Governance Failure and Terrorism in Nigeria

Where governments fail in their duty of protecting the lives and property (including livelihoods) of their citizens, there is often a resort to self-help. This paper examines whether and to what extent the spate and scale of organized lawlessness including terrorism that are attributed to the failure of government to secure and protect the lives and livelihoods of nationals and other legal residents can be explained in terms of governance failure. It views terrorism as a methodology for propagating preferred norms and values through violence. It locates governance failure in the origins and purpose of modern government and the zero-sum nature of electoral politics in Nigeria as well as the widespread non-adherence to established procedures as manifested in corruption and common theft among political and bureaucratic office holders. It argues that the forcible abolition of indigenous traditional governance structures alienated the governors from the governed, removed the humanizing cultural and traditional values which ensured mutual accountability, and transferred the source of authority of the ruler from the people to external forces. It recommends that the war against terrorism be taken beyond military and legal instruments to the realm of ideas and consciousness through education and socialization.