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Table of contents
1. Introduction 3
2. The research problem 4
3. Methodology 4
3.1 Scope of the project 4
3.2 Clinical case studies 5
3.3 Argumentation for the choice of theory 6
3.4 Data collecting methods 7
3.5 Country profile – Nigeria 8
4. Theory 13
4.1 Human security 13
4.1.1 Security – from state to the individual 14
4.1.2 Criticism of state security 15
4.1.3 The “new” human security 17
4.1.4 Human security and human development 19
4.1.5 UNDP Human Development report 20
4.1.6 Threats to human security 22
4.1.7 Developing the human security concept 23
4.2 Criticism of human security 27
4.3 Rethinking human security 28
4.3.1 Measuring human security 30
4.3.2 Enhancing human security 32
5. Analysis 34
5.1 Methodology 34
5.1.1 Environment as a domain of human well being 35
5.1.2 Choosing indicators 36
5.2 Income 38
5.2.1 Current state of information regarding income security 39
5.2.3 Recapitulation 41
5.3 Health 42
5.3.1 Current state of information regarding health security 43
5.3.2 Recapitulation 45
5.4 Education 46
5.4.1 Current state of information regarding education 47
5.4.2 Recapitulation 49
5.5 Political freedom 49
5.5.1 Current state of information regarding political freedom 51
5.5.2 Recapitulation 54
5.6 Democracy 54
5.6.1 Current state of information regarding democracy 55
5.6.2 Recapitulation 58
5.7 Environment 59
5.7.1 Current state of information regarding environment 60
5.7.2 Recapitulation 62
5.8 The Niger Delta Crisis 62
5.8.1 Recapitulation 71
6. Conclusion 72
7. Bibliography 76
1. Introduction
“Nigeria has no business with poverty. With our human and material resources, we shall strive to eradicate poverty from our country.”[1]
-Former Head of State and President Olusegun Obasanjo
In 1960 when Nigeria won independence they had all the potential to become a rich and influential country. Nigeria is blessed with an abundance of both human and natural resources; it is the largest black nation in the world with up to 160 million people, it is one of the biggest producers of both oil and natural gas, it possesses 34 types of solid minerals, 44 exportable commodities and huge areas of arable land.[2] Despite the great potential it remain a fact that Nigeria are placed low on almost all parameters in economic and social development and thus continue to belong to the group of “underdeveloped” countries in the world. The authors’ interest in Nigeria is based on a personal experience working and living six months in Nigeria. Nigeria is an enhancing country; beautiful nature, diverse culture and most of all the most welcoming people, but Nigeria is also marred by many problems that affect the well being of ordinary Nigerians. One example is from a journey made by the author between Badagry and Lagos in the southwest Nigeria; the stretch between the two cities is less than 50 kilometres but still there were 13 roadblocks manned by soldiers demanding bribes to let cars through. This is already a terrifying high number but the chauffeur said that on an ordinary day when people were not home in their villages for Christmas there can be as many as 30! Would you like to commute there??
The example above is just one out of many and every day you are confronted with the long list of the challenges Nigeria is facing through television, newspapers and radio. As a consequence of this bombardment the author had a growing feeling that it was difficult to comprehend all the information, and out from that developed a desire to systematise the developmental issues Nigeria are facing in order to understand the country and its challenges in a holistic way.
2. The research problem
The first objective of the thesis, which is based in personal experiences, is to provide a frame through which development issues in Nigeria can be grasped. In order to do this it is important to have theory to guide the study and determine the focus,[3] in this project the concept of “human security” acts as the guiding theory. In other words; it is human security that frame reality and determine the angle upon which the reader understand the case.
Letting human security guide the collection and analysis of information from the case provide the second objective of the thesis; the study can detect vulnerable areas in a Nigerian context and therefore it acts as a kind of warning system for threats to human security in Nigeria and thereby it can help to prevent future human crisis.[4]
Based on the above considerations and in an endeavour to systematise challenges Nigeria is facing in the area of development the study will be conducted around this problem formulation:
“HOW CAN NIGERIAN DEVELOPMENTAL CHALLENGES BE POSITIONED IN A HUMAN SECURITY FRAMEWORK IN ORDER TO ABTAIN A BROAD UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VERY SAME CHALLENGES?”
3. Methodology
3.1 Scope of the project
In order to answer the problem formulation it is necessary to do the following two things;
1. Develop a human security framework.
2. Position Nigerian developmental challenges in the framework.
There are two main approaches to research in general and the role of theory in particular; that is theory testing (deductive) and theory building (inductive).[5] In the theory testing approach the research begins with the theory and uses theory to guide what observations to make. In this particular project, the researcher, if adopting the theory testing approach, would start off with step number one above and then move on to step number two letting the framework decide what developmental challenges that are included in the study.
If one adopts the theory building approach, the research begins with observations and uses inductive reasoning to derive a theory from these observations. The theory building approach tries to determine if the observations fit into a pattern or a story. As opposed to the theory testing approach the theory building approach would begin with step number two and the observations about the developmental challenges would be decisive in the construction of the framework. The approach adopted in this project is both theory testing and theory building, in other words; the human security have to some extent decided what developmental challenges include, but observations about the developmental challenges Nigeria is facing has also decided the structure of the human security framework. By letting theory guide which indicators that are included in the framework ensure that the selection is not arbitrary, and thus secure some degree of comparability where the study can be reproduced and the observations made can be compared to observations made in other countries. It is also important that the “reality” in Nigeria is deciding for the structure of the framework, this provide a fuller picture of the case and makes sure that challenges that are important in a Nigerian context are not excluded from the study.
3.2 Clinical case studies
This research was undertaken as a single and clinical case study with the purpose of understanding to the most possible extent the developmental issues Nigeria is facing. According to De Vaus, clinical case studies are case centred and use theories to understand a case and gather information to build up a picture of what is going on.[6] The nature of the study is descriptive; it tries to provide as complete picture of the case as possible. Usually it is not a good idea to choose a descriptive design, because it tends to be purely referring to existing information and thus contain little independent work.[7] Despite the pitfalls there are cases where a descriptive design can be rewarding; one is if the subject or approach is new and therefore it is time to describe the case in a systematic way guided by theory. This is exactly what this project intends to do as it moves into a relatively new and unexplored area; Nigeria developmental issues in the light of human security. As described later in the theory the concept of human security is a much debated concept, and there is little consistency in the wide range of definitions of the concept. Usually studies in human security tend to be thematic and limits its focus on single issues and do not try to understand the human security in a country as a whole. What is new in this project is that it broadens the use of the concept human security and tries to understand the case as a whole in the light of human security. One can say that existing studies seek to deepen the understanding while this project seek to broaden it, this off course mean that the project loose some depth, but it will be compensated for by the gain in broadness. Much research have been conducted on Nigerian issues, but not with the specific approach adopted by this project. In an interview with a senior UN officer in Nigeria he expressed his concern that many development workers knowledge on developmental issues were limited to their specific working areas, therefore a study that could broaden the knowledge would be of great value to all people working with development in Nigeria. By using human security and adopting a broad approach to Nigerian development challenges the project shed new light on the case und thus justify the use of the descriptive design.
3.3 Argumentation for the choice of theory
In this project human security acts as the guiding theory for which observations to make. Since the United Nations Development programme (UNDP) coined the concept in 1994, since then it has been adopted by a great number of scholars, states and international organizations. Despite the great interest in the concept no coherent definition has been developed and mainstreamed. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) human security has; “ultimately, not been operationalized as it should have been”[8]
This project seek to narrow down the broad definitions presented by especially the UNDP and operationalise the concept in order for it to act as a frame in which Nigerian developmental issues can be placed and understood. Therefore human security is valuable to this project as it provide the possibility to study a broad spectre of a country’s developmental issues.
A part from being able to broaden the understanding of a country and its developmental challenges, this study into the state of human security in Nigeria is also a risk assessment and ultimately it can act as a warning system and possible point out risk areas in order to prevent future human crisis. Christopher K.L Murray[9] and Gary King[10], who is behind the definition adopted by this project, argue that a process of enhancing human security begin with risk assessment and prevention. A risk assessment can provide important knowledge about the risks to human security and thus enable politicians and development workers to design more effective policies. Another advantage of risk assessment is that it looks not only at what is going on now, but it is also looking forward, thereby detecting risks that doesn’t influence human security today.[11]
3.4 Data collecting methods
This project began with a review of the literature on human security, this involved primary resources that were later used to construct the theories utilised in the study. The study relies heavily on web sources run by international organizations, mainly the UN and the World Bank and NGOs working in relevant areas. The study also makes use of secondary web resources such as news portals on African issues. The broad base of data is important when conducting a study on a country which is notorious for its lack of data. It also ensures that the project is up-to-date and that it corresponds to the reality the people in Nigeria are experiencing.
3.5 Country profile – Nigeria
Map of Nigeria
[pic]
Nigeria is located within the tropics in the heart of the West African sub-region. It is bordered to the south by the bights of Benin and Biafra, which are in the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. To the west Nigeria is bordered by the republic of Benin, to the east by Cameron and to the north by Niger. In the far eastern corner Lake Chad separates Nigeria from Chad. The country is roughly 1120 km from west to east and 1040 km from north to south, and has some 800 km coastline. The total landmass is 932.768 square kilometres, making it the biggest country in West Africa. Nigeria is watered by two main rivers, the River Niger and the River Benue. The River Niger is the third longest river in Africa running 1160 km from the northwest corner and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean through the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta is the largest delta in Africa, 150 km wide and it stretches inwards about 50 km.[12]
Nigeria exhibit great diversity in geographical characteristics, ranging from tropical to arid. The area around the Niger Delta comprises mostly of dense mangrove swamps, wile the rest of the southern part is heavily forested. Further north the forests gives way to hills and plateaus, an area known as the middle belt. In the northern part of the country are the plains of the savannah and in the extreme north is the semi-dessert area known as the Sahel. There are two main seasons in Nigeria, the wet season and the dry season. During the dry season, a cool wind, called the Harmattan sweeps in from the Sahara, bringing relief from the warm weather but it also carries particles of sand from the Sahara, resulting in the air being full of these sand particles, especially in the north. The geographic diversity means that Nigeria has a big variety of natural resources, mineral resources include large deposits of coal, iron, tin, columbite, lead, copper and zinc, most of this is found in the hills and plateaus of the middle belt. There are also small amounts of gold, silver and diamonds.[13] Another natural resource Nigeria has is an enormous work force; the World Bank world places the population at almost 148 million.[14]
Nigeria is best known for their reserves of petroleum. The search for oil started as far back in 1908 by a German company, but it was not before 1958 that Shell started extracting oil from its fields in the Niger Delta.[15] Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa, the eleventh largest producer of crude oil in the world and a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Nigeria is also the world’s eighth largest exporter of crude oil and the country is a major oil exporter to the United States.[16] Oil is the single most important commodity, sale of petroleum products constitute over 90 percent of the country’s export earnings and over 75 percent of public revenues. The total reliance on oil has contributed to economic instability due to world price fluctuation on oil and high level of corruption among government and public officials.[17]
Nigeria comprises of more than 200 different ethno-linguistic groups. Three main groups constitute the majority of the population; the Hausa which count for 21 percent is located in the northern savannahs, the Yoruba which makes up 20 percent of the population is located in the south west, the last group, the Igbo of the south east count for 17 percent. There are more than 250 indigenous languages spoken in Nigeria, but English has been the official language since independence in 1960. There are also a vast number of different religions, although the majority identify with either Islam or Christianity. About 50 percent of the population is Sunni Muslim, mostly located in the north where Islam first appeared between the eleventh and fourteenth century’s. It is mostly the Hausa and Fulani groups that identify with Islam. Christianity came with European missionaries around 1840, this development of Christianity was aided by Christian freed slaves who returned home from Sierra Leone and started preaching Christianity. About 10 percent still practice indigenous religions, mostly centred on ancestor worship and reverence for both natural and supernatural phenomena.
The population of Nigeria is exceptionally young; the median age is 19[18], and as of 2005 it was estimated that 64.7 million people in Nigeria were under the age of twenty four.[19] The average life expectancy is only 46.94 years, with poverty, malnutrition and the lack of basic health services to keep life expectancies low. Despite the low life expectancy rate, the average population growth lies at around 2.5 percent, which means that the ratio of young to middle aged and older person will increase year by year. On the Human Development index[20] Nigeria is ranked 154th out of 179 countries with available data. The UNDP have also developed an index that deals exclusively with poverty, the HPI-1[21]. On this index Nigeria is ranked 111th out of 135 developing countries. According to the World Bank about 54 percent of the population in Nigeria lives on less than 1 dollar per day.[22]
Nigeria is a former British colony, starting with the annexation of Lagos as crown colony in 1861. The culmination was when the borders that constitute Nigeria today were created in 1914 when the British colonial government amalgamated the northern and the southern Nigerian protectorates into one colonial state. Before the British colonized Nigeria there had been more or less centralised states that had risen and fallen over the centuries, the most prominent of those were; Kanem-Borno, Benin Kingdom, Oyo and the Sokoto Caliphate. Some of these different states were strong regional powers and others were smaller, decentralized states ruled by political structures of local chiefs, local councils and other types of elite. In 1960 Nigeria gained independence and the nationalist leadership promised to retain Nigeria colonial borders and to govern the country as a federal republic. The country was divided into three regions with the Federal Capital Territory at Lagos. In 1991 the federal Capital was moved to Abuja. The political bureaucracy is divided into three tiers, federal, state and local, each with certain responsibilities guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution.
Sine 1996 Nigeria have been divided into 36 states and the Federal Capital territory. The number of states has always been a disputed subject, with demands from different ethnic groups for the creation of more and more states. In 2007 Nigeria held its third consecutive national elections, further strengthening the transition from military to democratic rule that began in 1999 with the election of President Olusegun Obasanjo. The winner of the 2007 elections, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who is the third democratically elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria marked the first handover of power from one civilian government to another in the history of post-independence Nigeria. The President has committed his government to reforms and his “7-Point Agenda” identifies the development of human capital; macroeconomic management; physical infrastructure, agriculture; combating corruption; security, law and order; and focus on the Niger Delta. The political system in Nigeria is infamous for instability, since independence the military have ruled for a total of 28 years. Military coups is very common, there have been two military coups bringing civilian regimes to an end and three times have one military regime substituted another, in addition to that there have been a great number of failed coup attempts.
