


































AQUINO VOLUME3 ISSUE 2 DECEMBER 2023


Abstract

Politically, Nigeria is divided into six geopolitical zones: Southeast, South-South, 
Southwest, North Central, Northwest and Northeast. Of these six geopolitical zones, the 
Southeast had been consistently rated the most peaceful part of the country. However, in 
the recent past, these ratings have changed as the zone has become a theater of different 
type of security challenges perpetuated by different actors including: unknown gunmen, 
kidnappers, killers' herdsmen and Nigerian security agents themselves. This sudden 
turnaround in the security situation of the Southeast has generated a lot of scholarly and 
institutional debates bothering on establishing the causes and evolving possible solutions 
to these myriad security challenges in the Zone. So far, none of the proffered solutions 
have succeeded as the insecurity in the Zone has continued to escalate. This study applies 
the documentary method of data collection, content analysis for data interpretation and 
state-centric security theory to investigate the causes and possible solutions to the 
problem of insecurity in the Southeast. The research discovered that the root of insecurity 
in the Zone is the feeling of marginalization, especially by the youths of the Zone. Based 
on this, the study argued that the current approach of using security agents to kill, maim 
and harass the youth of the Zone will end up alienating the people and worsening the 
security situation. To avoid this scenario, the study proffered massive infrastructural 
development, youth empowerments and political inclusiveness as the elixir to current 
Southeast's security challenges.

Keywords: Southeast, State-centric, Insecurity, Security Agents, Unknown Gunmen, 
Nigerian Government.

Introduction   

The states in Southeast Nigeria both individually and collective, have on several 
occasions been named the most peaceful part of the country (Anieke, 2021).  However, 
the security and peace once enjoyed by the Zone is gradually fizzling away as the 
Geopolitical Zone has in recent years become the epicentre of different forms of security 
challenges such as killings by armed herders, political assassination and kidnapping. 
Others include killing of security agents and burning down of state institutions by 
unknown gunmen and retaliatory killings, harassments and arson by security agents. 

This state of affair has prompted proposals from sons and daughters of the Zone; heads of 
security agencies, well-meaning Nigerians and men of goodwill on how the Zone can exit 
its current security challenges. For example, the Vice-Chancellor of Godfrey Okoye 
University, Prof. Christian Anieke in an exclusive interview with the Gong Magazine 

APPLICATION OF STATE-CENTRIC SECURITY APPROACH 
TO THE SECURITY CHALLENGES IN THE SOUTHEAST

C. N. Ogugua & P. C. Okoli, PhD
Department of Philosophy 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka.

118



(2021), identifies massive unemployment among the youths of the Zone as one of the 
causes and suggested youth empowerment as the most viable way of making the Zone 
once again secure. The current Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, (2021) blamed 
the insecurity on the activities of criminal elements and hoodlums in the Zone who 
according him hide under the umbrella of Biafran agitation. He therefore urged the 
Federal Government to make robust security deployment to tackle the security 
challenges. Umahi's position was shared by other governors of the Zone who in union 
with him as their chairman formed the Ebubeagu Security Outfit to help other security 
agencies in the Zone tackle the menace of the escalating insecurity (Summit, 2021).

Overtime, various governments of the Southeast Zone have embarked on different youth 
empowerment programmes, especially in the area of digital skill acquisitions (Gong, 
2021). The Abubeagu Security Outfit has been established in the five states of the Zone 
and there have been massive deployments of security agents, particularly the military to 
all the states of the Zone. Nevertheless, the security situation in the Zone has continued to 
worsen. Farming communities are still regularly attacked by killers' herdsmen; 
incidences of kidnapping are still rampant, Security agents are still attacked and killed by 
unknown gunmen and state security agents are still killing, harassing, abducting and 
committing arsons in the Zone. All these, point to one thing, the correct cause of the 
insecurity in the Southeast has not been identified and the correct solution has not been 
applied. 

