HUMAN SECURITY AND NIGERIA

              

 HUMAN SECURITY AND NIGERIA

             

  ABSTRACT      

      In 1960, when Nigeria won independence, they had all the potentials to become a rich and influential country. Nigeria is blessed with abundance of both human and natural resources. It is the largest black nation in the world with up to 160m people. It is one of the biggest producers of both oil and natural gas. It possesses 34 types of solid materials, 44 exportable commodities and large area of arable lands.

       Across the globe, human security and peace building initiative have increasingly assumed prime policy priority necessary for good governance. It is a concept that identifies the security of human lives focuses its attention on human beings. Its value added in the development field is to focus attention on downside risks which is closely related to human development and to human rights.

INTRODUCTION

What is human security?

     Human security according to Wikipedia is an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenge the traditional notion of national security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be the individual rather than the state.

       In simple term, it refers to sustainable human development and secured livelihoods in addition to peaceful coexistence of different people and cultures in a given geographical area, community, country or sub region. Peaceful coexistence implies freedom from violence, oppression and intimidation.

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.”  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 weapon 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 - it is a concern with human life and dignity

1. People with problems -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.

Human security is people-centered. 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.

 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. 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 buy it, grow it or take advantage of a public food distribution system.

Health security is a major threat to people all over the world especially in developing countries; like Nigeria 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 can 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

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.

Type of Insecurity	Examples of Main Threats In Nigeria
Economic insecurity	Persistent poverty, unemployment
Food insecurity	Hunger, famine
Health insecurity	Deadly infectious diseases, unsafe food, malnutrition, lack of access to basic health care
Environmental insecurity	Environmental degradation, resource depletion, natural disasters, pollution
Personal insecurity	Physical violence, crime, terrorism, domestic violence, child labor
Community insecurity	Inter-ethnic, religious and other identity based tensions
Political insecurity	Political repression, human rights abuses

                                  

 DOMAINS FOR MEASURING HUMAN SECURITY

The following set of domains for measuring human security is selected.

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:

-         Biodiversity

-         Deforestation

-         Urbanization

In conclusion, human security                                                                                            

In conclusion,” 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’’.

                                                                    Saefhenryosas

Osas4s@yahoo.com