The Linkages Between Poverty Production,Corruption and Securitization in Nigeria

Abstract

‘Poverty production’ is a rising notion in poverty research which addresses the roles of actors and the activities they engage in that end in poverty or make contributions to poverty formation. Corruption does not fail to be one of those obvious factors known to aggravate poverty among citizens. The scope of the study focused on Nigeria in West Africa, a country with immense wealth from its rare natural resource – oil – yet reportedly taken over India as the country with the largest number of people living in extreme poverty, according to the World Poverty Clock and the Brookings Institute. Nigeria has been known to score very low on the global corruption index. The study narrowly looked at the insurgence in the region of the Niger Delta and how the unrest has been driven by hidden faces of both local and international figures in government positions and corporations seriously facilitating the production of more poverty through corruption and securitization of affairs. The objectives of this study were to investigate the linkages between poverty production, corruption and securitization in Nigeria, examine how these linkages are (deliberately) fueled by government officials, corporate bodies (both local and international) and other actors within the society and finally to explore prospects in dealing with corruption to curb poverty production, corruption and subsequently the securitization of those issues through the adoption of a human security approach. In Nigeria, the problems of corruption and poverty exist. Many people may look at them as two separate national challenges, but this research has shown that there is a strong causal relationship between the two i.e. the extreme levels of corruption produces poverty and vice versa. A reduction in corruption at all levels in the private and public sectors could help reduce the levels of poverty in Nigeria and more importantly the spate at which local authorities and international corporations produce poverty directly and otherwise.