This study is an attempt to look at the problem from a new perspective. The study uses the 
documentary method of data collection, content analysis and state-centric theory of 
security to investigate the cause and evolve possible solutions to the insecurity in 
Southeast Geopolitical Zone. The study is structured into the following outlines: 
Introduction, Conceptual Framework and Theoretical Framework. Others include, 
Insecurity in the Southeast, Application of state-centric security theory to the insecurity in 
the Southeast and Evaluation, Conclusion and Recommendations.

Conceptual Framework

The following terms will be conceptualized in this section: Southeast Nigeria and 
Security and Insecurity:

Southeast Nigeria

Until 1967, when Gen. Yakubu Gowon was forced by military necessity to reorganize 
Nigeria into 12 states, the country operated four regional governments: The Northern, 
Western, Eastern and Midwestern Regions. The Southeast was carved out of the Eastern 
Region. It comprises the states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. Apart from 
few non-Igbo tribes on the fringes of the Zone, the aborigines of the Southeast are the 
Igbo. This is why the Zone is called the home of Igbo people (Slattery, 2016). However, 
Igbo land is not limited to the Southeast. According to Slattery, besides the five Southeast 
states, Igbo land also includes northern Delta and Rivers States and small parts of Akwa 
Ibom State. Udenta, et al (2015, p. 2) also states that: “… there are Igbos in the South-
South region as well as in parts of the Middle Belt.” While the dichotomy between the 
Southeast and Igbo land is obvious, in literature the two terms are often used 

119

                                            Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 3 Issue 2, 2023
ISSN: 2786-9792

December 



interchangeably. This practice is not adopted here because the scope of the study is 
limited to the Southeast not Igbo land.

 Culturally, the Southeast is considered the most industrious Zone in Africa (Udenta, et al 
2015, p. 4). Because of this, it is often characterized by the great personalities that have 
decked the history of the Zone. Udenta et al (2015, p. 4), describes the Southeast as the 
land of the great Zik of Africa - Nigeria's first indigenous Governor General, first 
President and first President of Senate. The land of the great Chinua Achebe, the land of 
Ogbunigwe, the land of Dr. Michael Iheonukara Okpara, Mbadiwe, Odumegwu 
Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, Dr. OkechukwuIkejiani, Dr. Akanu Ibiam, Christopher Okigbo, 
the Aba Women of the 1929 Riot and many more. 

Educationally, the Zone is the most advantaged in Nigeria. It is among the zones with the 
highest number of professionals in almost every field of human endeavours. It produced 
the first indigenous Vice Chancellors of the University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria 
and University of Lagos. The situation was the same with the Armed Forces and the 
Federal Public Service, where her sons and daughters held sway before the Civil War. In 
view of the Civil War (1967-1970) and the aftermath, the people are marginalized in the 
scheme of things, and many see the marginalization as one of the reasons for the current 
insecurity in the Zone (Udenta et al. 2015, p. 4),

 In terms of population, density, Nwajiuba (2005), observes, that four states in the 
Southeast (Anambra, Imo, Abia and Enugu) are among the seven most densely populated 
states of Nigeria, implying that the Southeast is the most populated area in country. It has 
in fact been stated that apart from the Island of Mauritius, The Southeast is the most 
densely populated part of sub-Saharan Africa (Government Printer, Abuja, 1998). As a 
result of this increased human pressure on finite resources, there is intense competition 
for the available natural resources in the Zone leading many Southeasterners to view 
emigration as an alternative option of securing a livelihood. In addition, when the 
population pressure is combined with the marginalization the people of the Zone are 
suffering in the hand of the government at the centre, the result is disaffection and 
agitations to pull out of Nigeria by the youth. This principally is at the root of the 
insecurity in the Zone.

Likewise, as already observed above, the Zone has on several occasions been identified as 
the most, peaceful and secure place in the West Africa sub-region. As a way of explaining 
this, it is often claimed that commerce requires a secure environment to thrive and since 
the people of the Zone are mostly business people, they do everything to create secure and 
peaceful environments to grow their businesses (Anieke, 2021). Thus, the recent spate of 
insecurity in the Geopolitical Zone has been a source of worry to many and a lot has gone 
into looking for the causes and the ways to resolve the problem.

