Abstract:

The task of ensuring perpetually, maximum security to every citizens and assets in a state has in recent time become a possible impossibility. Yet, states strive to, and deploy available human and technological resources and strategies to mitigate this endless blizzard of security storms. Twice, the Boko Haram terrorist group has brazenly harassed and embarrassed the Nigerian security apparatuses by kidnapping and using as pawns, decoys and bargaining chips, students of the high schools at DapChibok (Dapchi and Chibok). Twice, security apparatuses, the state governors, and the presidents have been blamed and accused of complicity by divergent parties. Using the abductions in DapChibok as cases, this work examines the complexity that surrounds the hyper-centralisation of the Nigerian domestic security apparatuses in delivering security to her citizens. It has been discovered that such high centralisation culminates in nominal/peripheral security legitimisation which is responsible for the confusion and disharmony between the government and the governed. It is our argument that absorbing the locals and state governors from security roles and responsibility is insidious, counterproductive, preposterous, and breeds complacency and complicity. With lessons drawn from the settings of the traditional African society, the work therefore recommends, inter alia, the initiation of processes towards the attainment of absolute security legitimisation for an inclusive, responsible and effective policing of our internal security environment.