Defence Economics and National Security Challenges in Nigeria

Abstract

The capacity of a state to guarantee national defence and security is germane to her survival. The Nigerian state has been grappling with series of security threats that undermine the sovereignty and coercive prerogative of the state. Terrorism, banditry, trans-border crimes, farmers-pastoralist conflicts, ethno-religious conflicts, militancy, insurgency, amongst others
are major manifestations of insecurities threatening the peace and stability of Nigeria. Regardless of the resources allocated to addressing these challenges, the country seems to be sinking deeper into insecurity. This paper therefore is an attempt to interrogate the management of defence and security in Nigeria within the context of defence economics by exploring and
interrogating the utilization of and utility derived from resources meant for defence and security. It is a secondary research and it adopts the Herbert Simon’s theory of decision making as framework of analysis. It is the position of this paper that there is a causal relationship between defence economics and national security. It identified corruption, misappropriation, mismanagement, inflated and phantom contract, lack of responsibility and accountability, poor threat analysis, inter-agency rivalry as the major challenges of defence and security management in Nigeria. It recommends amongst others the need for defence expenditure to be determined by specific defence and security needs of Nigeria.