Banditry and Its Effect on the Nigeria Economy; A Study of Kaduna State (Kaduna Zone 1)
Chapter One
Objective of the study
The general objective of this study is to examine the implication of the Boko Haram insurgency on Nigeria’s Economy.
The specific objectives include;
- To examine the origin and cause of the Boko insurgency in Nigeria.
- To examine the implication of Boko Haram insurgency on Nigeria’s Economy.
- To provide possible solutions to the insurgency of Boko Haram on Nigeria’s Economy.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Terrorism and growth of African countries economies
The main characteristic of the terrorist group is that it uses the violence for political objective21. Therefore, for them to achieve part of their main objective, they use individual attacks or campaigns of attacks which its main focus is to damage the economic base of the state. This attacks according to them is to create change in the current state. Terrorist attacks can have both immediate costs and non- immediate costs that reflect the damage and the government would therefore wish to avoid future terrorist attacks by complying with their threat23. The general attacks to the government is to sway the hearts and the minds of the general public to not continue loving the government but rather hate it.
The constant attacks are normally intended to force the government to see that changes in policy will be easier rather than facing the hard hitting impact of the terrorist activities. Thus leading to the desired changes. The government is thus scared if these ill-advised individuals can target the national economic assets, because it will reduce the resources available to the government. The reduction of resources thus will mean lower levels of revenues for the security forces or less funding for programs that might address the legitimate grievances of the population. At the same time, the absence of funding for these life touching of the citizen programs might increase dissatisfaction with the government. The attacks of the economy might also force the government to divert its attention to protecting its citizens because that is the first solemn duty of any government. There are usually economic implications in diverting the attention of the government from delivering the intended services to its populace. It therefore means that the government coffers might also be directed to other less productive investment, such as beefing up the security measures to combat or even counter the terrorism acts. The foreign aid agencies and programs such as UKAID, USAID among other can become targets.
Causes of terrorism in Africa
There has always been economic imbalance due to terrorism in Africa. This can be seen when a thorough analysis that was dome in Africa, and to be specific in Nigeria, Campbell et al, that the constant marginalization is the major contributing factor to terrorism and at the same time, the issue of marginalization as created a big challenge of increased level of poverty in Muslim community. It thus invites religious and inter-ethnic clash, hopelessness, and anti-Western hatred. The complaints of any minority group and their perception of the government, can often trigger violence. This understanding therefore culminated to the meeting of international experts in Oslo, Norway in 2003 to discuss the roots of terrorism, and its subsequent causes. According to the experts, some of the grounds of violence were due to; lack of internal egalitarianism, illegal or fraudulent governments, inequality of power, and the manifestation of collective inequality and failure or reluctance by the state to integrate dissident groups or emerging social classes. The experts went further to note that terrorism is a cutting across vice which can occurin developed and underdeveloped nations, and in egalitarianisms as well as in dictatorial states. Consequently, there is no existence of solitary root cause or even a mutual set of causes. However, it is worth noting that there are a number of preconditions and precipitants for the emergence of various forms of terrorism. For instance, in Nigeria, it is of perception that political marginalization of some sections of the populace, to be specific, the coast and northern Nigeria, and thus the emergence of terrorists groups. According to the international experts, the government needs to antagonize the root causes of this vice, and act to reduce the apparent problem28. The international experts also noted that the appearance of Islamic organizations, which were greatly funded by the Saudi and other Persian Gulf states and individuals, greatly contributed to the now felt zealous and merciless attacks.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
This research was facilitated by the utilization of research survey method. The research design used a defined population and collected data from this defined population. With the data collected, required information about the implication of Boko Haram insurgency on Nigeria Economy was gotten from the population.
Population of the Study
The study targeted personnel in the tourism sector, state officials, economic analysts and citizens living in the northern states of Nigeria. The target population provided information on the rates of unemployment, poverty, rate of social and economic growth, impact on tourism as well as the image of the country. These factors are major indicators of the progress of the country or can be used as measures of the national development. Any change such as a decline in any of the factors or an improvement will be useful in this study especially in the Northern State of Nigeria. The targeted people will help with guiding information on the changes experienced in the period between 2009 and 2015 which experienced intensive activities (disruption) by the Boko Haram sect.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
This chapter presents and discusses the results of the analysis of the research which were estimated using various statistical applications; forty three (43) questionnaires were administered and the data gotten from them were coded, analyzed and interpreted. The results are discussed under the following sub-themes: the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, causes of Boko Haram insurgency, implication of Boko Haram insurgency and finally the solutions to Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria.
CHAPTER FIVE
RECOMMENDATIONS ANDS CONCLUSIONS
The study objective therefore sought to inquire in depth the effects of terrorism in Nigeria on the Direct Foreign Investment, and, to the extension, find out whether the act of terrorism directly affects FDI which in turn affects the GDP negatively. This will thus clearly show all the above named factors have contributed to the either positively or negatively to the economy of Nigeria, thus either ensuring stable, market friendly economy among other factors
The collaborative and the synchronization of the worldwide security measures and thus comprehensive intelligence, will ultimately enable Nigeria and the rest of the world to fight terrorism and consequently reduce the vice of frequent attacks. This is envisaged in the idea of the high notch intelligence to help fighting the vice being conducted by the terrorist and to the extension, condemn the act with the strongest words possible. This is the to realize the main objective of pruning out the terrorism acts and to the larger extent, winning the battle and definitely sending the strongest signal to those individuals who might be tempted to following the act of violence; they are called as the sympathizers. It will create an enabling environment that seeks to help the world to stay free of violence against innocent humanity.
