Boko Haram, Corruption, and the Irrelevance of the Citizenship Model in Nigeria

• In Event: 172 - Section on Peace, War and Social Conflict Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Peace and Peacebuilding
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Understanding Ethnic and Religious Conflict

Abstract

There is widespread agreement that the Nigerian state needs to suppress the Boko Haram movement in order to continue to govern the nation (Ojo 2010, Onuoha 2012, Ogunrotifa 2013, Oviasogie 2013). Recommendations for how to accomplish this go beyond traditional security plans, and include the idea that the Nigerian state must deliver public goods more equitably, strengthen democratic institutions and reform policing departments’ treatment of everyday Nigerians. Until this research, however, there existed no extensive, quantitative measures of the relationship between perceptions of state governance and support of Boko Haram. Using analysis of a survey of over 10,000 Nigerians accomplished in 2012 and 2013, we show that issues of state illegitimacy, state failure, and endemic corruption have grossly contributed to Nigeria’s present security crisis by fomenting support for non-state violent actors. Simply, the state’s corruption in the face of modernization’s pressure to professionalize pushes Nigerians to support another attempt at state – one that would be disastrous for the long-term security of the region.

Authors

• Natalie Marie Delia Deckard, Emory University

• David Jacobson, University of South Florida