Historically Nigeria has been subject to much political, ethnic and religious tension and violence, resulting in many both spontaneous and organized attacks and one civil war from 1967 to 1970, also known as the Biafran War.[23] The most recent clashes occurred in the city of Jos in November 2008 where, in just one weekend, hundreds of people were killed after a local election.[24]
Corruption is another big challenge for Nigeria, although they have moved up Transparency Internationals corruption perceptions index, Nigeria is still ranked as number 121 out of 180 countries.[25] The former president Olusegun Obasanjo expressed his concern regarding corruption in his inaugural speech in 1999;
“Corruption, the greatest single bane of our society today (…) no society can achieve anything near its full potential if it allows corruption to become the full-blown cancer it has become in Nigeria. One of the greatest tragedies of military rule in recent times is that corruption was allowed to grow unchallenged, and unchecked, even when it was glaring for everybody to see. The rules and regulations for doing official business were deliberately ignored, set aside or by-passed to facilitate corrupt practices.”[26]
Nigeria can be described as a neo-patrimonial[27] society where public officials steal government funds for personal use and to distribute money and government contracts to cronies and allies. Politicians argue that they take care of their “own” while at the same time they grow extremely wealthy themselves. In a society like Nigeria only those who are in power have access to government funds and therefore it is in their self interest to stay in power, sometimes at all costs. As a consequence elections have often been riddled with violence and manipulation, as politicians tend to use vote rigging to make sure that they stay in power.
4. Theory
4.1 Human security
Principles and definitions of security are a much debated institution in international politics. The importance of the concept is particular evident in the ceremonials of reconstruction after large international wars. The post-war settlements at Vienna in 1815, at Versailles in 1919 and at San Francisco in 1945 have all been followed by new discourses on international security. The most recent large international conflict, the Cold War, was also followed by significant changes in the political configuration of Europe. The changes after the Cold War also sparked a renewed political interest in principles of security.[28] Traditionally theories of security emphasize the predominant role of the state; it is the state that is the centre of security and the state is the entity which has to be secure. The close connection between security and the state seemed natural in the nineteenth and twentieth century where realism occupied a dominant position in international relations. In the recent years the close relationship between human security and the state has been contested, and the state as the primary object of security has been challenged by others, among them the individual human being.[29]
During the Cold War different actors in the field of security started emphasising the security of the individual, but it was not until the nineties that a coherent concept of human security was developed. The discussion of human security expanded significantly and involved diverse actors such as international organizations, specialized agencies, NGOs and independent commissions.[30]
4.1.1 Security – from state to the individual
“Since the 17th Century, international security has been defined almost entirely in terms of national survival needs. Security has meant the protection of the state— its boundaries, people, institutions, and values— from external attack”[31]
One of the main changes in the new principles was that the focus of whom or what that was to be secured changed from the state to the individual, how this change came about is the focus for the following section. The concept of state security is usually identified with the development of the international system from its medieval to its Westphalian variant. But the concept can be traced as far back as the Greeks; one example is Thucydides who wrote about how the consolidation of the city state was a precondition of civilized life in early Greek history. His observation shows that all men at that time had to carry weapons to protect the city state from endemic violence whereas later, the Athenians didn’t need to carry weapons because the power of the polis protected them by arming an army. The importance of the state can also be seen in the fact that it is a general notion in the work of classic Greek writers that security claims of the individuals can’t exceed those of the state if they diverge.[32]
Another theorist which is important regarding the relationship between the state and the citizens is Thomas Hobbes; in Leviathan he describes a human dilemma of trading liberty for security. Hobbes argues that men traded their individual liberty and natural rights upward to the state in return for security in order for them to live a peaceful life in a time characterized by war and with “continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”[33]. Thus, in a security context, it is the state that is important and it is the responsibility of the state to provide security for its citizens.[34]
In the previous it was established how the state was predominant in earlier understandings of security – especially the idea that providing protection for citizens is fundamentally the responsibility of the state. As mentioned earlier there was during the Cold War a growing critique of the dominating role of the state and recognition of the importance of individual security. Also the responsibility of the states and the international organizations to address that security was a recurring theme.[35] In the next section this critique will be presented.
4.1.2 Criticism of state security
Through history some theorists have argued that state’s failure to provide security for its citizens, residents and subjects weakened its claim for absolute sovereignty and thus it indirectly permitted intervention by outsiders as a respond to the state’s incapacity. But it wasn’t before after the Second World War that theses arguments made an impact on the general security discourse.
The critique of state security in this period is closely connected with the emergence of human rights: awareness about the state’s ability to fulfil its role of providing physical and existential security which was followed by attempts to “reclaim” the rights that had been metaphorically “transferred” to the state.[36] The same idea is presented by Astri Suhrke[37] in her text “Human security and the Interest of States”;
However defined in detail, the idea of “human security” springs from the same values that during the second half of the twentieth century led to the greater articulation of norms for securing human rights, civilizing the conduct of war, and protecting the vulnerable.[38]
During the Cold War there was still a broad acceptance of state security, but this was to change. In the time after the end of the Cold War there was great number of state collapses and internal wars which meant that the notion of the state as the protector and guarantor of security was severely undermined. The learning from this was that state security cannot be relevant when there is no functioning state to begin with, consequently there can be no other referent to security other than the individual. This created an environment for a change in the security discourse in favour of individual human beings.[39]
Many fragile states, especially in Africa, had only been held together with the help from one of the two superpowers. Much of the support was withdrawn after the end of the Cold War in the early nineties resulting in state collapses all around the world. The fragile states simply imploded or found themselves incapable of providing security and basic economic and social necessities. The great number of states that collapsed in this period made millions of people very vulnerable and it confirmed the arguments that the referent of security should be changed from the state to the individual and the understanding of security should be broadened to include societal upheaval brought by internal war, economic privation, famine, ecological devastation and refugees.[40]
Another thing that supported the arguments that the focus of security should be changed was a number of deadly internal conflicts and wars; one of the first was in Somalia where war lords and clans fought over the control of the country. The UN authorized a peacekeeping force to be deployed; this force was attacked by clan leader Mohammed Aideed, killing 24 Pakistani UN soldiers. The UN called in the U.S Rangers to hunt for those responsible for the attack. These U.S soldiers were later caught in a gunfight in Mogadishu where 18 Americans got killed and President Clinton then ordered U.S troops to withdraw from Somalia. This would later be called the Mogadishu effect; the unwillingness of USA and other states to take casualties or participate in UN peacekeeping operations. This effect was especially evident in another internal war in a failed state, the civil war in Rwanda. The UN Security council refused to reinforce its forces in Rwanda, despite reports of a planned genocide. When the killings started USA and Britain refused to use the word genocide to describe what was going on, and explained it as an internal war in which the international community had no business. This example of the Mogadishu effect resulted in a genocide of about 800.000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Another example where the international community failed to prevent atrocities is the case of Srebrenica, a small Muslim enclave inside a mainly Serbian area. This enclave was a designated “safe haven” by Dutch UN troops but that did not prevent Serbian forces from attacking the city killing 7.000 and relocating 23.000 people, all without any resistance from UN troops. Other internal wars in the early nineties include Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chechnya and Kosovo, to mention the most prominent ones. Since the Second World War, there have been 25 inter-state wars, and about 122 civil wars. The number of deaths in inter-state wars is around 3.3 million while 16.2 have died in civil wars. The number of inter-state wars has continued to fall after the Cold War.[41] The rise in the number internal wars and the fact that international community failed to help the civilians caught in the conflicts, also helped change the focus from the state to the individual human being which made it easier to intervene in internal conflicts and help the civilians.
Suhrke also argue in support of the fact that the end of the Cold War played a significant role in the transition from state security to human security. As a consequence of the many internal ways there was some structural change in UN that enabled them to intervene easier and address the humanitarian consequences of violent conflicts. Among other things the “Department of Humanitarian Affairs” was established and Kofi Annan identified humanitarian affairs as one of four principal work areas of the UN. These structural changes set the stage for broader efforts to strengthen and expand existing international regimes for promoting human rights, protecting refugees and providing humanitarian assistance. Suhrke further argues that the new institutions and organizations greatly aided by the media formed an authoritative set of actors dedicated to promoting the principles and practices of humanitarianism.[42] Theses changes can explain the emergence of human security as a very powerful idea and discourse;
“A combined interest and institutional perspective can help to explain the power of particular ideas at a particular historical conjuncture. As the 20th century draws to close, humanitarian ideas have become a principal normative for states and organizations to clarify their international obligations or against which to hold others responsible”[43]
4.1.3 The “new” human security
The change from national security to human security can be seen as security in an “extended” sense.[44] This extension takes four forms;
1. Downwards from the nations to individuals
2. Upwards from the nation to the biosphere, from security of the nations to the security of the international system, or of a supranational physical environment.
3. Horizontally, from military security to political security, economic security, social security, environmental security etc.
4. The responsibility for providing security to the individual is extended in all direction from the state; upwards to international organizations, downwards to regional or local government and sideways to NGOs, to public opinion and the press, and to the abstract forces of nature and the market.[45]
“Extensions” number one and two describe what entities are to be secured. Number three describes what sort of security that is in question, different entities such as the state, the international system and individual human beings are not secure or insecure in the same way.[46]
In conclusion it is important to mention that state security and human security is not mutually exclusive, in many ways the two complements each other, according to the UN Commission on Human Security, Human security complements state security in four respects;
1. Its concern is the individual and the community rather than the state.
2. Menaces to people’s security include threats and conditions that have not always been classified as threats to state security.
3. The range of actors is expanded beyond the state alone.
4. Achieving human security includes not just protecting people but also empowering people to fend for themselves.
The Commission emphasized that there will always be need and room for security emphasizing the importance of the state, it was just important that the predominant position of the state was changed. Human security and state security can’t stand alone, they are mutually reinforcing and they are dependent on each other. Human security requires strong and stable institutions and ultimately state security is also dependent on stability internally in the state.[47]
4.1.4 Human security and human development
One starting point for exploring human security is the relationship between human security and human development. Human security and human development are closely intertwined, in the UNDP Human Development Report (HDR) from 1994 it is stated that; “Without peace, there may be no development. But without development, peace may be threatened.”[48] The interconnectedness is also supported by the fact that in most literature on security the 1994 UNDP human development report serves as the introduction of the concept human security into mainstream circles of international organizations and the general security discourse.[49] The two concepts became so intertwined that development issues merged into security issues; “for many, the economic well-being of individual human beings came to be seen as a core element of individual security” the same shift could be seen in the HIV/AIDS debate where health issues more and more often was perceived as fundamental aspects of security. [50]
The 1994 HDR supported the observation that the number of internal wars exceeded intra state wars in the contemporary international system. Based on that they concluded that the root causes for these wars was to be found in socioeconomic conditions. UNDP further emphasized that the path to peace was sustainable development or in another way; “sustainable human development and human security were mutually constitutive: the two together were basis for peace”[51]
4.1.5 UNDP Human Development Report
UNDP started publishing the HDR in 1990. It was already in the 1993 edition UNDP introduced an explicit wish for a change in the security discourse; “The concept of security must change— from an exclusive focus on national security to a much greater stress on people’s security, from security through armaments to security through human development, from territorial security to food, employment, and environmental security.”[52] This statement was followed by a set of suggestions that tied human development to security. The movement towards human security was completed in the 1994 HDR with the subtitle; “New Dimensions of Human Security”[53]
The 94 HDR report argued that; “The concept of security has for too long been interpreted narrowly: as security of territory from external aggression, or as protection of national interests in foreign policy or as global security from the threat of a nuclear holocaust. It has been related more to nation-states than to people.” [54] The report went further and argued that the concerns of ordinary people who sought security in their daily lives had been forgotten, especially in the developing world where states were too sensitive to any real or perceived threats to their fragile national identities. For the ordinary people security was protection from the threat of disease, unemployment, crime, social conflict, political repression and environmental hazards. In the report UNDP presented the first substantial definition of human security;
“Human security is a child who did not die, a disease that did not spread, a job that was not cut, an ethnic tension that did not explode in violence, a dissident who was not silenced. Human security is not a concern with weapons - it is a concern with human life and dignity.”[55]
According to the 94 HDR an analysis of the basic concept of human security must include the following four essential characteristics;
1. Human security is a universal concern. It is relevant to people everywhere, in rich nations and poor. There are many threats that are common to all people-such as unemployment, drugs, crime, pollution and human rights violations. Their intensity may differ from one part of the world to another, but all these threats to human security are real and growing.
2. The components of human security are interdependent. When the security of people is endangered anywhere in the world, all nations are likely to get involved. Famine, disease, pollution, drug trafficking, terrorism, ethnic disputes and social disintegration are no longer isolated events, confined within national borders. Their consequences travel the globe.
3. Human security is easier to ensure through early prevention than later intervention. It is less costly to meet these threats upstream than downstream. For example, the direct and indirect cost of HIV/AIDS was roughly $240 billion during the 1980s. Even a few billion dollars invested in primary health care and family planning education could have helped contain the spread of this deadly disease.
4. Human security is people-centred. It is concerned with how people live and breathe in a society, how freely they exercise their many choices, how much access they have to market and social opportunities and whether they live in conflict or in peace.[56]
According to UNDP human security essentially centers around two things. First, it means safety from such chronic threats as hunger, disease and repression. Second, it means safety from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the patterns of daily life – whether in homes, in jobs or in communities. Human insecurity can result from forces of nature, it can be man-made or a combination of both.[57]
4.1.6 Threats to human security
UNDP classify seven main threats to human security; Economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security and political security. [58] The following will go into more detail with each of the seven points and the issues will later act as inspiration to the indicators in the analysis.
Economic security requires a stable basic income from productive and remunerative work. Another possibility could be income from publicly financed safety net.
Food security means that all people at all times have sufficient economic and physical access to basic food. This means that people have an “entitlement” to food, an entitlement to either buy it, grow it or taking advantage of a public food distribution system.
Health insecurity is a major threat to people all over the world especially in developing countries; millions die every year of infectious and parasitic diseases, health security is about providing tools to fight these diseases and ultimately decrease the number of deaths.
Environmental security - human beings rely much on a healthy physical environment - sometimes environmental disasters can threaten this environment. These disasters are often a result of a degradation of local ecosystems and that of the global system. Environmental security is about minimizing the strains put on the earth and thus minimizing the risk of natural disasters with severe humanitarian consequences.
Personal security understood as security from physical violence is possibly the most vital of all seven points. Threats to personal security can take many forms; Threats from the state (Physical torture), threats from other states (war), threats from other groups of people (ethnic tension), threats from individuals or gangs against other individuals or gangs (crime, street violence), Threats directed against women (rape, domestic violence), threats directed at children based on their vulnerability and dependence (child abuse) and threats to self (suicide, drug use)
Community security, people gain security from their membership of a social group that be a family, a community, an organization, a racial or ethnic group. Being a part of any of these groups provides the individual with an identity and a reassuring set of values. Some of these groups can also provide physical and material support such as protection of its weaker members. Threats to community security could be things such as discriminating specific ethnic groups and thereby limiting their access to resources and opportunities such as social services from the state or jobs.
