MASS POVERTY AS A CONCOMITANT FACTOR FOR INSECURITY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper titled “Mass poverty as a concomitant factor for insecurity in
Nigeria” begins with an introduction in which an exposition on insecurity in Nigeria was
given. The study had a general objective as well as three specific objectives. A literature
review on the nexus between poverty and insecurity was then performed. The reasons for
mass poverty in Nigeria were X-rayed followed by insecurity. Conflict theory was adopted in
building the theoretical framework for the study. This was followed by the research
methodology. The study covered one state from each of the six-geopolitical zones and simple
random and purposive sampling techniques were adopted. Both secondary and primary data
were used for this study. The sample size for the study was 22,240 respondents, with 3822 in
each state. The questionnaires were administered via Google Forms, and community groups
were reached through WhatsApp with the help of group admins. From the fieldwork, 98.9%
of the respondents blame bad and corrupt leadership for poverty in Nigeria. 89.92% blame
the dependent nature of our economic and political systems for poverty in Nigeria. 94.2% of
the respondents see the neglect of agriculture as being responsible for poverty in Nigeria
while 92.1% of the respondents attribute a lack of basic infrastructure as being responsible
for poverty in Nigeria. Additionally, 98.9% of the respondents agreed that good, visionary
and transparent leadership at various levels of government will resolve poverty and insecurity
in Nigeria while 94.4% of them agreed that eliminating corruption in Nigeria will help to
resolve poverty and insecurity in the country. Some concrete recommendations were
proferred at the end as panacea to the issues of mass poverty and insecurity in Nigeria.