The Effect Of Terrorism In Developing Countries: It’s Significance To Development And Progress (A Case Study Of Nigeria)

The Effect Of Terrorism In Developing Countries: It’s Significance To Development And Progress (A Case Study Of Nigeria)

Abstract

This research was done to look at how terrorism affects growth and development in developing nations, specifically looking at Nigeria as a case study. The study specifically looked at how terrorism affected Nigeria’s economic growth. The report also looks at the terrorist organizations’ operations in Nigeria from 2012 to 2021.

Identify the causes of the Boko Haram terrorist organization’s rise in Nigeria between 2012 and 2021. The study also looks at how terrorism has impacted Nigeria’s progress and development. The historical research design was used in the study. The study included both primary and secondary sources of information. The results showed that the impact of terrorism is on direct economic destruction, the rise in market uncertainty, long-term chronic pain is also a result of terrorism, sensory disturbance is a consequence of terrorist activities, and destruction of lives and property is also a consequence of terrorist activities. Terrorism also grows because people with access to public funding finance it. Additionally, it occasionally receives assistance from abroad in the guise of oil, religion, or ethnicity. Terrorism has a scary global reputation due to all of these criminal characteristics. Nigeria is currently dealing with the destructive effects of the Islamic sect Boko Haram, primarily in the northeastern region of the nation. The study thus advises that other stakeholders, whose interests in the continuation of the Nigerian project may be compromised if the polity is overrun by terror gangs, regardless of their names or motivations, should also be involved in the effort to put a stop to the raging inferno of terrorist acts in Nigeria. In order to eradicate or checkmate terrorism in Nigeria and create the necessary breathing room for industrial development to emerge, the international community, church organizations, civic society, business community, and others must also perform their responsibilities. Last but not least, the Nigerian government should make significant investments in the purchase or construction of security drones that will be used to track down terrorist activity.

Chapiter 1

introduction

1.1 The Study’s Context

There is no country that is fully immune to the effects of terrorism and insurgency, thus these terms are spreading around the world. Due to the rise in civilian casualties, Rourke (2015) notes that war, terrorism, and other kinds of transnational political violence are in many ways more dangerous now than they have ever been. To develop a singular definition for the term “terrorism” is challenging, nevertheless. The challenge results from the lack of agreement or a shared viewpoint among governments or academics as to what might be considered a terrorist act. As a result, depending on whose point of view is being expressed, terrorism has been variously portrayed as both a technique and a strategy, a criminal and a holy duty, a reasonable response to oppression and an unjustifiable monstrosity.

Indeed, Nigeria as well as other parts of Africa have seen the global expression of terrorism and insurgency. The Boko Haram insurgency, which has existed since 2001, is one way that the phenomenon has been expressed specifically with regard to Nigeria. The sectarian insurgency has caused tremendous damage to the nation since it began, especially by “using explosives and firearms with gruesome, fatal” results (Awake, 2016).

The growing number of terrorist strikes across the nation has had negative effects on the economy and development of the country. The federal government of Nigeria made a significant investment in security in the 2013 budget, and the national legislature introduced the Anti-Terrorism Act in 2011 to address the threat to national security and combat the rising tides of crime (Ewetan, 2018). Despite these initiatives, Nigeria ranks poorly in the Global Peace Index (GPI, 2015), which is evidence of the country’s continued high levels of terrorism and instability. The government’s efforts to combat the formidable problems of terrorism and insecurity in Nigeria have not yielded the intended results, despite the extensive security measures implemented. In order to confront the spreading waves of terrorism and instability, the Nigerian government has recently been forced to ask for outside aid from nations like the USA, Israel, and EU countries. Nigeria is struggling with enormous developmental obstacles that seriously endanger socioeconomic progress in addition to the nation’s deteriorating security condition. Inadequate physical and social infrastructure, widespread rural and urban poverty, a high unemployment rate, crippling youth unemployment, an unstable and deteriorating exchange rate, a high inflation rate, a very large domestic debt load, and an increasing stock of external debt are some of these developmental challenges (Ewetan, 2018).

According to some researchers, security is best understood as the absence of threats to a nation’s political, socioeconomic, and national cohesion goals (Igbuzor, 2015; Oche, 2016; Nwanegbo and Odigbo, 2017). As a result, security is widely acknowledged in contemporary literature as being essential to national cohesiveness, peace, and sustainable development. Therefore, it is clear that maintaining national security is a desirable condition necessary for any nation to flourish economically (Oche, 2016). Nearly all forms of economic activity have been absent from the Boko Haram-affected areas. Security, according to the intelligence community, is not the absence of threats or security problems but rather the presence of a reliable system that can react quickly, expertly, and in real time to the difficulties provided by these threats.

A nation’s political, economic, and social instability incorporates all development objectives and problems, serving as both the problem’s source and its remedy. It is essential to tackle terrorism issues if development programs are to be carried out successfully. It was of the opinion that every nation should aim to safeguard its population from structural violence, crime, and social insecurity in order to achieve a state of security. In fact, without ensuring citizens’ safety, no development strategy—economic, political, or social—will succeed. In Borno State, terrorism is a problem that has an impact on development and policy. Any country aiming for growth has to keep crime rates as low as possible.

Situation Of The Problem

The rise of Boko Haram has given Nigeria’s criminal underworld a previously unrecognized terrorist component. The cult has carried out a number of explosions and taken hostages of defenseless people. The bombing rampage even included the United Nations Building in Abuja (Ewetan, 2018). Terrorism has a significant negative impact on national economy in both affluent and poor countries. According to Ewetan (2018), it is unavoidable that the economic effects of terrorism will be felt more keenly in low-income, monocultural, underdeveloped nations than in highly developed, diverse industrial economies. Therefore, if terrorism activities in the nation continue to develop and are not curbed, it could lead to a decrease in foreign direct investment (FDI) and make institutional investors look for other stable economies in which to place their money. People are less likely to invest, buy, or rent from the product of investment when they are uneasy about the state of the country. For this reason, any country that exudes an uneasy atmosphere naturally repels investment proposals from both the global community and its own domestic investors. Therefore, terrorism poses a threat to the economic, political, and social security of a country and is a major contributor to underdevelopment because it deters both domestic and foreign investment, lowers the standard of living, destroys human and social capital, and ruins relationships between citizens and the states, undermining democracy, the rule of law, and the nation’s capacity to foster development (Adebayo, 2015). However, the researcher is examining how terrorism affects progress and development in poor nations.

1.3 Study’s Objectives

The goals of this study are as follows:

to investigate how terrorism has affected Nigeria’s economic growth from 2012 through 2021.

to investigate the terrorist organizations’ actions in Nigeria from 2012 until 2021.

to determine the causes for the emergence of the terrorist organization in Nigeria.

to determine how terrorism has impacted Nigeria’s development and advancement

1.4 Questions For Research

What impact does terrorism have on Nigeria’s economic growth?

What are the terrorist organizations in Nigeria doing?

What are the causes behind the rise of the terrorist organization in Nigeria?

How has terrorism impacted Nigeria’s development and advancement?

1.5 Hypothesis

HO: Terrorism has no impact on Nigeria’s economic progress or development.

HA: Terrorism hinders Nigeria’s economic progress and development.