INSURGENCY AND ITS SOCIOECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS FOR NORTH EASTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The North-Eastern part of Nigeria has been engulfed by insurgency over time. This has created fear and untold hardship upon the people in this region. Accordingly, the continuous bombings, kidnapping, killing, maiming and the destruction of properties by the Boko Haram insurgents have become a great concern to the government of Nigeria and the international community. This paper therefore examines the effects of insurgency on the socio-economic lives of the North-Eastern populace. The research area was the North-east with special focus on Adamawa and Borno were the most ravaged states. The paper sourced its data primarily from the administration of questionnaire among the randomly selected people in the affected states. Chi-square (X1) Statistics was used to determine the estimates. The results show greater X\ values of142.86 and 543.54over X2, values of 15.51 and 21.03 respectively, an indication that the atrocities of Boko Haram insurgency have severe negative implications for the economy and social lives of the people of the North-east. The paper recommends that the Nigerian government should embark on deliberate strategies to improve our educational system, reduce poverty level, develop a robust counter-terrorism strategy, build a new intelligence gathering infrastructure, develop an economic reconstruction plan for the North-east, consciously involve civilian peace building organisations, and proscribe any emerging insurgency related group with immediate effect.