Beyond Ungoverned Spaces
Connecting the Dots between Relative Deprivation, Banditry, and Violence in Nigeria
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12976310 |
|---|---|
| Authors | P F Ejiofor (0000-0002-4276-1460, Central European University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 111-141 |
| Publication date | 2022-04-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | African Security (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1939-2206 • E-ISSN: 1939-2214 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/19392206.2022.2061320 |
| OpenAlex | W4223634512 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 25 |
The emergence of criminal groups—“armed bandits” in the local parlance—in the northwest geopolitical zone has compounded the security conundrums in Nigeria. The dominant explanation for the ongoing banditry draws on the “ungoverned spaces” theoretical framework to contend that the phenomenon is a by-product of the state’s abject failure to monopolize violence over its territory. The failure on the part of the state to impose order on its territory leaves much room for loosely organized vicious armed groups to wreak havoc on local communities in the northwest region. The proponents of this perspective inevitably recommend a military solution to the security problem. In this article, I take a different position that counteracts the “ungoverned spaces” thesis. I argue that the “ungoverned spaces” thesis blatantly ignores the socioeconomic context within which banditry is embedded and how such context nurtures crime and deviance. Drawing on the relative deprivation theory, I contend that banditry owes not so much to “ungoverned spaces” but to the ethnic cum material grievances of some pastoralists who have taken to criminality for survival and who pinpoint discrepancies between what they had, what they have, and what they think they should have. I argue that resolving banditry would require attending to pastoralists’ grievances through apposite socioeconomic interventions
Context (archaeology · Criminology · Geography · Geopolitics · Insurgency · Pastoralism · Poison control · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Terrorism · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Law · Medicine · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology
Civilian Protection Payment and the Escalation of Violence against Civilians in Northwestern Nigeria
Where the far-right is not
Traditional Institutions
Politicising violent gangs in selected Southern African countries
Unveiling the multifaceted dimensions
Managing the proliferation of small arms and light weapons for Nigeria’s national security
From ejecting the herds to hidden dangers
Sovereignty under siege
Climate Change, Identity Conflicts and the Politics of Cosmopolitanism in Nigeria
Security Threats, African Agency, and the Role (and Weaponization) of the Media
Spatial analysis of aerial remote sensing responses in the hotspot of terrorist attacks in Nigeria
In pursuit of statehood
Shock and awe
They Kill the Men and Marry Their Attractive Wives”
Perceptions of injustices in the struggle for scarce critical lands
Hobsbawm on rebellion in the postcolony
Organised crime, violent conflicts and the movement towards a dual policing system in Nigeria
A New Era for African Security
Broken Communities
State governance, unregulated artisanal gold mining and the proliferation of banditry in rural communities in northwest Nigeria
Why the Nigeria police struggles to tackle banditry in Nigeria
They Come in the Night and in Large Numbers
Between Rhetoric and Performance
From insecurity to migration syndrome
Relative deprivation, digital media and Nigeria’s Obidient Political Movement
| Unique citing works | 25 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 8,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 25 |