Political security is about people’s basic human rights and the right to live in a society without state repression. According to the UNDP the priority a government gives to its military a good indicator for political freedom – since state sometimes use armies to repress their own people. The ratio between the two can be seen in how much a government is spending on the military in proportion to the social spending, this will give a good picture of the state of political security.[59]
Even though the human security concept has developed since UNDP’s 1994 HDR, it laid down the baseline for a major change in the understanding of security and all later developments are in one way or the other rooted in the understanding presented in this report.[60]
4.1.7 Developing the human security concept
In 1999 the UN Trust Fund for Human Security was established by the Japanese government and the UN. The trust fund’s goal was to provide funding to projects that seek to enhance human security around the world. Since there was no conceptual framework and guidelines available for the trust fund to follow in the beginning, they adopted a more operational approach and most of the funding was directed towards development projects.[61]
The trust fund later adopted the definition of human security presented by the Commission on Human Security in their report “Human Security Now” In 2001, where human security seeks;
“…to protect the vital core of all human lives in ways that enhance human freedoms and human fulfilment. Human security means protecting fundamental freedoms – freedoms that are the essence of life. It means protecting people from critical (severe) and pervasive (widespread) threats and situations. It means using processes that build on people’s strengths and aspirations. It means creating political, social, environmental, economic, military and cultural systems that together give people the building blocks of survival, livelihood and dignity.”[62]
Their understanding of human security had some contributions to the one presented by UNDP in 1994, one was to supplement freedom from want and fear with freedom to take action on ones own behalf. The concrete human security framework proposed by the commission included two dimensions; protection which refer to national and international norms, processes and institutions that shield people from critical and pervasive threats and empowerment that emphasizes people as actors in defining and implementing their vital freedoms and the goal is to enable people to enhance their resilience to difficult conditions.[63]
The final report from the commission presented a number of special issues in human security, they included;
- Hunger: at the time of the report, 800 million people in the developing world and at least 24 million in developed and transition economies didn’t have enough food. There is widespread hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity despite the fact that there is adequate food resources in the world, the problem is the before mentioned entitlement and access to food. Improved nutrition would enhance people’s capacity to participate in all spheres of political, economic and social life and move out of chronic poverty. Unequal distribution of food, environmental degradation, natural disasters and conflicts all affect people’s access to food. Food security is important in human security, a country’s ability to procure and distribute adequate food resources to avoid hunger and malnutrition is vital as food insecurity undermine a person’s dignity and well-being.[64]
- Water: in 2003 half the world population lacked access to sufficient sanitation and one in every fifth person didn’t have access to safe water. In “Human Security Now” it was estimated that 1.7 million die every year form diseases connected to unsafe water and sanitation. Failure to meet the needs for fresh water imposes great risks on societies, especially in developing countries. There are immense human costs as well as economic, social and political risks if people doesn’t have access to adequate safe water, food security, power blackouts and water scarcity are among the most sensitive public service issues for which societies hold governments accountable. The commission argued that in a few decades the world population would require 20 percent more fresh water than today. Any analysis of human security must therefore address this essential matter.[65]
- Population: the UN population division have estimated that the world population would increase to 8.9 billion in 2050, half that increase will be concentrated in eight countries, among them Nigeria. It is also assessed that sometime in the 21st century, because of decreasing fertility rates, the number of people 60 years old or more will triple in three out of four developing countries. The total number of older people in developing countries is expected to rise from 8 percent in 2000 to 20 percent in 2050. This development put serious strains on human security as it will reduce people’s ability to move out of poverty and cope with crisis. It is important to take these long term changes in population into account when dealing with human security.[66]
- Environment: in many developing countries a large part of the population is dependent on their access to natural resources such as forests for fuel, the land for farming and the water for fishing. When these resources are threatened because of environmental change, degradation or disasters people’s security is also threatened. The Sudanese participant in a Commission on Human Security expressed like this; “One of the root causes of human insecurity is ecological or resource degradation (…) without ecological stability we cannot have food security”[67]
A number of countries have later adopted the human security concept into their official foreign policy, Canada, Japan and Norway were the first states to do this, and later many other nations have followed. There is some divergence in how the countries that have adopted the concept and how they understand it. Canada defines human security as “safety for people from both violent and non-violent threats”[68]. According to the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade human security is freedom from fear and human development is freedom from want. These two concepts are mutually supportive but distinct concepts. Human security also plays a central role in Japans foreign policy. Their definition is broader that the one adopted by Canada; “Human security comprehensively covers all the menaces that threaten human survival, daily life and dignity – for example environmental degradation, violations of human rights, transnational organized crime, illicit drugs, refugees, poverty, anti-personnel landmines and other infectious diseases such as AIDS – and strengthens efforts to confront these threats”[69]
A large group of nations including Norway, Jordan, Austria, Ireland, Chile, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Switzerland, Thailand and Norway have also adopted a narrow and more thematic definition and focuses on things such as; antipersonnel landmines, small arms, children in armed conflict and international humanitarian and human rights law etc.[70]
In 2009 the Human Security Unit presented in their report “Human Security in Theory and Practice” a number of threats to human security, the list is based on the seven categories in the HDR from 94.
Possible types of human security threats;[71]
|Type of Security |Examples of Main Threats |
|Economic security |Persistent poverty, unemployment |
|Food security |Hunger, famine |
|Health security |Deadly infectious diseases, unsafe food, malnutrition, lack of |
| |access to basic health care |
|Environmental security |Environmental degradation, resource depletion, natural disasters, |
| |pollution |
|Personal security |Physical violence, crime, terrorism, domestic violence, child labor |
|Community security |Inter-ethnic, religious and other identity based tensions |
|Political security |Political repression, human rights abuses |
4.2 Criticism of human security
One of the things which is much debated in human security is how broad or narrow the concept should be defined, which has resulted in a lack of a precise definition, and according to Roland Paris[72] human security is very similar to another much used concept, sustainable development; “everyone is for it but few has a clear idea of what it means”[73] King and Murray base their article “Rethinking Human Security” on a number of off-the–record interviews with politicians and officials responsible for the foreign policy in countries that describe their policy as based on human security. Almost all the interviewed expressed a concern about the lack of a widely accepted or coherent definition, and pointed out that there were conceptual problems in relating human security, human development, and the development focus on poverty together in the articulation of foreign policy.[74] This shows that politicians and officials have difficulties placing human security in relation to existing concepts in the field, therefore is a conceptual clarification and definition urgently needed.
Murray and King argue that without a consensus on a theoretical definition, the goal of enhancing human security is practically impossible.[75] Roland Paris argue that existing definitions are too broad and vague, including everything from physical security to psychological well being, this gives policymakers’ too little guidance in the prioritization of competing policy goals and academics little understanding of what is to be studied.
According to Paris the definition by UNDP from 1994 is still today the most cited and authoritative formulation of the concept, but the definition is so broad that it is difficult to imagine what can be excluded from it. One example is the seven main threats to human security mentioned above; it is so broad formulated that almost every possible thing can be included under these points. Actually UNDP was and is not very interested in defining specific borders in their definition of human security, instead they emphasize that their definition is “all-encompassing” and “integrative” and argue that this is one of the qualities of human security.[76] Murray and King also criticize UNDP’s lack of a clear operational definition; “the seven dimensions of human security imply a number of potential interrelated and overlapping dimensions centered on human dignity, but do not provide a coherent framework for integrating them into a single concept”[77] they argue further that this is a very common approach, defining human security by presenting a list of past humanitarian crisis and threats, This is a very useful descriptive first step, but doesn’t provide a clear definition of the concept.[78]
4.3 Rethinking human security
Murray and King have provided a substantial input to the human security debate in their article “Rethinking Human Security” published in 2001. In the article Murray and King notes that many attempts to guarantee security of states via military power have failed to ensure security for the population inside these states. Therefore the international community have combined human development, military security and other basic human rights into a new concept of human security. They argue that the concept of human security lack a clear definition and an agreement on how to measure it. A reason for this is the diversity in the definitions used by different organizations and states, as illustrated above with the examples of UNDP, CHS, Canada and Japan.[79] Therefore Murray and King propose a simple, rigorous, and measurable definition of human security;
“The number of years of future life spent outside a state of “generalized poverty”[80]
Generalized poverty occurs when an individual falls below the threshold of any key domain of human well being”[81] human well being and threshold is key concepts here and will be elaborated on below.
According to their understanding, the word “security” contains two elements; an orientation to future risks and a focus on risks of falling below some critical threshold of deprivation. In other words; “my security today is not only a function of my well being today, but also the prospects of avoiding states of great deprivation in the future”[82]
In order to define and narrow down the concept of human security it is necessary to define the concept of well being, Murray and King include in human security only those domains of human well being that are essential or extremely important;
“Those domains of well being that have been important enough for human beings to fight over or to put their lives or property at great risk”[83]
Each of the selected domains of well being does not have to be independent or logically distinct, as long as they are measurable. What is important is to identify a number of measurable and possibly overlapping domains of well being, that taken together constitute what the majority of people would understand by well being. In parenthesis it should be mentioned that independent and intrinsic domains would be preferable but it has no consequences for this particular proposed definition.[84]
Another important concept that is important to clarify in this context is “generalized poverty”
Historically poverty has been defined in terms of income – In their definition Murray and King take inspiration from literature that define poverty more broad and include the deprivation of any basic capabilities. This would mean that for example, if a person was about to enter prison, food and shelter would be guaranteed, but the loos of freedom would still make that person impoverished. Murray and King thus argue that a person is in a state of generalized poverty whenever he or she slips below a pre-defined threshold in any of the component areas of well being. The definition doesn’t require the different domains of well being to be weighed in relation to each other since a person who is missing even one of these essential elements for any part of the year can be said to be impoverished.[85]
4.3.1 Measuring human security
Murray and King suggest that to measure human security in practice one would have to identify a number of domains of well being. For each domain a practical indicator must be constructed and the threshold value below which an individual will be defined to be in a state of generalized poverty.[86] To choose domains they take inspiration from UNDP’s Human Development Index which included; income per capita, health and education. Levels of economic well being and health are obviously important enough to provoke violence. Education has not traditionally been regarded as being an essential part of having a minimum standard of human well being, so education could in fact be omitted from the list. But as Murray and King argue people often fight over which cultural vales that are reflected in the education, and therefore it is included as a domain. It is necessary to include other contributors to generalized poverty related to other basic freedoms. UNDP wanted to emphasize the importance of political freedom and democracy, but because it was not possible to construct generally accepted measures or weights for the two concepts they were not included in the Human Development Index. These two important concepts can be included in the new definition because according to this it only required a threshold value, which is easier to establish. Based on the above the following set of domains for measuring human security is selected;
1. Income.
2. Health.
3. Education.
4. Political freedom.
5. Democracy.
Several other domains come in indirectly through these and any part of well being that directly affects people’s life expectancy such as the environment is to a degree also included in the measure without having to construct a separate domain or threshold.[87]
For each domain one or more indicators must be selected that reflect the current state of information. A threshold value must also be selected, if a person is below this value he is in a state of generalized poverty.[88] These thresholds should not be context or region specific. The normative argument for this is that human security is a global issue and a global challenge and all people, regardless of location, belong to the same global community. Another argument is that the resulting concept would be comparable across individuals and populations. When it comes to selection of domains the international community can choose as many as they estimate is necessary.[89]
They further state that research and action in the fields of risk assessment, prevention, protection and compensation logically follows this definition. They urge academics and political communities to develop forecasting methods so the level of human security can be measured in different communities.
4.3.2 Enhancing human security
Murray and King divide the process of enhancing human security into four parts;
1. Risk assessment – involves improving and communicating knowledge of the risks that particular populations will enter into or remain in a state of generalized poverty.
2. Prevention – include efforts to reduce these risks.
3. Protection – include those actions that decrease the harm from the events if they occur.
4. Compensation – includes efforts to provide financial or in-kind payments to those in generalized poverty.[90]
Many scholars in the human security field emphasize the importance of risk assessment. It is critical for measuring human security but it is also useful for many other aspects. Risk assessment is according to Murray and King; “an important research endeavour in its own right”[91] Risk assessments will result in improved knowledge about risks that can be used by politicians and public officials to design more effective public policy. Also, risk assessments are critical for the design of early warning systems which can improve the chance for effective response to human security risks and secure better prevention efforts.
By emphasizing the importance of risk assessment Murray and King has the advantage of being forward looking and thereby encompassing future risks that doesn’t influence human well being today. One example is biodiversity which may not affect peoples well being today, but is seen by many scholars as one of the main global risks in the future.[92] In line with this Murray and King argue that; “even though biodiversity has no effect on current well being, it is essential in maintaining future well being and hence plays a central role in improving human security”[93]
Murray and King further argue that risk assessment and prevention is the most rewarding direction for international efforts to improve human security. Enhancing the capacity in data bases and methods to undertake better risk assessments is a critical component of human security focused foreign policy. In other parts of political sciences is risk assessment methods highly developed, this may mean that it is also possible to improve significantly the methods of risk assessment of key causes of human insecurity.[94] To conclude they present their vision for their own definition of human security;
“More detailed implications for policy would, we believe, follow from a structured application of this framework to the challenges of human security. At this point, building the evidence base for human security must be a priority if the focus of international action is to move from reacting to the latest humanitarian crisis to effectively enhance human security through risk assessment, prevention, protection, and compensation.”[95]
5. Analysis
The analysis in this project serves two valuable goals. The first objective of this project is to provide a frame through which development issues in Nigeria can be grasped. The previous chapter presented human security, which will act as the frame for the analysis. In the analysis Nigerian developmental issues will be placed into that frame and the current state of information on the issues will be presented.
The four steps of enhancing human security which were introduced in the previous chapter leads to objective number two; the project can act as some kind of a warning system for future human crisis. Because the project present a lot of information on human security in Nigeria in the analysis, it can also be seen and used as a risk assessment, which, as Murray and King say; “involves improving and communicating knowledge of the risks that particular populations will enter into or remain in a state of generalized poverty.”[96]
The next section will explain the methodology used for the analysis, and the background for choosing the indicators will be presented.
5.1 Methodology
In the analysis the definition of human security presented by Murray and King, act as the main theoretical source for the analysis. The project operates with the original five domains of human well being, but for reasons explained below one more is added, that is environment;
1. Income.
2. Health.
3. Education.
4. Political freedom.
5. Democracy.
6. Environment.
5.1.1 Environment as a domain of human well being
Global challenges to the environment such as climate change, decline in biodiversity etc. have in the latest years occupied a top spot on the political agenda, therefore it is a natural choice to consider if it should be a part of an analysis of human security in one way or the other. Murray and King argue that the environment directly affects people’s life expectancy and therefore implicitly is included in the measure of human security without having to construct a separate domain.[97] The environment does affect the lives of people here and now, but it can also be argued that there is just as severe indirect and longer term consequences and therefore it goes beyond the arguments presented by Murray and King and thus it requires that environment should play a larger role in the analysis.
