POVERTY, INSECURITY, AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: REASSESSING THE DIRECTION OF CAUSALITY

Abstract

There has been lingering debate on the direction of causality among poverty, insecurity, and development. Is underdevelopment always the cause of poverty and insecurity? Are insecure societies more prone to poverty and under-/counter-development? Is it rather poverty that breeds insecurity, and subsequently destruction of previous development gains, resulting in counter-development? These are the questions that warranted this study. Relying on documentary sources of data as well as decades of participant observation, this paper demonstrates that in Nigeria and several other locations, insecurity is a more determining causal factor for poverty and underdevelopment. The second level of the causality is that underdevelopment is also a major cause of both poverty and insecurity. We therefore recommend that an acknowledgement of the primary place of insecurity in understanding the causal link among poverty, insecurity and underdevelopment in Nigeria is necessary towards ensuring proper mental, action, and policy adjustments that will improve citizens’ involvement in the development process.