Orienting the Relevance of Unconventional Security Architecture and Emerging Urban Spaces in North-Eastern Nigeria

• Main Author: Seun BAMIDELE
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Journal of Politic and Security 2020-10-01
• Series: International Journal of Politic and Security
• Subjects: conventional security architectures; unconventional security architectures; hybridity; security; north-eastern region; nigeria
• Online Access: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/ijps/issue/56804/768322

The sequences of political disagreements, of the twenty-first century, has produced several unconventional security groups that employ a variety of measures to combat crimes in urban spaces. Thus, unconventional security groups have emerged under a locally-based security architecture, and have shown that they can be applied in conventional security engagements. But while other issues in the area have attracted more research attentions, little is known about these unconventional security groups and their operations, especially in urban spaces. These groups have emerged as expedient arrangements, necessitated by insecurity in the urban areas. It often involves processes, including a call for volunteers in the localities, which was subsequently heeded by quite a large number of unconventional security groups, to align efforts to fight insecurity. Although the rate of insecurity has not mitigated in the urban localities, the group has remained intact, and has, sometimes constituted security challenges to the locals. On several occasions, they have also been fingered in various acts of human rights abuse. Nevertheless, the indigenous people still prefer to have them around. Hence, considering urban peace and security processes, there is need for the conventional security groups to seek to simplify and, at the same time, broaden participation to accommodate this initiative in the overall security design. This study seeks to interrogate the integration between conventional and unconventional security groups, as evident in north-eastern Nigeria.