Politicians and international organizations have also recognized that the environment is an all important challenge to the world, illustrated by a quote from the UN Secretary General; “As we look back on a year of multiple crises, it is striking to note how strongly environmental themes feature. (…)We are devouring our natural capital at ever increasing rates. Future prosperity and stability means rethinking how we exploit the planet’s natural assets.[98]
The importance of a sustainable environment is also recognized in a Nigerian context; one example is that in the master plan for the Niger Delta, the environment is identified as one of the main areas to improve, moreover have President Yar’Adua stated that one of the government’s goals in the Niger Delta is to address the challenges of environmental protection.[99]
In Nigeria it is especially the oil sector and the non-compliance of the oil industry that has resulted in environmental degradation and general environmental hazards which continuously affect the lives of the Nigerian people. The Nigerian environment minister has warned the oil companies that they must actively work for a better environment;
"If these companies (oil and manufacturing) continue to pollute our environment in the cause of their operations in fragrant disregard to our environmental safety rules and regulations, government will have no option other than to withdraw their license. A situation where oil companies and manufacturing industries fragrantly fail to comply to government laid down environmental safety rules and regulations can no longer be tolerated."[100]
In the latest years the Nigerian government has, according to the environment minister, strengthened the “National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency” as part of the governments renewed commitment to creating a better, safer and cleaner environment.[101] It is clear that Nigeria, and especially the Niger Delta faces great environmental challenges and it is essential that the Nigerian government continue their efforts to stop the environmental destruction. It is equally important that scholars all over the world devote research to develop strategies to improve the environment in developing countries. For these reasons described above this project argue that the environmental challenges Nigeria face is an essential part of an analysis of human security and therefore it is natural to add environment to the five domains presented in theory.
5.1.2 Choosing indicators
After choosing the domains one or more indicators must be selected for each domain that reflects the current state of information. The selected indicators in the analysis must fit into one or more of the six domains or must directly affect people’s life expectancy.
The analysis focuses on choosing different indicators for human security and presenting the indicators in a Nigerian context while also attempting to present the current state of information. The next step would be to choose a threshold value, to be able to be able to quantitatively measure the level of human security. This is merely a statistical job, and as explained in the methodology it is not part of this project.
In the process of selecting the different indicators it is important to have in mind that some indicators would be universally important no matter where in the world one would measure human security. Others would be context specific to the particular case country if the country has some characteristics that require the development of specific indicators. This doesn’t mean that no other country have the same characteristics and thus faces the same challenges, it means that these specific indicators are particularly important to the case country and thus must be included in a mapping of risks to human security. In selecting the indicators the relationship between the indicators and the case country is an important methodological question, because it has some consequences for the final design of the analysis if one chooses the indicators or the case country as the starting point for the analysis.
One way of doing it is to choose a set of indicators based on international standards and then “fit” them into the case country; this indicates a “one size fits all” approach to the analysis as the characteristics of the specific case is not taken into account. This approach would miss the specificities of the individual country and thereby result in a superficial analysis, and ultimately in an inadequate picture of the level of human security.
Another approach is to choose the indicators exclusively from how relevant they are to the case country. At first this approach seems as the most useful as you only get the indicators that are relevant for the specific country. But it could create some problems for the comparability between the countries and thus make it more difficult for the development community to develop strategies and also to compare the outcome of the efforts to enhance human security.
Murray and King do not explain in their article how to choose the indicators, and how they should be related to the domains. This project combines the two approaches presented above and chooses an approach where the selection of indicators is based on three main sources; first, indicators that are derived directly from the six domains presented in the theory and earlier in this chapter. Second, Indicators based on the suggestions made by different UN agencies such as the UNDP, CHS and HSU. The different suggestions whether they call them threats, special issues or something else will be assessed to find out if they compatible with the definition adopted in the project and ultimately if they are relevant to Nigeria. The third source is specific characteristics of the Nigerian society that are acknowledged broadly by the international society to constitute a risk for the development of the country.
The approach adopted by this project is illustrated in the model below. It is not the indicators that exclusively decide what to look for in the case country, but at the same time it is not the case country that exclusively decides what indicators to choose. The combination of the two gives the most comprehensive analysis of the level of human security in Nigeria.
[pic]
It is important to underline that the selection of indicators can never encompass all areas of a society, it is always a partial description of reality. While one researcher would choose one set of indicators based on his scope of research, another researcher with another focus would choose another set of indicators. In the same way as the selection can never encompass the entire picture, it is not possible to go into depth with all the indicators, and thus it will always come down to a selection by the researcher about how much information to include.
5.2 Income
The first domain is income, this project select the following indicators for income security;
1. Poverty rate.
2. Unemployment rate.
3. Economic inequality measured by Gini coefficient.
4. The existence of a public financed security net.
Income, poverty and social security net is all listed as threats to human security by UNDP and HSU; The UNDPs lists economic insecurity as one of seven main threats to human security and argue that economic security requires a stable basic income from productive and remunerative work. If that fails another possibility for income could be from publicly financed safety net. The HSU lists persistent poverty and unemployment within the economic security category. Gini coefficient is a measurement of “relative” poverty and it is based in the idea that the way people define their position in the society is important to their welfare. The overall distribution in a country, region or population group is an important measurement of welfare and consequently well being in that group.[102]
5.2.1 Current state of information regarding income security
There are many ways to measure poverty; the World Bank follows in their online-atlas on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) the international poverty line which is set at 1.25 dollars a day[103]. According to the World Bank 62 percent of the Nigerian population or 88 million people are below the international poverty line. This is actually the third highest number of poor people in a single country in the world after India and China.[104]
The absence of reliable data on employment rates in Nigeria is a major problem according to the World Bank,[105] thus it has not been possible to find reliable data on the unemployment rate in Nigeria, therefore is the current state of information regarding unemployment based on statements made by public officials and the World bank. In a recent study by the World Bank they expressed that they were worried that although Nigeria has witnessed an impressive growth in GDP per annum of 7% the growth has not translated into a decrease in the unemployment rates.[106] The unemployment rates is also worrying politicians internally in Nigeria; in January 2009 the Chairman of the Senate committee on Employment, Labour and productivity appealed to the government to react to rising unemployment rates, especially among youths.[107]
According to the UNDP[108] the Gini coefficient[109] for Nigeria in 2007 were 43.7, making them number 158 out of 177 countries in the study. The World Bank estimate that the highest ten percent of the population account for 33.2 percent of the income or consumption, while the lowest 10 percent account for 1.9 percent.[110] The numbers show that there are great economic disparities in the Nigerian society and thus a high level of economic insecurity.
In a society with a substantial number of poor people, high unemployment rates and extensive economic inequalities it is important with a publicly financed welfare system to support the people that find themselves in economic despair. With incomes low and insecure, many people have to look for support from their governments. But according to UNDP the governments in developing countries often fail in to provide even the most basic forms of social security.[111]
In April 2009 the government, through its labour Ministry launched a 26 man committee, chaired by former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon. The terms of reference of the committee are, among other things to propose a National Social Security Policy. This would enable the government to fulfil its role, which according to the constitution is to provide;
"Suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum living wage, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits and welfare of the disabled are provided for all citizens."[112]
The minister of Labour stated at the inauguration ceremony that he was concerned that after 49 years of independence Nigeria doesn’t have a holistic National Social Security Policy. He further argued that despite existing legislation in the area this doesn’t provide sufficient social security to the people because of overlapping, incoherent and confusing social security schemes. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Productivity argued along the same lines; "The dissipation of energy in the multiplicity of overlapping social protection schemes within ministries, department and agencies has not been cost expertise but had negligible impact on the critical mass of our teeming populace. This is unacceptable in the 21st century given the fact that a sizeable number of Nigerians living below the poverty line of less than $1 per day is on the increase,"[113]the chairman of the committee stated that the governments step to establish the committee would; “go down in Nigeria's history as one of the most far-reaching and courageous acts by any Nigerian government since independence. To attempt to provide a comprehensive social security scheme for the nation that will ensure the building of a more humane and caring nation; a nation and government which places great premium on the welfare and well-being of its citizens above all else." But he also argued that the existing legislation have shown not to be effective enough; "While it is true that there already exist desperate social protection programmes being carried out by different organs of government and by different tiers of government, these programmes, despite substantial funding by the government and support by international donor agencies, they have not had the desired effect of substantially reducing the scourge of poverty facing millions of our country men and women. This situation is attributable to the fact that some of these measures are sometimes ad-hoc, uncoordinated, unfortunately plagued by massive corruption and above all the absence of a National Social Security Policy.[114]
With the establishment of the committee, the government tries to develop a coherent social security scheme for all Nigerians and tries to patch the big hole in a totally inadequate social security system. Although it is a step in the right direction only time can show if it will have a positive effect for the ordinary Nigerian. To many times before have bad leadership and/or corruption destroyed good initiatives.
5.2.3 Recapitulation
Although Nigeria is one of major oil exporting countries in the world poverty is a major problem with 88 million people living under the international poverty line. According to former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon is poverty the single biggest threat to the contemporary Nigerian society and democracy.[115] Precise and reliable data on unemployment rates is very difficult to obtain, but the perception by leading politicians and the World Bank is that there is an alarming high level of unemployment, especially among youth. The economic inequality in Nigeria is also at a very high level. This means that despite economic growth the poor people remain poor because the majority of the wealth is in the hands of very few. The Nigerian social security system is completely inadequate as it is structured now, but initiatives are being launched to improve the situation.
5.3 Health
Health insecurity is, according to the UNDP, a major threat to people all over the world especially in developing countries; millions die every year of infectious and parasitic diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. A majority of these deaths are related with poor nutrition and an unsafe environment, particularly polluted water.[116] The Human Security Commission also emphasized the importance of safe water and sanitation in their final report where they argued that a failure to meet the needs for fresh water imposes great risks on societies, especially in developing countries. A lack of access to basic health care is responsible for many of these deaths, a point which is supported by the fact that the Human Security Unit listed the access to health care as one example of main threats to human security. Maternal mortality is a severe problem in many developing countries where thousands of women die every year and many children find themselves as orphans from birth. Maternal mortality rates are closely connected with the quality of and access to health care, one could argue that high maternal death rates are a symptom of a failing health care system which makes it a relevant indicator to include in the study.
There are a great number of factors that influence physical health, the health indicators in this project are based on health indicators presented by WHO in a Country Health System Fact Sheet about Nigeria from 2006. The indicators are judged to pose a threat to health security in Nigeria and thus it is important that steps are being taken on these specific indicators to turn the development around and improve the general health status in Nigeria. The following indicators are chosen for the health domain;
1. Access to health care system
2. Access to safe water sources and sanitation.
3. Maternal mortality and births attended by skilled health personnel.
4. Deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Malaria.
5.3.1 Current state of information regarding health security
The general health situation in Nigeria has, according to WHO, either stagnated or even worsened in the last years. Life expectancy has dropped from 53.8 years for females and 52.6 years for males in 1991 to 46 years for females and 45 years for males in 2004. The infant mortality rate (per 1 000 live births) has declined a little bit from 105 in 1999 to 103 in 2004, but the number is still below the average for the African region. The under-5 mortality rate is also extremely high with 197 deaths per 1000 live births with Africa averaging on 167. The causes of death among children under 5 years of age are characteristic for developing countries and includes; Neonatal[117] causes (26.1%), Malaria (24.1%) and Pneumonia (20.1%).[118]
The most recent data available from WHO on the overall availability, accessibility, quality and utilization of the health services in Nigeria show that the health facilities do exist but most of them are poorly equipped and lack essential supplies and qualified staff. Especially the access to safe water and sanitation has declined.[119]
There are numerous factors that either decrease or increase peoples access to the health care system. One is the sheer size of the health system, the more a government invest in the health care system the easier the access. The total expenditure per capita in Nigeria in 2006 was 50$.[120] In comparison South Africa spend 869$[121], Kenya 105$[122] and Senegal 72$[123], this shows that Nigeria spend much less money on their health system than comparable countries, which decreases peoples access to health care. One major problem in the health system is that there is a shortage of skilled personnel; there are only 0.28 physicians and 1.70 nurses per 1000 inhabitants.[124] According to WHO the lack of skilled workers is one of the main reasons for the fall in key health indicators such as maternal mortality and infant mortality.[125]
The access to proper water sources and sanitation is important because many infectious and parasitic diseases can be traced back to unsafe water and sanitation. In the urban areas it was in 2002 only 72 percent that had access to safe water sources, below the average in Africa which was 84 percent. In the rural areas 49 percent had access to safe water, a little above the African average of 45 percent. It is the same picture with access to proper sanitation; 48 percent had access to proper sanitation in the urban areas and 30 percent in the rural areas, the average in Africa was 58 percent for urban areas and 28 percent for rural areas.
The maternal mortality in Nigeria is among the highest in the world, with numbers ranging from 704 to 1500 maternal deaths per 100.000 live births.[126] According to the newest numbers from WHO the maternal mortality ratio in 2000 was 800.[127] The causes for the high ratio of maternal deaths are, among other things, a lack of service quality and equipment in the hospitals. Many hospitals are short of basic equipment such as thermometers, weighing scales, delivery kits etc. The hospitals also lack a stable supply of electricity because they cannot maintain a standby generator. There is also a major problem with water supply at some hospitals; some even require the patient to provide their own water! As if this was not big enough problems, staff are inadequate and demoralized due to poor and irregular remuneration. As a consequence many have relocated to industrialized countries where they will be adequately remunerated.[128]All this means that the proportion of births which are attended by skilled personnel is 35 percent, well below the African average of 43 percent.
