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ABSTRACT
This study contends that an analysis of the nexus between leadership and security offers useful insights into explaining conflict by stating that the conceptualisation of these argots, especially through the definition of leadership as a process, helps to explain and address Nigeria’s security challenges. By arguing that leaders’ ability to establish mutuality with their followers in any situation and set collectively-generated means for attaining these set goals for societal security, the study shows how such a relationship creates a secured state. This is not the case in Nigeria, where leaders’ security decisions are influenced by external actors rather than by their followers. By showing that the Nigerian ruling elite’s security agendas intersect with dominant global notions of security while neglecting genuine security interests of ordinary Nigerians, the study contextualises the complex global and local security interests in Nigeria. The lack of an intersection at home, however, has contributed to the emergence of extremists such as the Boko Haram sect, as well as the escalation of the acts of violence they perpetrate. As national insecurities become complex and intractable, ‘elegant’ or unilinear solutions – such as a military approach – lack the capacity to address these problems.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to express his gratitude to Professor ’Funmi Olonisakin and Dr Iwebunor Okwechime for inspiration and encouragement to undertake this study, and the editor of the African Security Review and the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments.
Notes on contributor
Akinbode Fasakin is a lecturer in the Department of International Relations at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria ([email protected])
Notes
1 Buzan and Hansen, Evolution of International Security Studies. See also Buzan, Peoples, States and Fear; UNDP, Human Development Report 1994; Liotta, ‘Boomerang Effect’.
2 Wolfers, ‘National Security as an Ambiguous Symbol’.
3 Mohammed, ‘Message and Methods of Boko Haram’; Yusuf, ‘Harvest of Violence’; Walker, What is Boko Haram?; Adesoji, ‘Boko Haram and Islamic Revivalism in Nigeria’; Onuoha, ‘The Islamist Challenge’.
4 Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man.
5 Gow, Olonisakin, and Dijxhoorn, ‘Deep History and International Security’, 237.
6 Huntington, ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’.
7 Obi, ‘Terrorism in West Africa’; Weiss, What's Wrong with the United Nations; Alao, ‘Islamic Radicalisation and Violent Extremism in Nigeria’; Ismail, ‘Radicalisation and Violent Extremism in West Africa’.
8 Mousseau, ‘Market Civilization and Its Clash with Terror’.
9 Ismail, ‘Radicalisation and Violent Extremism in West Africa’; Gow, Olonisakin, and Dijxhoorn, ‘Deep History and International Security’.
10 Wolfers, ‘National Security as an Ambiguous Symbol’; Buzan and Hansen, Evolution of International Security Studies.
11 Liotta, ‘Boomerang Effect’, 477.
12 Ibid.
13 Brodie, ‘Strategy as a Science’; Morgenthau, Politics among Nations; Waltz, Man, the State and War; Carr, Twenty Years’ Crisis; Taylor, Evolution of National Security Studies, 4; Olonisakin, ‘African “Homemade” Peacekeeping Initiatives’, 349. For details on realist conception of national security, see Brodie, ‘Strategy as a Science’; Morgenthau, Politics among Nations; Waltz, Man, the State and War; Carr, Twenty Years’ Crisis.
14 Buzan and Hansen, Evolution of International Security Studies, 21.
15 Galtung, ‘Violence, Peace and Peace Research’.
16 Ibid. See also Buzan and Hansen, Evolution of International Security Studies; Brewer, Peace Process.
17 Taylor, Evolution of National Security Studies, 2; Yergin, Shattered Peace; Booth, Security and Self.
18 Fukuyama, ‘The End of History’. See also Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man.
19 Fukuyama, ‘The End of History’. See also Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man.
20 Buzan, People, State and Fear.
21 Buzan and Hansen, Evolution of International Security Studies, 2. See also UNDP, Human Development Report 1994.
22 Buzan and Hansen, Evolution of International Security Studies, 18.
23 Ayoob, ‘Security Problematic of the Third World’; Azar and Moon, ‘Legitimacy, Integration and Policy Capacity’; Thomas, Global Governance, Development and Human Security.
24 Rothschild, ‘What is Security?’, 2.
25 Rapoport, ‘Four Waves of Modern Terrorism’. See also Townshend, Terrorism: A Very Short Introduction.
26 Taylor, Evolution of National Security Studies, 13.
27 Muslim wars refer to the periods of intense confrontation between radical Muslims with ideological and religious beliefs around the world against the West and Western ideology under the leadership of the US. The West considers these wars as coming from Islamic civilisation; see Huntington, ‘America in the World’. See also Kaldor, New and Old Wars.
28 Vinci, Armed Groups and the Balance of Power.
29 Tickner, Gender in International Relations, 53.
30 Obi, ‘Terrorism in West Africa’; Ismail, ‘Radicalisation and Violent Extremism in West Africa’; Gow, Olonisakin, and Dijxhoorn, ‘Deep History and International Security’.
31 Ball and Fayemi, Security Sector Governance in Africa. See also Bryden, N’Diaye, and Olonisakin, Security Sector Governance in West Africa; Luckham and Hutchful, ‘Democratic and War-to-Peace Transitions in Africa’; Ebo, ‘Parliamentary Oversight of Security Sector in West Africa’; Janowitz, The Professional Soldier; Schiff, ‘Civil–Military Relations Reconsidered’; Feaver, ‘The Civil–Military Problematic’.