Security and Insecurity 

The main focus of this study is insecurity but insecurity is derived from the word, security. 
Therefore, an appreciation of the former requires a little insight into the latter. 
Nevertheless, defining security is not a straightforward task because there is no universal 
definition of security. E. Kolodziej (2005, p. 11) has compared it to a Tower of Babel. R. 
Paris (2004, pp. 370-372) views it as “in the eye of the beholder.” Scholars normally 

120

Application Of State-centric Security Approach  To The Security...  -    C.N. Oguga & P.C. Okoli



approach the definition from two ways: contemporary and traditional ways. While 
contemporary security regards everything as a security matter, the traditional approach 
focuses on state actors and their military capacities to protect national security. The 
prevalence of traditional security reached a peak during the Cold War. For almost half a 
century, major world powers entrusted the security of their nations to a balance of power 
among states. In this sense international stability relied on the premise that if state security 
is maintained, then the security of citizens will necessarily follow (Bajpai, 2000, p. 29). 
Security then meant protection from invasion. 

Over the last decades the definition of security has been extended to cope with the 21st 
century globalized community, its rapid developments and global threats that emerged 
out of this process. One such comprehensive definition is proposed by F. Al-Rodhan 
(2007, pp. 67-69). What he calls the “Multi-sum security principle” is based on the 
assumption that in a globalized world, security can no longer be seen as involving states 
alone. Global security, instead, has five dimensions: human, environmental, national, 
transnational, and trans-cultural security, and therefore, global security and the security 
of any state or culture cannot be achieved without “good governance at all levels that 
guarantees security through justice for all individuals, states, and cultures.” Each of these 
five dimensions refers to a different set of substrates. We shall concentrate briefly on the 
first since it also enshrines the other dimensions. 

The first dimension is human security. The UN Development Program (UNDP, 1994) 
originated the concept of human security as an alternative to the traditional concept of 
national security. It is security as applied to people rather than territories. It includes 
“…freedom from pervasive threats to people's rights, safety or lives,” involving both 
“…safety for people from violent threats, such as organized conflict, gross violations of 
human rights, terrorism and violent crime” and “…safety from non-violent threats, such 
as environmental degradation, economic crises, illicit drugs, infectious diseases and 
natural disasters.” According to the UNDP (1994) it includes economic security, food 
security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security, 
and political security. A common feature of these threats to human security is that they 
cannot be addressed by security forces alone, no matter how powerful an army is. Human 
security needs justice, cooperative interaction between states and peaceful existence 
between cultural groups and civilizations. When the recent upsurge in insecurity in the 
Southeast is examined within the framework of this understanding of security, one sees 
the reason why the current approach by the Buhari administration has failed so far and the 
need for an alternative approached that will be proposed in this paper.

Theoretical Framework  
As noted above, this study is based on State-centric or realist theory of security. This 
theory represents the earliest approach to security studies. Its emergence was influenced 
by both philosophical and historical factors. Philosophically, the theory has its root in the 
ancient political philosophical postulations as espoused by political theorists like Thomas 
Hobbes, Nicole Machiavelli among others. According to Ogugua (2021) the central 
concern of these philosophers was the questions of “What accounted for the prevalence of 
insecurity in the ancient society and what should be done to ensure or guarantee security 

121

                                            Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 3 Issue 2, 2023
ISSN: 2786-9792

December 



in human society”. They believe that man was selfish and that insecurity is caused by this 
selfish inclination that pushes man to pursuing his selfish interests. Hobbes (1946, p. 112) 
believed that man's life was short, nasty, brutish and poor. This shows how insecure the 
society was. 
The idea of social contract as they propounded, was to the effect that security in human 
society can be better guaranteed if the citizens or individuals traded off some of their 
natural rights in return for safety or protection on the part of the state. Impliedly, the State 
was conceived as the custodian of human rights and by extension human security. They 
were concerned with that regulatory mechanism which will ensure greater protection for 
every citizen. In this regard, the state was identified as that entity and to enable the state to 
discharge this function, theorists like Hobbes insist that the state represented by the 
government must have monopoly of coercive force.  