A very direct threat to health security in Nigeria is deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Malaria. The HIV prevalence peaked in 2001 with 5.8 percent, this number has declined slightly to 4.4 percent in 2005. Even though the prevalence numbers seems rather low Nigeria ranks third in the world after India and South Africa when it comes to actual the number of people infected with HIV.[129] Currently there are about 3.86 million people infected with HIV, and annually there is 221.000 deaths related to HIV/AIDS. As a consequence 1.3 millions children are orphans because their parents have died from AIDS. The numbers listed above is not expected to decline in the nearest future as there are about 370.000 new infections of HIV every year.[130]
Malaria also constitutes a serious threat to the health security in Nigeria, according to WHO the death rate related to malaria per 100.000 is 209, which means that more than 300.000 die every year from malaria, far more than any other major diseases. The National Malaria Control Programme in Nigeria estimate that malaria is responsible for 60 percent outpatient visits to health facilities, 30 percent childhood deaths, 25 percent deaths of children under one year and 11 percent of maternal deaths. Numbers indicate that a child in Nigeria will be sick of malaria between 2 and 4 times a year and 70 percent of pregnant women are infected with malaria.[131]
5.3.2 Recapitulation
WHOs Country Cooperation Strategy (2005) describe the health threats that the Nigerian population faces like this; “Widespread endemic and emerging diseases, declining health status, weak and fragmented health system and declining external partner confidence”[132] This sums up rather well the situation described above where all indicators show that health security in Nigeria is under immense pressure, where practically nothing in the hospitals work and the government is not investing enough money to turn it around. Measured in absolute numbers Nigeria has some of the highest rates in maternal deaths and deaths from HIV/AIDS and malaria in the world. Although this is a rather negative outlook WHO emphasize that there is positive signs; “The favourable political atmosphere, the democratisation process and the governments growing interest in the social sector, including health”[133]
5.4 Education
Education is vital to the socio-political and economic development of a country, in the words of the World Bank;
“Education is central to development. It empowers people and strengthens nations. It is a powerful “equalizer”, opening doors to all to lift themselves out of poverty. (…) Investment in education benefits the individual, society, and the world as a whole. Broad-based education of good quality is among the most powerful instruments known to reduce poverty and inequality. With proven benefits for personal health, it also strengthens nations’ economic health by laying the foundation for sustained economic growth. For individuals and nations, it is key to creating, applying, and spreading knowledge—and thus to the development of dynamic, globally competitive economies. And it is fundamental for the construction of democratic societies.”[134]
The world economy is changing towards a focus on knowledge rather than physical capital as the source of wealth. As knowledge becomes more important, so does education. It is all-important that countries invest in education and prepare more of their young people to participate in the new economic structures.[135] Literacy is a basic component of education, without literacy no education and no building of knowledge. A high illiteracy rate limits poor people’s chances to act on their own behalf and move out of the vicious cycle of poverty. The access to primary schooling is the subject in the MDG number two which state that; “by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.”[136] In MDG goal number three which seek to promote gender equality and empower women education is also essential. Target number one in goal three seek to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015.[137] The access to education for everyone, regardless of gender, ethnic origin etc. is the subject of article 26 in the Human Rights Declaration which states that; “Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory.”[138]
Based on the above this project draws up the following indicators for education;
1. Public spending on the education sector
2. Literacy
3. Access to primary schooling
4. Gender disparity in primary, secondary and tertiary education.
5.4.1 Current state of information regarding education
Public spending on the education sector
There is very little data available on public spending on the education. Numbers from 2000 sow that Nigerian government spend 0.76 percent of GDP on education, if this number is compared to other African countries it shows that South Africa spend 7.9 percent, Ghana 4.4 percent and Ivory Coast 5 percent.[139] These numbers show that the amount of money the Nigerian government is investing in the education sector is very low in general and if one compare with other African countries it is clear that Nigeria is far behind countries that they should be at least at the same level with. In a report from 2000 the World Bank note that the government funding for education at the elementary level is very low, and actually the total public funds allocated to the education sector was halved between 1994 and 1996.[140] The government funding for tertiary education is higher than at other levels of education, but still not sufficient.[141]
Literacy
UNESCO, which is the UN agency that deals with education have two sets of literacy rates; youth literacy, which is the share of the population aged between 15 to 24 that are literate and adult literacy which is the share of the population aged 15 years and older that is literate. In 2007 Nigeria had a youth literacy of 86.7 percent which is well above the regional average of 72 percent. Also with adult literacy is Nigeria above the regional level; adult literacy in Nigeria is 72 percent, and the regional level is 62.3 percent.[142]
Access to primary schooling
Estimates from the Millennium Development Goals show that the total gross enrolment ratio[143] in primary education for both sexes in 2001 was 93 percent. In an African context this is above average, but still less than the goal that all children will be able to complete a full course of primary education.[144]
Gender disparity in primary, secondary and tertiary education
Inequalities in education in Nigeria has always been take for granted and dates back to the pre-colonial era and is rooted in traditional African culture and Christian and Islamic religious structures. Another factor the promote gender inequalities in education is the traditional attitude of parents to prioritize education for male children over female children. Government policies on education in the have not differentiated between male and female student but seek to benefit all students.[145] This has resulted in improving numbers in gender equality in primary and secondary education which has decreased in the recent years; at the primary school level the gender ratio[146] increased from 0.76 in 1990 to 0.96 in 2001. At the secondary school level the numbers were 0.75 in 1990 and 0.92 in 2002. According to a report on the MDGs the numbers show that gender inequality is not a serious problem on the primary and secondary level in Nigeria anymore.
There is significant lower gender ratio level when it comes to tertiary education, in 1990 the ratio were only 0.46 but has since increased to 0.82 in 2002.[147] Another measure that can reveal gender inequalities is the ratio between literate males and females, in 1996 the ratio of literate females to males aged 15-29 years was 0.89 and this has since increased to 0.93 in 2000.[148]
5.4.2 Recapitulation
Despite a lack of government funding, Nigeria has seen a positive development in the area of education. The literacy rate and the access to schooling are higher than the regional average and there has been a positive development towards a fall in gender inequality, especially in primary and secondary education. But the impressive numbers mask considerable regional differences inside Nigeria which makes it difficult for all regions to reach the MDGs. This shows that although Nigeria is moving in a positive direction there is still a severe lack of equality in many states in Nigeria.
One of the main challenges is the inadequate public spending on education. A problem which is made even worse when another big problem, resource mismanagement through inflation of contracts and general official corruption, entail that the little money the government do allocate to the education sector seldom reach the schools.
Another major challenge is that a lot of young people don’t attend school simply because their families can’t afford it and in some areas young boys do not attend school believing they don’t benefit from it because it is not likely they get a job when they have finished their education considering the high unemployment rates.
5.5 Political freedom
Political freedom is a very large and complex concept, and therefore it is extremely difficult to make a complete list of indicators. A complete list would be interminable and therefore it has been necessary for the author to make a narrow selection in order to not focus on one aspect but instead paint a broad picture of as many aspects of the Nigerian society as possible
The indicators in this project are grounded in the same understanding of political freedom as the UN and are mainly derived from reports from the UNDP.
The domains political freedom and democracy are two so closely connected concepts that it is important to elaborate a little on how this project differentiate between the two. Political freedom works on actor level; it is what the individual human being is experiencing in his or hers daily life. Important issues in this category gather around the notion human rights. Democracy works on a structural or political level; it is the political structure of society. Things important here could be free and fair elections etc. Together the two constitute a democratic society.
According to the UNDP political freedom is essential to development; they further argue that political freedom is vital in economic development because; “freedom is a necessary condition to liberate the creative energies of the people and to pursue a path of rapid economic development.”[149] The indicators presented below move along the same lines as three of the seven main threats to human security which was drawn up in the 1994 HDR, that is personal security, community security and political security. These threats deal with things such as, security from physical violence, discrimination against ethnic groups and the right to live in a state without state repression. The reader will notice that the indicators below include the same issues.
In the attempt to create a political freedom index UNDP lists a number of indicators for political freedom, the following is a extract of these and will serve as the indicators for the political freedom domain;
1. Personal security.
2. Rule of law.
3. Freedom of expression.
4. Equality of opportunity.
5.5.1 Current state of information regarding political freedom
Personal security
According to the UNDP personal security deals with things such as arbitrary arrest, detention, torture or punishment and arbitrary killings and disappearances.
In their report “Freedom in the World” from 2008 Freedom House states that people in Nigeria continue to suffer from abuses from security and police forces. A number of international organizations have in the recent years reported several violations of human rights by security forces; Human Rights Watch has reported that police forces routinely tortured detainees in Nigerian prisons. A UN special rapporteur said in 2005 that the Nigerian police used armed robbery as an excuse to jail people that refused to pay bribes or to justify unlawful killings of civilians. In a three month period in 2007 Human Rights Watch said that the police force "killed half as many 'armed robbery suspects' as they managed to arrest". In December 2007 Amnesty International reported “secret executions” in Nigerian prisons despite assurances that there had been no executions for years.[150]
Rule of law
The rule of law indicator deals with fair and public hearings and competent, independent and impartial tribunals. The higher courts in Nigeria are, according to Freedom House characterized by a relatively high degree of competence and independence. If one looks at the judiciary as a whole they are often subject to political interference and it is permeated by corruption and inefficiency, particularly at lower levels. The rights of the defendant are often not secured, resulting in lack of legal representation, ill information about procedures and rights. Long lasting pre-trial detentions also remain a problem. The prisons in Nigeria is often overcrowded, unhealthy and even life threatening,[151] in Amnesty Internationals report from 2009 titled “State of the Worlds Human Rights” they described the Nigerian prisons in this way; Living conditions in prisons were appalling. Overcrowding, poor sanitation, lack of food and medicines and denial of contact with families and friends were damaging to the physical and mental well-being of inmates. Many inmates slept two to a bed or on the bare floor. In some prisons, no beds were provided, toilets were blocked or non-existent, and there was no running water. Disease was widespread. Children as young as 12 were held together with adults.[152] The United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) judge that the Nigerian judiciary lacks competence and effectiveness especially in dealing with the often complex and time consuming cases regarding corruption. According to UNODC the Nigerian government have failed to deal with the widespread corruption inside the judiciary.[153]
Freedom of expression
Indicators on the level of freedom of expression include restrictions in law and practice, media censorship, freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is guaranteed by the 1999 constitution and generally respected. More than 200 private radio and television stations broadcast in Nigeria, there are also a vast number of print publications published generally without interference from the government. Internet access is not restricted. Nevertheless, there are reports of criminal prosecution of journalists, especially those that cover sensitive issues such as corruption and the Niger Delta crisis. The New York-based NGO the “Committee to Protect Journalists” (CPJ) say that the State Security Service (SSS) have arrested journalists, confiscated newspapers and harassed vendors, and as late as October 2008 a Nigerian blogger based in the US was held for questioning in Nigeria. [154] According to CPJ; coverage of sensitive topics, including unrest in the oil-rich southern Niger Delta and Yar'Adua's health and family, have often resulted in arrests and raids by the SSS, which reports directly to the Nigerian presidency. At least seven journalists, (…), have been detained in SSS custody this year alone without charge for days or weeks.[155] The Freedom House assessed the freedom of the press in Nigeria in 2008 and judged it to be partly free. They also reported that the state continued to use arbitrary actions and extralegal measures to suppress political criticism and expression in the media. Prior to the 2007 presidential elections the SSS was responsible for numerous raids of newspapers and television stations as well as detention of journalists and editors. According to the Freedom house violence against journalists is a common occurrence, and especially journalists that cover the Niger Delta crisis.[156]
Equality of opportunity
The question here is if there are constitutional or legislative guarantees of equality, regardless of gender, race, colour, descent, tribe, religion or national or ethnic origin, and if there is violence against or harassment of particular groups? Freedom House say that Nigerian women experience considerable discrimination. In some ethnic groups, women are not allowed to inherit and marital rape is not considered a crime. Human trafficking in women to, from and within Nigeria for domestic labour or prostitution continues to be a major problem.[157] According to Human Rights Watch violence against women is pervasive; in 2008 they reported several incidents of domestic violence and rape and other forms of sexual violence by state officials and private individuals.[158] Religious freedom is secured by the constitution but discrimination by government officials and ordinary Nigerians occasionally occur towards people with a different religion than their own. Violence between different religious or ethnic groups is a reoccurring thing. Religious differences are often described in the national and international media as the underlying reason the these conflicts. Nevertheless religion is seldom the only issue that spark conflicts and it is often difficult to determine the origin of violent clashes, but it is sure to say that religion often plays a large role in the conflicts. In one incident in 2007 in Sokoto State Shiite and Sunni Muslims clashed after a prominent Sunni cleric was assassinated.[159] The most recent clash with religious undertones happened in the city of Jos in Plateau State after a local election, and in three days of riots more 400 people were killed.[160] Ethnic discrimination and violence is also a reoccurring phenomenon, many ethnic groups feel they are discriminated by larger ethnic groups; one example is the ethnic minorities in the Niger Delta, especially the Ijaws. The Ijaws and other ethnic groups in the Niger Delta have for many years campaigned against the unjust distribution of the countries oil wealth. This have led to the current crisis, where militia groups, MEND[161] being the biggest have had violent clashes with security forces and the Nigerian Military, which have claimed thousands of lives. Violence between different ethnic groups is also common in Nigeria, a look up on any internet search machine reveal several news stories about ethnic violence all around Nigeria. According to the Human Rights Watch more than 11.000 Nigerians have died in intercommunal clashes along ethnic, religious and other lines since 1999.[162]
5.5.2 Recapitulation
The points above reveal that ordinary Nigerians relatively often experience insecurity regarding political freedom. The security forces in the country such as the police and the SSS, who actually should provide security and stability is doing the exact opposite; terrorising people with torture and arbitrary arrests and killings. It seems to be characteristic to Nigeria that many things that contribute to political freedom is secured by the constitution and other laws, but these laws are not being followed in reality; freedom of expression is secured in the constitution, and none the less there are every year cases where newspapers are being raided and journalist arrested. The same goes with equality in opportunity; the constitution guarantee equality regardless of race, gender, ethnicity etc. but again it is not what the ordinary Nigeria is experiencing in his daily life. Instead they experience that in many aspects of their life it is all-important which ethnic origin they have, both in dealing with your fellow Nigerians as well as public officials.
The judiciary doesn’t have the capacity to maintain a professional system of justice and at the moment there are serious breeches of defendants’ rights reported in Nigeria every year. The conditions in the prisons in Nigeria is also a serious problem, as late as 2009 the Amnesty International and other international organizations described the conditions as appalling and even life threatening.
