the Ministry of Health, UCLA, and USAID. A health education component was developed as an integral part of program inputs during the initial conceptual phase of the project. As a result non-equivalent experimental and control areas were designated permitting an assessment of program impact during a five-year period (1972–1977) for which baseline and follow-up study data were available. A new cadre of community-based workers (Health Education Assistants) was developed from existing health personnel in the country, and trained in health education and multipurpose health work. Although the HEAs were found to have difficulty in bringing about changes in health practices when other support services were not available, they did have measurable impact on villagers' adoption of family planning methods and a number of specific health practices.


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