Historically, State-centric theory of security was consolidated in the Treaty of 
Westphalia. The treaty which ended the thirty years' war in Europe was signed in 1648. 
After that war, major continental European states – the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, 
France, Sweden and the Dutch Republic – agreed to respect one another's territorial 
integrity (Barwick, 2017). The most significant part of this treaty was the emergence of 
the modern State system. The modern State system created out of this treaty has some 
necessary attributes. Among these attributes were defined territory, population, 
government, and most importantly sovereignty which conferred on this entity effective 
control over its territory and over its people.  In order words, such entity was free from 
external interference in the administration of its territory. 

Before Westphalia, intervention was a common policy instrument for the foreign affairs 
of states. It was used to achieve territorial expansion by the Roman Empire. In the Middle 
Ages, it was particularly applied to enforce impartial and papal rules (Wakoko, 2018). 
The Peace of Westphalia therefore, ended attempts to impose supranational authority on 
European states (Wakoko, 2018). Consequently, Wakoko (2018, p. 12) opines that 
“Westphalian Sovereignty is violated when external factors influence or determine 
domestic authority structures.” 

As European influence spread across the globe, the Westphalian principles, especially the 
concepts of sovereign states and non-interference became central to international law and 
to the prevailing world order. Thus, the outcome of Westphalia has become an 
international customary law and is incorporated into many international treaties. Hence, 
the State was conceived as a monolithic entity, that is, an indivisible entity, with the life of 
its own. As a result, the security of the State becomes equated with the security of the 
individual citizens and the common nomenclature of national security of a State, as an 
inviolable security structure. This approach to security is based on a number of 
assumptions which are itemized below:

·That societal security revolves around the institution of the state. To that extent the 
State is conceived as an indivisible entity or monolithic entity comprising the 
security interests of the various individuals and groups within the society. 

·That the monolithic state has monopoly over the legitimate use of physical force
· The legitimate control of society's physical force implies the primacy of the 

military institution in the security architecture of the society. This is basically 

122

Application Of State-centric Security Approach  To The Security...  -    C.N. Oguga & P.C. Okoli



because the military trusted with the onerous responsibility of protecting the 
territorial integrity of the State in any society.

·Under the State-centric perspective, the issue of the territorial integrity and the 
political independence of a state, become paramount in the security calculation of 
any state. This is based on the fact that the State-centric perspective assumes that 
the protection of the territory of a given State from external attacks is the 
hallmark of the security status of such State. This idea is anchored or dovetails 
into the doctrine of the Sovereignty of State. 

·The State-centric perspective also assumes that the protection of State boundaries 
ultimately leads to the protection of individuals. 

·And finally, on the ground of the last assumption, the individuals develop a sense 
of protection tied to the security of the State. In order words, these individuals 
overtime, came up with a feeling that one cannot divorce the security of the 
individuals from the security of the State based on the monolithic nature of the 
State as perceived by the traditional perspective to security.  

Application of the Theory

The recent upsurge of insecurity in Southeast Nigeria is better appreciated in the light of 
the theory of realism. This is because the theory unravels why the Nigerian government in 
spite of its effort to stem the rising tide of insecurity in the Zone has so far failed. This 
point which would become clearer, cumulatively in subsequent sections is consequent on 
the fact that the Nigeria state like any other state that operates within the framework of 
state-centric security architecture prioritizes territorial integrity over, especially 
normative principles such as justice, human rights, freedom etc.

First, the theory will unearth that Nigerian governments effort to promote security in the 
Southeast, especially, through the deployment of the military is done in the understanding 
that such effort would help it to protect its territorial integrity which it believes is 
threatened by Biafran agitators and other non-state actors in the Zone. Second, the theory 
will show why this policy has so far not worked. Principally, it will demonstrate that the 
people of the Southeast, who have been marginalized and excluded from key political 
positions in Nigeria, felt that the Nigerian government has failed to keep its part of the 
social contract and thus are not giving the necessary support that is required to solve the 
security challenges in the Zone.