5.6 Democracy
As explained elsewhere is the domains political freedom and democracy closely interrelated and thus it is difficult to distinguish to distinguish between the two. The domain democracy deals with the structure and history of the Nigerian political system. The two indicators that are chosen are based on suggestions made by UNDP in their effort to develop a political freedom index. The two indicators examine the following things, are there free and fair elections with is there universal adult franchise? And are there procedural irregularities by government in the elections such as; exclusion and intimidation of voter, vote rigging, violence against candidates or opponents of government? Free and fair elections is obviously important as it is the cornerstone in a democratic system, and for Nigeria which have been marred by military coups since independence free and fair elections is the path to democracy and also an important tool to restore peoples faith in their leaders. The second indicator looks at the history and asks if the free elections are a recent introduction or a longstanding tradition. This is important as it helps to provide an understanding of the stability or instability of the political system. The two indicators are;
1. Free and fair elections
2. Continuity of democratic system
5.6.1 Current state of information regarding democracy
Free and fair elections
Historically elections in Nigeria have often been characterized by vote rigging, fraud and violence. As a consequence of the many military coups Nigeria not many presidential elections have been held since their independence. Before the current streak of democratically elected governments only two regimes have been elected in a democratic process; the first government after independence with Azikiwe as president and the government from 1979 to 1983 under President Shagari.[163]
In 1999 the presidential elections were held after 16 years of different military governments, the former Head of State Olusegun Obasanjo won majority and was inaugurated as the new President. Even though the transfer of power from a military to a civilian government was a great accomplishment the election was marred by irregularities. The Carter Center[164] said the elections; “fell short of its democratic objectives. Electoral irregularities, including fraud and vote rigging, that our observers and others in the field witnessed are cause for serious concern.”[165] They further questioned the overall election process and they went so far to question the legitimacy of those elected and their ability to govern.[166] Several other observers reported widespread irregularities and fraud in the election on all levels.[167]
In 2003 another round of presidential elections took place. But once again observers reported widespread irregularities and human rights abuse, an EU observer mission found evidence of; “widespread electoral fraud in many areas and concluded that in a number of States the minimum standards for democratic elections were not met.”[168]
Obasanjo called a presidential election in 2007, and because Obasanjo had served the maximum of two terms he had to step down. The Peoples Democratic Party won the majority and Umaru Yar`Adua was inaugurated as president. Despite it was positive that this was the third consecutive presidential election in a row it is widely believed that the elections were rigged.[169] Human Rights Watch observers reported violence and intimidation and described the process as; “An electoral process that denied large numbers of voters the opportunity to cast their votes. Where voting did occur, it was marred by the late opening of polls, a severe shortage of ballot papers, the widespread intimidation of voters, the seizure of ballot boxes by gangs of thugs, vote buying and other irregularities”[170] the EU observing team said that the process; “Cannot be considered to have been credible”[171]
Continuity of democratic system
Military coups have been a reoccurring event since 1960. The first national election took place in 1964, four years after the independence; the elections were hampered by boycotts, vote rigging and violence.[172] After the elections Nnamdi Azikiwe, one of the leading figures of Nigerian nationalism, became President in what was called the First Republic.
In 1966 a military coup brought down the First Republic and General John Aguiyi-Ironsi was installed as Head of State. On 29 July after a counter coup General Yakubu Gowon came into power. Ethnic violence after the two coups in 1966 led to Emeka Ojukwu declaring the independence of the Eastern Region as the sovereign Republic of Biafra. The declaration of independence resulted in a civil war between the Federal Military Government and Biafran separatists, millions of people died in the war which ended with the surrender of Biafra in 1970.[173]
In 1975 Yakubu Gowons military regime was overthrown in a coup led by General Murtala Muhammad. Muhammad’s reign didn’t last for long; a year after he was appointed Head of State Muhammad Murtala was assassinated in a failed coup, Lieutenant General Olusegun Obasanjo succeeded him as Head of State. The Muhammad/Obasanjo regime was characterized by its political reforms and willingness to hand over power to a civilian government, and in 1979 Obasanjo handed over the power to the civilian administration of the Second Republic under President Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Another military coup in 1983 removed Shagari from the power and General Muhammadu Buhari became Head of State. Only two years later, in 1985 General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida was leading yet another coup and he was instated as the new Head of State. After immense pressure nationally and internationally Babangida caved in and finally presidential elections were held in June 1993. In what were called the most free and fair elections since independence Chief M.K.O Abiola won majority and was expected to be the next president. Babangida, not ready to hand over power to a civilian government, annulled the elections and imprisoned Abiola leading to chaotic conditions in the country. In August the same year, Babangida handed over power to an Interim Government Council headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan. Only three months later the Interim Government was overthrown by General Sani Abacha in a military coup and he became the new Head of State. Under Abacha Nigeria became an international Pariah state, and Abacha was one of the worst dictators Africa had seen.[174]
In 1998 Abacha died in the presidential villa in Abuja and power was transferred to General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who commenced a quick transfer to civilian rule.[175]
When military rule finally ended with a presidential election in 1999, the importance for Nigeria was impossible to underestimate, the US based Carter Center expressed the importance in this way; “Nigeria’s elections and transfer of power from a military regime to a civilian government mark historic steps for the country.”[176] In 2003, after serving his first four year term as civilian elected Head of State, President Obasanjo called for a new election. Obasanjo won majority and he continued his presidency. The most recent presidential election in 2007 marked the first transfer of power between one democratic elected government to another. The outcome of the election was that the ruling party won majority but Obasanjo, after serving two terms, had to step down as president and Umaru Yar`Adua was installed as the new president.[177]
5.6.2 Recapitulation
The Nigerian based NGO “Centre for Democracy and Development” have described the democratic situation like this; “Nigeria’s domestic political scene has relatively recently shifted from authoritarian military regimes to a democratically elected one. However, the so-called ‘democratic dividend’ has hardly materialised in terms of any improvement in ordinary people’s living conditions, and the incumbent regime, although democratically elected, has lost a substantial degree of trust.”[178]
This quote describe the situation well; the democratic tradition in Nigeria is relatively new, as mentioned elsewhere Nigeria is now experiencing the longest period of democratically elected governments which have now lasted for 10 years. Even though this is a great development there are still many things that need to be improved for the political system to be fully democratic. Observers have reported numeral cases of irregularities in the last three elections, they include; violence and intimidation towards voters and candidates, ballot boxing, fraud, vote rigging, vote buying etc. the EU observer team even went so far to say that the elections could not be considered to be credible.
5.7 Environment
Although Nigeria is home to a wealth of biodiversity, rich natural resources, and a variety of eco-systems, the country also suffers from a number of environmental challenges. These issues are largely a result of human activities, population density, and over-population in urban centers. The quest for development and industrialization has left great marks on the environment and the unwise use of natural resources due to ignorance, poverty, overpopulation and greed among other things have led to the degradation of the environment.[179] Nigeria faces similar environmental problems as many other countries in the developing world and unfortunately environmental issues have rarely played a central role in development plans in developing countries, including Nigeria. Scholars are now acknowledging the interdependence between economic development and a sustainable environment and environmental issues are now in the forefront of international, national and local governments` agenda.[180]
One of the most important things in relations to preservation of environment is biodiversity, The UNDP emphasize the importance when they argue that; “At the ecosystem level, biodiversity provides the conditions and drives the processes that sustain the global economy – and our very survival as a species”[181]. The two last indicators, deforestation and urbanization are factors that influence a country’s biodiversity to a great extent. Deforestation is an important issue in Nigeria; through the years huge areas of woods have been eliminated with severe consequences, such as desertification in the north where people experience diminishing arable lands. In a country with close to 150 million people, and many of them living in the cities, urbanization is an important issue. With that huge number of people in the cities the environment can easily come under immense pressure, and it is essential to reduce the negative impact of the many people. The following indicators are some of the important environmental issues in a Nigerian context;[182]
1. Biodiversity
2. Deforestation
3. Urbanization
5.7.1 Current state of information regarding environment
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is often used to describe all the species living in a particular area. Some scientist use broader definitions which include living organisms’ interactions with their non-living aspects of their environment. In this project biodiversity is defined as; the variety of life on Earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems, and the ecological and evolutionary processes that sustain it.[183]
In a report from 2008 on Nigerian biodiversity USAID argued that as a result of the high number of people in the country the biodiversity is under immense pressure. The consequences are; “Wildlife, trees, and many other plants are overharvested and poached, and the natural environment faces increased degradation from expanding unsustainable agriculture”[184] The Nigerian government is slowly realising the importance of biodiversity, and in 2008 they launched the first National Biodiversity Action Plan. The goal is to enhance; "Sustainable use of components of biological diversity especially the aspects concerning the protection and encouragement of customary use of biological resources in accordance with traditional cultural practices that are compatible with conservation and sustainable use requirements".[185]
Deforestation
Deforestation is the process where trees are felled for many purposes but not replaced again, deforestation leads to the soil being exposed which again leads to floods and the rivers and lakes become filled with silt resulting in decreasing breeding grounds for many fish. Deforestation for agricultural development, urban growth and industrial expansion has greatly reduced the extent, diversity and stability of the Nigerian forests.[186] Another consequence of deforestation is desertification where once fertile land is now waterless and treeless land. Desertification is dangerous because it can lead to famine, diseases and destruction of livestock and crops. The phenomenon is more pronounced in the northern part of the country, one example is Lake Chad; in 1963 the lakes water surface was estimated to be 24.000 square kilometres, but due to natural hazards and peoples unwise use of the lake environment the surface decreased to only 3000 square kilometres in 1984.[187] In 2005 data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations show that Nigeria have the worlds highest deforestation rate; between 2000 and 2005 the country lost 55.7 percent of its primary forests[188] If Nigeria continue the deforestation with the same speed it is likely to lose virtually all of its primary forest within a few years.[189]
Urbanization
Urbanization is the result of high population growth and rural to urban migration. Many urban areas in Nigeria are characterized by big city slums with great environmental consequences, one being the problem of disposal of non biodegradable materials such as plastic.[190] With the increasing urbanization in the recent years the environmental problems in the cities has grown out of control; the cities lack basic infrastructure to secure things like safe water supply, sewerage, sanitation, urban roads, electricity, drainage and waste disposal. Especially the lack of systems to disposal of wastes is possibly the most severe environmental problem in Nigerian cities and constitutes a serious health risk to the people.
The consequences the rapid urbanization are increased health risks which make the poor people in the slums spend a larger portion of their money on health care, depriving them of fulfilling other needs like food, housing, education etc.[191]
5.7.2 Recapitulation
The examples above show that Nigeria has major environmental problems; the biodiversity is under severe pressure as is the forests. One of the biggest environmental problem right now is perhaps that millions of people in Nigeria is living in slum in the big cities, with a total lack of basic infrastructure such as running water, sewages etc. the consequences is that there is waste everywhere and the small streams and rivers where people used to get water are now polluted. This has a very direct effect on people’s health and security and every year it leads to thousand of deaths.
5.8 The Niger Delta Crisis
The current crisis in the Niger Delta encapsulate many of the problems Nigeria are facing with regard to poverty, environmental degradation, violence and a lack of basic structures in education, health care etc. The problems in the Delta also constitute maybe the biggest threat to human security and stability in Nigeria, and it is urgently needed that measures are being taken to deal with the problems. The next chapter about the Niger Delta crisis move somewhat outside the domains and indicators but at the same time along the same lines. There are several reasons why the Niger Delta crisis should be included in this project about human security; first, because, as mentioned in the theory, a measurement of human security can also act as a warning system of problem areas, and considering how many signs of decreasing human security that have come from the Niger Delta it is time to see this (local) crisis in a broader sense and move it to the front of the political agenda, nationally as well as internationally. Secondly, the complexity of the issues, the scale of human suffering and the before mentioned importance for Nigerian stability require that it is being dealt with independently. The following chapter provide an analysis of the Niger Delta crisis utilizing a number of the same indicators presented earlier.
The Niger Delta is one of the biggest deltas in the world; it is a vast sedimentary basin build over time through successive layers of sediments dating back 40-50 million years. The delta covers almost 70.000 square kilometres and extends from the Benin River in the west to the Imo River in the east. The Niger Delta contains vast petroleum resources such as oil and natural gas; 31.5 million barrels according to OPEC[192], and 36.2 million barrels according to the official energy statistics from the U.S Government.[193] The biggest reserves are found in the delta and offshore in the Bight of Benin, the Gulf of Guinea and the Bight of Bonny.[194]
Nigeria is the biggest producer of petroleum in Africa. Although the country has always been heavily dependent on the oil resources, post colonial Nigeria is more dependent than ever and can be described as a mono-economy where oil petroleum products contributes 99 percent of export revenues, 85 percent of government revenues and about 18 percent of GDP, this number have been higher before but has declined as oil output has declined due to unrest in the Niger Delta region. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation manages the state owned oil industry, a number of multinational companies are also operating, including them Shell which is the biggest.[195]
In 2005 there were almost 29 million people living in the Niger Delta, and that number is expected to rise to almost 46 million in 2020.[196] The people living here are extremely heterogonous and consist of many different ethnic and linguistic groups. The majority of the people in the delta don’t belong to any of the three major ethnic groups (Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani and Igbo) in Nigeria. Minimum five different language groups are represented in the states that constitute the Niger Delta. The largest ethnic group is the Ijaws; there are approximately 8 million people that would identify themselves as belonging to the Ijaw ethnic group, although they themselves are also divided into subgroups.[197]
Human Development situation in the Niger Delta
In 2006 UNDP published a report about the human development situation in the Niger Delta. To sum up the findings regarding poverty, the UNDP found that the people in the Niger Delta largely followed the same pattern as the rest of the country. The difference in the Niger Delta was the intense feeling among the people that they ought to do far better, based on the natural resources that is extracted from their land. In the South-south zone[198] 74.8 percent perceived themselves as poor, far higher than the actual number. This could explain why there is so much frustration and indignation in the region.[199]
The Niger Delta and the Millennium Development Goals
Another way of measuring human development in the Niger Delta is to explore the MDGs and assess how far they are form reaching the goals. In the human development assessment from UNDP they point out that because the Niger Delta states receive higher revenue allocations from the federal government, they should be in a better position to reach the MDGs.
Millennium development goal number one
Goal number one is to reduce by half the number of people whose income is less than 1$ a day and those who suffer from hunger[200]. The poverty rate in the Niger Delta decreased from 57.9 percent in 1996 to 42.85 in 2004, although this show a drop in poverty rates it is doubtful that they are going to reach the goal considering the fall represents less than one percent annually. Lack of time series data makes it impossible to asses if the states in the Niger Delta are likely to halve the number of people suffering from hunger. Data from 2004 show that the states in the Niger Delta are doing better than the national average, only Cross River and Rivers states are performing worse.[201]
Millennium development goal number two
Goal number two seek to achieve universal primary education measured by net. enrolment in primary education. Data show that the Niger Delta States might reach the goal and maybe even a little beyond. When it comes to enrolment in secondary and tertiary education the numbers are even better and they by far outdo the national scores, this means that they might meet the target of universal education on all levels.[202]
Millennium development goal number three
In goal three the ratio between female and male enrolment school enrolment is assessed in order to promote gender equality and empower women. The available data show that females have equal opportunities for education, and in some states is the number of female students even higher than male students. This means that the targets for gender equality in education are already reached or achievable by 2015.
