Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

12-2021

School/College

Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs (SOPA)

Degree Name

Ph.D. in Administration of Justice

Committee Chairperson

Ihekwoaba Onwudiwe

Committee Member 1

Jasmine Drake

Committee Member 2

Robert Mupier

Committee Member 3

Andrew Ewoh

Keywords

Conspiracy, Criminological, Political, Regional restiveness, Soft State Tribalism, Terrorism

Abstract

Nigeria has recently witnessed the repeated prevalence of a fog of terror that has threatened the stability, peace, and sovereignty of the nation. While the world's attention focuses on Afghanistan, Iraq, and bombings in embassies around the Western world, shocking terrorist activities with immeasurably devastating impacts are regularly ignored by the Nigerian government and the international community. Since 1970, Nigeria has continued to experience repeated domestic attacks entrenched in different forms of tensions and motivations. The Global Terrorism Index (2019) ranked Nigeria as the third most terrorized country in the world, behind only Iraq and Afghanistan with 1,634 attacks, 16,108 dead, 7,575 injured, and 2,828 held in captivity from 2013 to 2017. The Nigerian state has become an unfortunate theater of insecurity, bloodshed, and a genocidal arena caused by the bloodshed by Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen. The objective of this dissertation is to illustrate and underscore the apparent method in the designation of a violent group as a terrorist group, and explain how some groups are labeled as terrorists, while some organizations that deserved to be designated as terrorist groups are not. This researcher analyzed mainly data from the Global terrorism Database and other scholarly literature, using qualitative approaches with descriptive analysis. This dissertation should help inform policymakers about terrorism and counterterrorism policies, initiate policies that will curb terrorists’ activities in Nigeria, and provide knowledge for future research. Criminological theories such as labeling, anomie/strain, deterrence were applied to examine the menacing activities of terrorism in Nigeria.

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