Militarization and State Terrorism: A Critical Study of Nigerian Military Security Approach

Abstract

The renaissance of state terrorism ascribing to the advent of Critical Terrorism Studies (CTS) is a cognizable motivation to study the outcome of military security approach of African democratic states. Nigeria, as one of the liberal democratic states in Africa has prioritized military solutions to internal insecurities over other alternative soft approaches attesting to its high level of militarization. The basic tenet of state terrorism connotes the fact that terrorist attacks perpetrated by non-state actors are not in anyways different from that of terrorist killings orchestrated by state security forces, an argument that is abutment to the legality of holding some liberal democratic governments accountable for their terrorist crimes. The sanctity afforded to state as a possible perpetrator of terrorism has allowed many African governments through their militarized security approaches to violate human rights of their citizens under the umbrella of combating terrorists, insurgents and suppressing uprisings in their countries. This research paper methodologically employs relevant secondary sources of data to inculpate various human rights violations and civilian casualties that perpetually accompany the involvement of military or paramilitary forces in internal security of Nigeria as a depiction of state terrorism expounded by CTS. Cases of civilian casualties during military operations to combat terrorism, Niger Delta militants and clampdown of ENDSARS protests are examined to demystify the qualifiedness of the Nigerian state terrorism.