32 Chalmers, Security Sector Reform in Developing Countries: An EU Perspective, 6, cited in Jackson, ‘Security Sector Reform and State Building’, 1804.
33 Ayoob, ‘Security in the Third World’.
34 Grint, Leadership: Limits and Possibilities, 1. See also Grint, Leadership: A Very Short Introduction.
35 Grint, Leadership: Limits and Possibilities, 1. See also Grint, Leadership: A Very Short Introduction, 4–14.
36 Grint, Leadership: Limits and Possibilities, 6.
37 Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice. See also Bass and Riggio, Transformational Leadership.
38 Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, 19.
39 Grint, Leadership: A Very Short Introduction, 4.
40 Murphy, ‘A Study of the Leadership Process’, 674.
41 Pierce and Newstrom, Leaders and the Leadership Process, 4.
42 Murphy, ‘A Study of the Leadership Process’, 674.
43 Bennis, On Becoming a Leader, 39–100.
44 Murphy, ‘A Study of the Leadership Process’, 677.
45 Bass and Riggio, Transformational Leadership, 7.
46 Bennis, On Becoming a Leader.
47 Grint, Leadership: Limits and Possibilities, 3.
48 Osumah, ‘Boko Haram Insurgency in Northern Nigeria’, 538.
49 Bryden and Olonisakin, Security Sector Transformation in Africa, 12.
50 ‘Nigeria: Killings by Government Soldiers Must Be Investigated’.
51 Adebajo, The Curse of Berlin, 128.
52 Adejumobi, ‘Ethnic Militia Groups and the National Question in Nigeria’; Merz, Security by Militia, but for Whom?; Okumagba, ‘Oil Exploration and Crisis in the Niger Delta’.
53 Osumah, ‘Boko Haram Insurgency in Northern Nigeria’, 537; Pérouse de Montclos, ‘Introduction and Overview’, 2; Onuoha, ‘The Islamist Challenge’, 55.
54 Adesoji, ‘Between Maitatsine and Boko Haram’.
55 Onuoha, ‘The Islamist Challenge’; Onuoha, ‘Evolutionary Phases of Boko Haram in Nigeria’.
56 Adebanwi, ‘Terror, Territoriality and the Struggle for Indigeneity’; Osumah, ‘Boko Haram Insurgency in Northern Nigeria’, 541–542.
57 Chouin, Reinert, and Apard, ‘Body Count and Religion in the Boko Haram Crisis’.
58 Dixon, ‘Child Beggars are Easy Recruits’.
59 ‘Attacks by Terror Group Boko Haram Increasing’.
60 Swails and McKenzie, ‘Kidnapped to Kill’.
61 Sampson, ‘Religious Violence in Nigeria’; Onuoha, ‘The Islamist Challenge’.
62 Dixon, ‘Child Beggars are Easy Recruits’.
63 See Nigerian Bureau of Statistics 2010.
64 Dixon, ‘Child Beggars are Easy Recruits’.
65 Ibid.
66 Osumah, ‘Boko Haram Insurgency in Northern Nigeria’, 542.
67 Isaacs, ‘Islam in Nigeria: Simmering Tensions’.
68 Simon, ‘2015 and the Survival of the Nigerian State’, 164.
69 Osuntokun, ‘Buhari-Bakara-Idiagbon in Retrospect’.
70 ‘Boko Haram Has Infiltrated My Government’.
71 Walker, What is Boko Haram?, 13.
72 Amnesty International, Nigeria: Trapped in the Cycle of Violence, 3.
73 Caux, ‘UNHCR Condemns Brutality in Nigeria’.
74 Ibid.
75 ‘Nigeria's Displaced: A Rising Tide of Misery’.
76 Ihonvbere, ‘Constitutionalism and the National Question in Nigeria’, 243.
77 Ibrahim, ‘Another Nigerian Lieutenant Colonel Killed by Boko Haram’.
78 West, ‘Government by Propaganda: The New Normal’.
79 Ibid.
80 Ibid.
81 ‘Boko Haram Leader Vows to Kill Elder Statesmen’; Agbiboa, ‘Boko-Haram and the Global Jihad’.
82 Rapoport, ‘Four Waves of Modern Terrorism’, 46.
83 Obi, ‘Terrorism in West Africa’, 91–92.
84 Roggio, ‘US Offers Rewards for Boko Haram’.
85 Karimi and Shoichet, ‘80 U.S. Troops Aid Search for Nigerian Girls’.
86 Jones, ‘Kidnapped Nigerian Schoolgirls in New Danger’.
87 ‘Boko Haram Crisis: Nigeria Fury Over US Arms Refusal’.
88 Grint, Leadership: A Very Short Introduction.
89 Ibid., 15–21.
90 Saad-Filho, Growth, Poverty and Inequality.
91 Grint, Leadership: A Very Short Introduction, 18.
92 Ibid., 21–23.
93 Ibid., 15.
94 Hollander and Julian, ‘Contemporary Trends in the Analysis of Leadership Processes’.
95 Zartman and Faure, ‘Introduction: Why Engage, and Why Not?’, 1–2.
96 Hollander and Julian, ‘Contemporary Trends in the Analysis of Leadership Processes’, 6–14.