It is known from the findings of this paper that terrorist economically affects the countries negatively. Therefore, Nigeria as a country needs to step up its game to combating the vice. This will therefore ensure smooth flow of FDI and thus creating a strong economical base for the present generation and the generation to come. Such efforts should be accompanied by positive publicity about Nigeria. Indeed, Nigeria through the department of tourism should up its game by marketing Nigeria not only in the region of Africa but also in other continents so as to attract much investment s in the tourism sector, industrial sector, and even other sectors which might be of relevance. Nigeria should also take a bold step to categorically, put forth the importance of religion in the Country and how religion is contributing to peace. This can be seen through the Nigerian constitution in equal measure recognizing and respecting every religion, and thus, it will consequently, shame those few insane individuals who are hibernating in the name of religion to accomplish their selfish interest. It is of great importance that the people inhabiting a given country mingle and come to superficial knowledge of different religions and comprehend their philosophies and dogmas, thus, this nature of trying to know at least something about the other religion will greatly contribute to the decrease of such vices not only in one‘s country but also in the African content and the world at large. This is because, there will be minimal disguise in religions.
The country that is perceived to be experiencing the terror attacks, in most cases scares away the investors and thus, it contributes to the major or catastrophic economic implication to the same country. This thus means that the investors will be most of the time, reluctant to inject their money into the economy because of the fear of the known vice of the terrorism which does not guarantee safe and peaceful environment to conduct business as usual. In most instances, such might change their mindset and divert their investment to other countries that the world has ranked to be safe in doing business. The counter-terrorism measures by the government is most of the time, are hefty price that the general public do pay. This is because the public shoulders the burden of paying such taxes.
The most immediate challenge that is always felt is the destructions of the structures, loss of lives, the sustained injuries, loss of the wages, reduction of commerce, destroyed goods with regards to delayed air transport, and other loss of the indirect property. The costs which are not always directly felt are, the immense increase in insurance premium, or enhanced security measures, and consequently its cost implication is high, the how to counter terrorists and thus the inbuilt of strategy of counter- terrorism, and definitely the loss of near future commerce. There are always higher compensations to those individuals who are therefore working in the areas or regions that are facing high risk of terror attacks. This thus raises the cost to the government to offer security. This may also constitute to indirect cost.
The study also concludes that the government has an obligation of advancing the national interest. This should be seen when the Nigerian government is striving to protecting its populace by fighting the terrorists‘ activities in the country. This will thus guarantee the government‘s sovereignty and respect, and to the extension, securing its boarders. Thus, the ultimate desire of any government. The policy makers in the country however, seem not to have much experience in making sound policies that will counter the vice of terrorism thus, making Nigeria as a vulnerable society to live in, and more so, to conduct economical businesses. Consequently, the law makers should be experienced, gather courage and avoid small confusions in law making to thus allow the law enforcer to net their evidence to such persons found to instigate terrorism in Nigeria. The economic frontier with regards to the persistent nature of Nigeria to have an economy which is constantly developing has thus, played a crucial role, in putting Nigeria‘s foreign policy in the international radar for now, a good number of years. Thus the dire need to not only engage but also to be in total pursuit of broad, and inclusive economic policy which will boost the its foreign capital not to forget the investment flows, the inter-alia foreign direct investment (FDI) and, further, official development assistance (ODA), has been of great influence to the country‘s approach to foreign policy. The fact that Nigeria boarders the Indian Ocean and its pride to be having the longest coastal line, it is therefore of economic importance to the entire world and consequently, the vice of terror will automatically affect Nigeria, and also the whole world, due to its ripple effect. That is why Nigeria‘s foreign policy is the pivot in all these hullabaloo incidences. This paper thus sought to assess Nigeria‘s foreign policy behavior in response to international terrorism and whether its relations with Western countries have had a positive impact in combating international terrorism. The findings will add to the knowledge of terrorism and its counter-attack the Nigerian Government. To the extension, the research will be useful to other researchers who would wish to study issues related to international terrorism and foreign direct investment especially in developing countries. Additionally the study concludes that to prevent such economic devastation that has been experienced in Nigeria, action should be taken, especially over the short term, where attention should be given to state capacity building in particular in terms of concentrating on the reform and support of the security sector in general and the police in particular. It can further be concluded that countries cannot avert the threat on their own, regardless of how powerful a single country is. Therefore, regional co-operation is of the utmost importance. Thus, terrorism is postulated to remain a serious threat to national and international economic stability in future, particularly in Africa. Therefore, the region, specifically Nigeria, has to ensure that proper precautions are in place to prevent the occurrence of such an event, reaffirming the dictum: ―prevention is better than cure‖.
Finally, the study concludes that the Nigerian government, and as a country has been losing finances on security measures caused by the terrorist attacks. This is seen when in 2011 Nigeria launched an operation in Somalia which was dubbed as operation linda nchi‘. This was because the Nigerian government wanted to uproot the insurgent terror group which was taking hostages of the ships carrying the goods through Indian Ocean to the port of Mombasa. This was in fact causing a lot of wastage of revenues on the Nigerian side, and that is why, the government of Nigeria took an initiative to get rid of the terrorist, causing instability thus gaging the flow of FDI in the economy.
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