Millennium development goal number four
Goal number four seek to reduce child mortality, UNDP use several indicators such as under-five and infant mortality rates. The Niger Delta states were doing better than national average on child mortality[203] (Delta states; 47, national average; 121) while they were doing far worse on infant mortality[204] (Delta states; 120, national average; 109). Due to a lack of time series data it was not possible to asses the development, so based on available data UNDP concluded that; “The Niger Delta region performed very poorly on neonatal[205], postneonatal[206] and infant mortality, with the worst post-neonatal mortality rate in Nigeria. Even where it performed moderately well, the achievement is not commensurate with the resources generated by the region.”[207]
Millennium development goal number five
Goal number five seek to improve maternal health. Due to a lack of data nothing can be said about progress being made on maternal health, but in general the region has very limited access to health care in comparison to other parts of the country. It is mostly high cost of health care that limit peoples access to health care; in 2003 47.1 percent of women identified lack of money as a major factor for limited access to health facilities.[208]
Millennium development goal number six
In number six the goal is to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. In general the HIV/AIDS prevalence in the Niger delta is among the highest in the country, the prevalence rates inclined between 1999 and 2001 but then declined in 2003. Even though the declining prevalence rates suggest that current efforts are having some positive impact, the states in the Niger Delta reported some of the smallest drops in the country. The number of people suffering of malaria and tuberculosis in the Niger Delta is high; for example does malaria account for more than 71.2 percent of the sickness in the region[209]
Millennium development goal number seven
Goal number seven seek to ensure environmental sustainability. Environmental issues are the subject in a later chapter and therefore will the following only be a brief description of environmental sustainability in connection with the MDGs. In general UNDP describe the environmental situation in the Niger Delta in this way; “The numerous oil spills and the gas flaring in much of the delta have taken an enormous toll on the environment. Pollution has greatly affected the air, water, soils, vegetation and even physical structures. Perhaps more troubling are problems related to limited access to safe drinking water and electricity supply, poor environmental sanitation and waste management.”[210]
Civil unrest in the Niger Delta
The oil industry can be described as Nigeria’s lifeblood and yet it is also central to the ongoing civil unrest in the country. With the large amount of oil, the Delta is also important in the larger international economic and political context, since the 19th century various factors have made the Niger Delta a very volatile area with 6 major rebellions in the last two centuries. In recent years it is especially the Ogoni people and the Ijaws that have been in the forefront of the struggles.[211] The next section will explore into the backgrounds for the violence in the Niger Delta.
During the transition years to independence the British set up a commission called the Willink Commission, the aim was to; “enquire into the fears of minorities and the means of allaying them”[212]. Many ethnic groups voiced their concerns to the commission that they feared to be left out from a federation dominated by the Hausas, Yorubas and the Igbos that constituted 70 percent of the total population. During the years after independence the feeling of being left out and dominated by the three major ethnic groups grew in the Niger Delta. The finding of oil in commercial qualities in 1956 brought lots of money to the federal government, but not to the people in the Niger Delta. This coupled with the environmental degradation and a crisis of traditional livelihood made a number of ethnic groups rise against what was called the “slick alliance” of the multinational oil companies and the Nigerian military in the 1970s and1980s.[213] Protests by a small ethnic group called the Ogonis lead by Ken-Saro-Wiwa hit the international headlines in the early 1990s. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) mobilised tens of thousands of people in protest against the oil politics of the Nigerian government and the activities of Shell, which is by far the biggest oil company in the area. The mass protests in Ogoni land forced Shell to close down its production, citing intimidation of their staff as the reason. The Rivers State Internal Security Force hit hard on the protests and thousands were beaten or detained and hundreds were summarily executed over a period of several years. In 1994, Wiwa and seven other Ogoni leaders were arrested charged with the murder of four traditional leaders in Ogoni. After being convicted guilty the Ogoni eight including Ken-Saro-Wiwa were hanged in 1995 by the military government. According to the Human Rights Watch the trial was conducted before a tribunal that; “blatantly violated international standards of due process and produces evidence that he or the others were involved in the killings for which they were convicted”[214]
Since 1995 many other minority groups such as the Adoni, the Itsekiri and the Ijaw have organized in the same ways as MOSOP did, but most of these movements eventually collapsed because of internal political rivalry and disputes. Women movements have also been at the forefront of the oil struggles, a group gained international headlines recently when they occupied a Chevron oil refinery, demanding company investments in the communities and jobs for indigenes. In 1997-98 the Ijaws mobilized, building on movements such as, the “Ijaw Youth Council”, the “Ijaw National Council” and the “Movement for the Survival of the Ijaw Nationality” they rallied against the Abacha regime. The Ijaw protests marked the beginning of the so called “Egbesu wars” which resulted in a period of deepening political disorder and civil unrest in the Niger Delta.[215]
In the last few years the protest has almost developed into a full scale war between militia groups and the Nigerian military. Militia groups such as “Nigeria Delta Peoples Volunteer Force” (NDPVF), the “Niger Delta Vigilantes” (NDV), and the most well-known, the “Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta” (MEND) attack oil installations, kidnap local and foreign oil workers and steal oil via what is called oil bunkering. The instability in the Niger Delta has caused a significant fall in the oil production; it is estimated that the effective oil production capacity is 2.7 million barrels per day, but due to various factors the production in 2008 was only around 1.8 to 2.1 million barrels per day.[216]
The biggest and most well known of the militia groups MEND emerged in 1995 as an umbrella organization grown out from the Ijaw Youth Councils militant wing. Its first operation was an attack on a Shell pipeline in Delta State. In 2006 a truce between the Nigerian government and MEND was negotiated. The truce violently ended in 2007 when Nigerian soldiers ambushed and killed 15 members of MEND.[217] The collapse of the truce resulted in a further deterioration of the situation in the Niger Delta. According to a UN office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report; “at least 50 foreigners were taken hostage, two of whom were killed. That compares to a total of around 70 foreigners snatched in the whole of 2006. Most of the kidnap victims are non-Nigerians working in the oil industry. Victims have included American, European and Asian workers”[218] In 2008 MEND declared an “oil war” against government forces and oil companies which resulted in the heaviest fighting in two years.[219]
Environmental degradation
The multinational oil companies maintain that it is not the oil production that is responsible for the environmental degradation in the Niger Delta and that the oil production is conducted to the highest environmental standards. Shell, for example have argued that; “Shell Nigeria believes that most of the environmental problems are not the result of oil operations.”[220] Ken-Saro-Wiwa on the other hand accused the oil companies of destroying the region and that the environment had been; “completely devastated by three decades of reckless oil exploitation or ecological warfare by Shell.... An ecological war is highly lethal, the more so as it is unconventional. It is omnicidal in effect. Human life, flora, fauna, the air, fall at its feet, and finally, the land itself dies.”[221]
It is important to note that due to a lack of information it is not easy to assess the scale of the consequences of oil production in the Niger Delta, but problems that have been indentified include; flooding and coastal erosion, sedimentation and siltation, degradation and depletion of water and coastal resources, land degradation, oil pollution, air pollution, land subsidence, biodiversity depletion, noise and light pollution, health problems, and low agricultural production.”[222]
One of the most severe consequences is oil spills; Estimates from Nigerian National petroleum Cooperation show that roughly 2.300 cubic meters of oil are spilled in 300 separate incidents annually. It is important to note that a majority of the oil spills are considered “minor” and therefore not reported and due to that the actual number is probably much higher; some conservative estimates place it at as much as ten times higher. According to Human Rights Watch, between 1976 and 1996 an estimated 4.835 incidents resulted in the spillage of 2.446.322 barrels of oil.[223] The most serious incident happened in 1980 when an offshore oil well exploded and at least 200.000 million barrels of oil spewed into the Atlantic Ocean, the oil spill destroyed 340 hectare of mangroves, which is extremely sensitive to oil spills since the soils soak up the oil like a sponge and then re-releases it every rainy season.[224] The last “large” oil spill occurred in 2004 along Shells Goi Trans Niger pipe line in Ogoni land; a major leakage occurred in the 24 inch pipeline resulting in oil gushing out for nearly 24 hours and destroying the swamps and creeks in the areas and depriving the local communities of access to fresh water and destroyed their fishing grounds.[225]
As mentioned elsewhere the Niger Delta is one of the largest deltas in the world and has great bio diversity, but that bio diversity is threatened by the effects of the oil production. The 70.000 square kilometres of mangroves and swamps are home to 800 oil producing communities that everyday see and feel the consequences of the oil. The Niger Delta have an extensive network of 900 oil wells, 100 flow stations and gas plants, over 1,500 km of trunk lines, and 45,000 km of oil and gas flow lines.[226] Many aspects of oil activities have an effect on the vulnerable bio diversity in the Delta. One example is oil exploration by seismic companies in which they do massive dynamiting for geological excavations, the explosions leads to, among other things, the death of fish and destabilization of sedimentary materials which destroy the fish’s breeding grounds. Another aspect is the many pipelines; in the process of clearing areas and burying the pipelines the ecosystems in the Niger Delta is fragmented, habitat areas are reduces and natural populations of different animals are segregated. The effect of oil spills is obvious; it completely destroys the environment and the diverse fauna and flora in the Niger Delta.[227]
Corruption in the Niger Delta
“In Rivers the state and local governments have failed to make meaningful improvements in the state’s badly dilapidated primary health and education sectors in recent years despite per capita spending far in excess of many West African countries at the state level alone. Instead, an unprecedented influx of revenue into state and local government coffers has been squandered or stolen.”[228]
The situation in Rivers State is not unique in Nigeria or in the Niger Delta. An UNODC survey from 2006 show that 54 percent in Rivers State said they were asked by government officials to pay a bribe for their services at least once during the last three years. In the other states in the Niger Delta the numbers were; Delta (20%), Bayelsa (42%), Imo (25%), Abia (37%), Akwa Ibom (34%) and Cross River (23%). The numbers in the Niger Delta, except Delta State, were all above the national level of 22 percent, Rivers being the worst state in the entire country with 54 percent.[229] as it is very difficult to measure the actual prevalence of corruption, another method one could adopt is to measure peoples perception of the level of corruption, which is the method used by Transparency International in their Corruption Perception Index.[230] The general perception of the level of corruption in Nigeria is much higher than the actual prevalence; while 22 percent of the respondents reported being asked for bribes in the last three years, a much higher number said that it was likely that they had to pay bribes in order to get service from public administrations. The numbers varied from the police (84%), the legislature and other institutions (53%), security guards (50%) to doctors and nurses (33%) but all well above the actual prevalence level. Even though national numbers have diminished in the recent years 85 percent of the people in Nigeria believed that corruption had increased slightly or a lot since 1999. The numbers from the states showed that the people in the Niger Delta had a very discouraging belief in the development since 1999; only Cross State was not among the top ten states were people thought that corruption had increased slightly or a lot. The other states ranged from 94 percent in Rivers, 93 percent in Abia, 92 percent in Imo, 91 percent in Delta to 90 percent in Akwa Ibom.[231]
5.8.1 Recapitulation
The people of the Niger Delta face many of the same challenges as the rest of Nigeria but for various reasons is the Niger delta on almost all indicators worse off then the rest of the country. The human development situation in the region is frightening, especially considering the amount of money that is allocated to the state governments. As of 2006 only one of the eight MDGs was close to be fulfilled, the rest was no way near the targets. The Niger Delta has for many years been shocked by rebellions, civil unrest and violence, but now the violence in the region has turned into a almost full scale war between government forces and militia groups, with severe consequences for civilians. One of the challenges in the Niger Delta with the most severe consequences for people is the environmental degradation. The effects of oil production are on a daily basis deteriorating the environmental situation and deprive the people of food, fresh water and land. One of the worst effects of oil production is oil spills, often caused by both leakages and sabotage; every year millions of barrels of oil is pouring into the delicate Delta and destroying the livelihood of the people and ruins a unique environmental area in the world. Many factors play a role in the deteriorating situation in the Niger Delta, but none is probably as important as corruption. Instead of improving infrastructure and secure health care and education the state and local governments have looted the public money and used them for personal gains.
6. Conclusion
The inspiration for this study comes from a personal experience working with the UN for six months in Nigeria. Working in a developing country you are exposed to a bombardment of information about the comprehensive and complex issues of development.
This creates an overload of information and makes it difficult to comprehend the challenges the country are facing. Without a clear sense of the entire picture you tend to simplify things and thus focus on understanding smaller and easier accessible components or simply end up with an all too negative impression of the country which
It should be noted that naturally one have to focus, in your daily job, on smaller components, but with limited insight into the whole range of challenges you fail to understand the interrelations between the different components and at the end of the day reduces the possibilities of you doing a satisfactory job. It is like a jigsaw puzzle; if you don’t know the big picture, it is more difficult to put together the small pieces.
In order to provide a frame in which Nigerian developmental issues can be understood, human security was chosen as the guiding theory. Human security has often been criticized for being an all and nothing concept; where the definitions are so broad and too many things have been identified with the concept that it has lost its practical value. Therefore the first challenge was develop a definition which could be operationalised in a Nigerian context. The definition presented by Murray and King was chosen for this purpose. In order to provide the frame in which Nigerian developmental challenges could be arranged, six domains of human well being was presented based on suggestions made by Murray and King and then adding environment due to the great importance of environmental issues in general and for Nigeria in particular. A number of indicators for human security were chosen for each indicator. The following domains and indicators were judged to be relevant in a Nigeria context;
1. Income:
- Poverty Rate
- Unemployment Rate
- Economic inequalities measured by Gini coefficient
- The existence of a public financed security net
2. Health:
- Access to health care system
- Access to safe water sources and sanitation
- Maternal mortality and births attended by skilled health personnel
- Deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Malaria
3. Education:
- Public spending on the educations sector
- Literacy
- Access to primary schooling
- Gender disparity in primary, secondary and tertiary education
4. Political Freedom:
- Personal Security
- Rule of law
- Freedom of expression
- Equality of opportunity
5. Democracy
- Free and fair elections
- Continuity of democratic system
6. Environment:
- Biodiveristy
- Deforestation
- Urbanization
In addition to the six domains and appertaining indicators the Niger Delta crisis was analysed because this crisis constitute a serious and imminent threat to the human security of people living in the Delta and the rest of Nigeria. The analysis of the Niger Delta crisis was conducted along these points:
- Human Development situation in the Niger Delta
- The Niger Delta and the Millennium Development Goals
- Civil unrest in the Niger Delta
- Environmental degradation
- Corruption in the Niger Delta
To conclude on the findings from the analysis, we move on to the second objective of the thesis as where the study functions as a kind of warning system for threats to human security in Nigeria. In light of this we now treat the analysis as a risk assessment and try to conclude on possible risk areas in Nigeria in relation to human security;
On the subject of income security one must conclude that Nigeria is, despite great wealth in natural resources and high annual economic growth rates, a country with severe lack of income security. The big economic disparities is largely responsible for the income insecurity, because the money is there, it just doesn’t benefit the majority of the people. Some would argue that it is useless to talk about a publicly financed welfare system in a developing country. But again, considering the money that runs through the Nigerian state every year they should be able to secure a basic income for the people.