Insecurity in the Southeast 

All societies, even the so called most secured societies in the world have their own fair 
share of security challenges. In other words, when we say that until recently, the Southeast 
used to be the most secured part of Nigeria, we do not mean to say that the Zone hadn't its 
fair share of security challenges. However, what is been emphasized here is that the 
security challenges in the Southeast have worsened. This worsening security situation is 
obvious from a number of empirical indicators. The indicators we would use here include: 
Killers' Herdsmen attacks, Kidnapping, High Profile Assassinations, Attacks by 
Unknown Gunmen and Reprisal Attacks and Abductions by State Security Operatives.

123

                                            Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 3 Issue 2, 2023
ISSN: 2786-9792

December 



i. Killer-Herdsmen's Attacks

Skirmishes between herdsmen and farming communities in the Southeast were not 
entirely new but these occurrences were far between, rarely led to casualties and almost 
always easily resolved.   However, these turned into a full-blown massacre beginning 
from 2016 when men believed to be Fulani fully armed killers' herdsmen started to roam 
the Zone slaughtering people at will. The first large scale killings by these AK47 wielding 
killers' herdsmen occurred in Ukpabi Nimbo and Uzo-Uwani communities in Enugu 
State, where more than 50 people were believed to be massacred by herdsmen who 
swooped on their communities in the dead of the night (Vanguard, 2018, p. 18).

After this first occurrence, killings by Fulani herdsmen became very common. Day in, 
day out, from Anambra to Abia, Enugu to Ebonyi and Imo states, there were reports of 
killings and sacking of communities by killer-herdsmen. IDP camps were established in 
some communities in Anambra and Ebonyi states to accommodate and cater for those 
driven from their home by these herdsmen (Ogugua, 2021).
In addition to being bloody, the conflicts have spawned dangerous political and religious 
conspiracy theories. One is that the attacks are part of a longer-term Fulani plot to displace 
indigenous populations and seize their lands (Crisis Group, 2016). In March 2016, the 
prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr. Samuel Uche (The Authority, 2016, p. 24) 
said: “We are aware there is a game plan to Islamize Nigeria, and they are using the Fulani 
herdsmen to initiate it.” Also, Biafra separatist groups describe the attacks as part of a 
northern plot to overwhelm the peoples of the south and forcefully convert them to Islam 
(Crisis Group commentary, 2017, p. 17). Some Southeast leaders accused President 
Buhari of deliberately failing to stop herders' aggression, pointing to his pastoral Fulani 
background and his position as life patron of the Miyetti-Allah Cattle Breeders 
Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) to buttress their charges.

Based on what many saw as the lack of political will by politicians, especially President 
Buhari to tackle the menace of the killer-herdsmen, many communities in Southeast have 
formed self-defense vigilante groups, some of which have threatened organized reprisals. 
Following the April 2016 attack on Nimbo, in Enugu State, the separatist, Movement for 
Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) ordered “Fulani herdsmen to 
leave Biafra land or ... face our wrath.” MASSOB accused Buhari of protecting the 
attackers and called on all Igbo youths and pro-Biafra groups to “wake up and let us unite 
and face our enemies” (Vanguard, 2016, p. 14). The attacks by Fulani herdsmen was what 
led Nnamdi Kanu's faction of Biafran agitators to form Eastern Security Network (ESN) 
who many, including the Nigerian Government and security establishments blame for the 
worsening security situation in the region.

ii. Kidnapping

Another indicator of the rising insecurity in the Southeast is the level of kidnappings 
going on in the Zone. In a recent research conducted by Amuche (2021), the numbers of 
kidnappings occurring in the Zone have tripled from what it used to be. The worst of it 
according to him is that the incident is no longer restricted to business people as security 
agents, traditional rulers and even priests are in the recent past also victims.