On health security the picture is more or less the same; Nigeria is performing poorly on almost all indicators, also in comparison with other African countries. The only place they do better than other African countries is rural access to safe water and sanitation. Health insecurity is probably the most imminent and severe threat to Nigerians and it costs thousands of life every year.
In education Nigeria is doing better than many other developing countries, despite a lack of government funding. Especially in combating gender inequalities is Nigeria performing well, at least on a national level. Gender inequalities are not a problem in primary and secondary education, while there is still some way in tertiary education.
Despite the fact that all the rights that are necessary to secure political freedom are stipulated in the constitution there are serious breeches reported every year.
In the democracy domain it is positive that Nigeria is seeing its second democratically elected administration in a row, the fist time since independence. Although Nigeria is moving in a positive direction the elections are still not free and fair. This combined with a very short tradition of relative democracy pose a risk that Nigeria is in danger of returning to its old habits of authoritative regimes. The environment in Nigeria is deteriorating in a fast pace, with great implications for the people. If measures are not being taken there is a risk that thousand will die in the future because of things such as diminishing food sources and water pollution.
The Niger Delta crisis is in itself a threat to human security, the importance of the situation is emphasized by the fact that the Yar’Adua administration has created a completely new ministry for the Niger Delta. In order the fully understand the crisis one need to break it down into smaller pieces and try to analyse specific characteristics of the situation in the Niger Delta. The general human development situation for the almost 30 million people living in the Niger Delta is the same as in the rest of the country. When it comes to the Millennium Development Goals the states in the Niger Delta are nowhere near reaching the majority of the goals. Despite the negative situation there are positive signs; it looks like the goal of universal primary education could be achieved, and even a little beyond. Another positive thing is that males and females have equal opportunities for education. The Niger Delta has in the recent years been synonymous with the violence and the civil unrest in the area. The violence is now almost escalated into a full scale war between militia groups and Nigerian security forces which constitute an obvious and very serious threat to human security in the area. The environmental degradation in Nigeria is perhaps most visible in the Niger Delta; as a result of oil production the environment is under immense pressure, with both short and long term consequences for the human security of people living in the Delta. One reason for the deteriorating situation in the Niger Delta could be corruption; the states in the Niger Delta are among the most corrupt in the country, and billions of Naira which should have been used to improve the situation disappears.
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-----------------------
[1] Nigeria Quotes:
[2] Soludo, (2007)
[3] De Vaus, (2001), p. 221
[4] This point will be elaborated in the presentation of the theory.
[5] De Vaus, (2001), p. 5-7
[6] De Vaus, (2001), p. 223-224
[7] Rienecker, (2002), p. 16-17
[8] Tadjbakhsh, (2005), p. 1
[9] Christopher K.L Murray is executive director of evidence and Information for Policy Cluster at the World Health Organization.
[10] Gary King is professor of government and director of the Harvard-MIT Data Center at Harvard University, and senior science advisor at the World Health Organization.
[11] King et.al, (2001) p. 604-605
[12] Ikein, (2008) p. 1-2
[13] Falola et.al, (2008) p. 1-3
[14]Nigeria Country brief:
[15] Azaiki et.al, (2008) p. 73
[16] Nigeria oil: eia.
[17] Falola et.al, (2008) p. 3
[18] Nigeria:
[19] Falola et.al, (2008) p. 5
[20] Human Development Index: The HDI provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and enrolment at the primary, secondary and tertiary level) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity, PPP, income). Available at: hdrstats.
[21] Human Poverty Index: The HPI-1 focuses on the proportion of people below a threshold level in the same dimensions of human development as the human development index - living a long and healthy life, having access to education, and a decent standard of living. By looking beyond income deprivation, the HPI-1 represents a multi-dimensional alternative to the $1.25 a day (PPP US$) poverty measure. Available at: hdrstats.
[22]Nigeria Country brief:
[23] Falola et.al, (2008) p. 6-9
[24] “Niger denies role in Jos Clashes”: bbc.co.uk
[25] 2008 corruptions perception index:
[26] Inaugural speech by His Excellency, President Olusegun Obasanjo:
[27] Erdmann et.al, (2006)
[28] Rothschild, (1995) p. 53
[29] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 135-140
[30] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 140-141
[31] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 36
[32] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 35
[33] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 38 (from Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, p.111)
[34] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 38
[35] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 60
[36] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 108-109
[37] Astri Suhrke is a political scientist currently working on the Chr. Michelsen Institute
[38] Suhrke, (1999) p. 268
[39] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 130-135
[40] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 125-130
[41] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 107-138
[42] Suhrke, (1999) p. 268
[43] Suhrke, (1999) p. 268 - 269
[44] Rothschild, (1995) p. 53
[45] Rothschild, (1995) p. 56
[46] Rothschild, (1995) p. 56
[47] Commission on Human Security, (2003) p. 5-6
[48] UNDP, (1994) p. 23
[49] Suhrke, (1999) p. 270
[50] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 107-138
[51] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 146
[52] UNDP, (1993) p. 2
[53] UNDP, (1994)
[54] UNDP, (1994) p. 22
[55] UNDP, (1994) p. 22
[56] UNDP, (1994) p. 22-23
[57] UNDP, (1994) p. 23
[58] UNDP, (1994) p. 24-25
[59] UNDP, (1994) p. 24-33
[60] MacFarlane, (2006) p. 150
[61] Human Security Unit, (2006), p. 1
[62] Human Security Unit, (2009) p. 6
[63] Human Security Unit, (2006), p. 2
[64] Commission on Human Security, (2003) p. 14
[65] Commission on Human Security, (2003) p. 15-16
[66] Commission on Human Security, (2003) p. 16
[67] Commission on Human Security, (2003) p. 16
[68] King et.al, (2001) p. 590
[69] King et.al, (2001) p. 590
[70] King et.al, (2001) p. 590
[71] Human Security Unit, (2009) p. 7
[72] Roland Paris is Assistant professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the University of Colorado, boulder.
[73] Paris, (2001) p. 88
[74] King et.al, (2001) p. 592
[75] King et.al, (2001) p. 592
[76] Paris, (2001) p. 90
[77] King et.al, (2001) p. 590
[78] King et.al, (2001) p. 591
[79] King et.al, (2001) p. 590
[80] King et.al, (2001) p. 585
[81] King et.al, (2001) p. 585
[82] King et.al, (2001) p. 592
[83] King et.al, (2001) p. 593
[84] King et.al, (2001) p. 592-593
[85] King et.al, (2001) p. 590-595
[86] King et.al, (2001) p. 597-598
[87] King et.al, (2001) p. 597-598
[88] King et.al, (2001) p. 597-598
[89] King et.al, (2001) p. 595
[90] King et.al, (2001) p. 604
[91] King et.al, (2001) p. 605
[92] King et.al, (2001) p. 604-605
[93] King et.al, (2001) p. 605
[94] King et.al, (2001) p. 607-608
[95] King et.al, (2001) p. 608
[96] King et.al, (2001) p. 604
[97] King et.al, (2001) p. 605
[98] UNEP, (2008) P. 3
[99] Nigeria: Seizing the Moment in the Niger Delta:
[100] “Nigeria tackles swine flu and environmental issues”: en.
[101] “Nigeria tackles swine flu and environmental issues”: en.
[102] Measuring Inequality:
[103] The 1.25 dollar a day poverty line has been recalculated based on new data on purchase power parities and compiled by the International Comparison Program. Available at:
[104] Online Atlas of the Millennium Development Goals:
[105] “Nigeria: Unemployment Worries World Bank”:
[106] “Nigeria: Unemployment Worries World Bank”:
[107] “Nigeria: Unemployment Rate Worries Senate”:
[108] UNDP has adopted a special measurement of Gini coefficient, where a value of 0 represents absolute equality, and a value of 100 absolute inequality. Available at:
[109] The Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality of income distribution or inequality of wealth distribution. It is defined as a ratio with values between 0 and 1, where 0 corresponds to perfect equality (everyone having exactly the same income) and 1 corresponds to perfect inequality (where one person has all the income, while everyone else has zero income). Thus, a low Gini coefficient indicates more equal income or wealth distribution, while a high Gini coefficient indicates more unequal distribution. Available at:
[110] Data and Statistics:
[111] UNDP, (1994b), p. 26
[112] “Fresh vista for social security scheme”:
[113] “Fresh vista for social security scheme”:
[114] “Fresh vista for social security scheme”:
[115] “Fresh vista for social security scheme”:
[116] UNDP, (1994b), p. 27
[117] Of or relating to the first 28 days of an infant's life.
[118] WHO, (2005), p. 5-6 and (WHO), (2006)
[119] WHO, (2005), p. 7-8
[120] WHO African Region: Nigeria: who.int
[121] South Africa: who.int
[122] Kenya: who.int
[123] Senegal: who.int
[124] WHO, (2006)
[125] WHO, (2005) p. 6
[126] Abass, (2008), p. 2
[127] WHO, (2006)
[128] Abass, (2008), p. 2
[129] UNGASS, (2007), p. 14
[130] UNGASS, (2007), p. 14
[131] National Malaria Control Programme, (2005), p. 1
[132] WHO, (2005) p. 1
[133] WHO, (2005) p. 1
[134]Education and Development:
[135] Moja, (2000), p. 10
[136]Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education:
[137] Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women:
[138] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
[139] Dike, (2000) available at:
[140] The World Bank, (2000), p. 11-12
[141] The World Bank, (2000), p. 32
[142]UIS Statistics in Brief:
[143] The gross enrolment ratio (GER) or gross enrolment index (GEI) is a statistical measure used in the education sector and by the UN in its Education Index. In the UN, the GER is calculated by expressing the number of students enrolled in primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education, regardless of age, as a percentage of the population of official school age for the three levels.
[144] National Millennium Development Goals Report, (2004), p. 16-17
[145] National Millennium Development Goals Report, (2004), p. 22
[146] Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education is the ratio of the number of female students enrolled at primary, secondary and tertiary levels in public and private schools to the number of male students.
[147] National Millennium Development Goals Report, (2004), p. 23
[148] National Millennium Development Goals Report, (2004), p. 23-24
[149] UNDP, (1992), p. 27
[150] Freedom House, (2008),:
[151] Freedom House, (2008),:
[152] Amnesty International Report 2009 – Nigeria:
[153] Strengthening Judicial Integrity and Capacity:
[154] “Second U.S.-based Nigerian blogger held”:
[155] “Second U.S.-based Nigerian blogger held”:
[156] Freedom House,(2008),:
[157] Freedom House,(2008),:
[158] Amnesty International Report 2009 – Nigeria:
[159] Freedom House,(2008),:
[160] Amnesty International Report 2009 – Nigeria:
[161] Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
[162] Human Rights Watch, (2007) p. 9
[163] Falola et.al, (2009)
[164] The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter.
[165] The Carter Center, (1999), p. 32
[166] The Carter Center, (1999), p. 32
[167] Human Rights Watch, (2007), p. 7-8
[168] Human Rights Watch, (2007), p. 8
[169] Falola et.al, (2009)
[170] “Nigeria: Presidential Election Marred by Fraud, Violence”:
[171] “Nigeria: Presidential Election Marred by Fraud, Violence”:
[172] “ Nigeria: A history of coups: bbc.uk
[173] Falola et.al, (2009), p. 158-181
[174] Falola et.al, (2009), p. 181-209
[175] Falola et.al, (2009)
[176] The Carter Center, (1999), p. 32
[177] Falola et.al, (2009)
[178] Briefing on Nigeria’s 2003 elections:
[179] Environmental issues – general overview:
[180] Okafor et.al, (2008), p. 101
[181] The importance of biodiversity:
[182] The Niger Delta is by far the place with the most oil pollution in Nigeria, a coming chapter will elaborate on important issues regarding human security in the Niger Delta, including the oil industry and its consequences. Therefore oil pollution is not included in the environment domain even though it naturally is an environmental issue.
[183] Harrison et.al, (2004), p.1
[184] USAID, (2008), p. 1
[185] “Nigeria: National Biodiversity Action Plan and Land Degradation”:
[186] Omofonmwan et.al, (2008), p. 54-55
[187] Omofonmwan et.al, (2008), p. 55
[188] Forests with no visible signs of past or present human activities.
[189] “Nigeria has worst deforestation rate, FAO revises figures”:
[190] Omofonmwan et.al, (2008), p. 53
[191] Oluwasola, (2007), p. 8-11
[192] Watts, (2004), p. 58
[193] Nigeria oil: eia.
[194] Nigeria oil: eia.
[195] Nigeria quick facts: eia.
[196] UNDP, (2006), p. 25
[197] UNDP, (2006), p. 10-12
[198] The South-south zone comprises of Delta State, Akwa-Ibom State, Cross-River State, Bayalsa State, Rivers State and Edo State.
[199] UNDP, (2006), p. 35-36
[200] Measured by a daily intake of 2.900 calories average. UNDP, (2006), p. 46
[201] UNDP, (2006), p. 42-46
[202] UNDP, (2006), p. 46
[203] The death of a child between one year of age to 12 years of age in a given population.
[204] The death of an infant before his or her first birthday.
[205] Of, relating to or affecting the newborn infants or an infant.
[206] Post neonatal; of, relating to, or affecting the infant and especially the human infant usually from the end of the first month to a year after birth.
[207] UNDP, (2006), p. 47
[208] UNDP, (2006), p. 48
[209] UNDP, (2006), p. 49
[210] UNDP, (2006), p. 49
[211] UNDP, (2006)
[212] The Willink Commission report, (1958)
[213] Watts, (2004), p. 58-59
[214] Human Rights Watch, (1999), p. 9
[215] Watts, (2004), p. 59
[216] Nigeria oil: eia.
[217] “Niger Delta: Behind the mask”:
[218] Obi, (2008), p. 2
[219] Human Rights Watch, (2009)
[220] Human Rights Watch, (1999), p. 52
[221] Human Rights Watch, (1999), p. 52
[222] Human Rights Watch, (1999), p. 52
[223] Human Rights Watch, (1999), p. 55
[224] Human Rights Watch, (1999), p. 54-55
[225] Zabbey, (2004), p. 4
[226] Ugochukwu et.al, (2008), p. 140
[227] Ugochukwu et.al, (2008), p. 143-144
[228] Human Rights Watch, (2007), p. 32
[229] UNODC, (2006), p. 5
[230] TI Corruption perceptions index:
[231] UNODC, (2006), p. 10-12
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