 

124

Application Of State-centric Security Approach  To The Security...  -    C.N. Oguga & P.C. Okoli



iii. High Profile Assassinations

Just before the Anambra governorship election last year, Dr. Chike Akunyili, the husband 
of late Professor Dora Akunyili, the former Director General of NAFDAC and Minister of 
Information, was gunned down in most the brutal manner in Anambra State.Before this 
occurrence, an apparent assassination attempt was made on the life of the current 
Anambra Governor, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo (Vanguard, 2021). In Enugu State, 
Prof. Sam Ndubisi, the Chairman and Managing Director of Scientific Equipment 
Development Institute (SEDI) Enugu was assassinated in broad day light in the capital of 
the state. In Imo State, a chieftain of the APC, Ahmad Gulak was gunned down in Owerri 
(BBC. News, 2021). In fact, there is no state in the Southeast which did not record at least 
a high profile assassination in the past one year.

iv. Attacks by Unknown Gunmen

Most of the high profile killings and kidnappings are carried out by men who the news 
media have popularly come to call unknown gunmen. These daredevil who most times 
operate in broad daylight have also attacked the security agents and government 
institutions including police stations, military posts, INEC offices, etc. Security agents 
have pointed accusing fingers on ESN, the armed wing of Nnamdi Kanu's Indigenous 
People of Biafra (IPOB). However, the group has consistently denied any wrongdoing 
accusing Igbo politicians as being behind the chaos and killings in the Zone (Ogugua, 
2020).

v.  Reprisal Attacks and Abductions by State Security Operatives

Most of the attacks on security formation in the Southeast have in turn triggered reprisal 
attacks by the security agents, especially soldiers. Communities are set ablaze by soldiers 
each time their colleagues are killed or attacked in such communities, innocent youths are 
abducted, killed or taken away to unknown destinations on accusation that they are the 
unknown gunmen or members of ESN. In fact, Intersociety (2022) has accused the 
Nigerian security agents of killing not less than 1, 400 Igbo youths within 2021 alone.

Causes of Insecurity in the Southeast

Two things can be deduced from the foregoing, firstly, that the causes of the current 
insecurity in the Southeast are many and secondly, that these causes have their origin in 
one source, namely, the disaffection of the people of the Zone against the government at 
the centre for injustice and exclusion meted on the people of the Zone. As could be seen, 
the security situation is contributed by the activities of herdsmen, kidnappers, assassins, 
unknown gunmen and security agents themselves. However, at the root of all these, was 
the inability of the Nigerian Government to secure lives and properties in Zone. It was this 
situation expressed in the form of herdsmen attacks and the inability or lack of political 
will to stop it that led to the degeneration of the security situation that has today involved 
multiple actors.

Application of State-centric Security Theory to the Insecurity in the Southeast

According to the state-centric security approach, there is a contract between the state and 
the individual. In this contract, the individuals ceded their right to defend themselves by 
whatever means they can to the state. In return, the state gives the individual the guarantee 

125

                                            Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 3 Issue 2, 2023
ISSN: 2786-9792

December 



of protection and is therefore saddled with that responsibility. What this implies is that the 
state has monopoly of violence in every part of the state as every individual is banned 
from defending themselves. The contract also imposes on the state, the responsibility of 
protecting the territorial integrity of the country both from internal and external 
aggressors. 

However, these rights which the state enjoys over the individual are not without 
conditions and the condition here is that the state secures the lives and properties of the 
individual. In a situation where the state fails in this obligation, it losses the right of the 
contract, including the rights of territorial integrity and monopoly of violence. The 
individual returns to the state of nature where the onus is on him to defend himself by 
whatever means necessary. This is the situation playing out in the Southeast. The moment 
the government at the centre fails to protect the people from killers' herdsmen, it losses the 
rights of the contract and the people started resorting to self-help to protect themselves. 
The situation is further complicated by the fact that the people of the Zone are already 
feeling marginalized and excluded by the Federal Government. This is why in spite of the 
killings associated with the unknown gunmen, the group are still more popular in the 
Zone than security agents who many from the Zone see as occupying forces. 

Based on the foregoing, to solve the security challenges in the Southeast under the 
framework of realism, the Nigerian government needs to reestablish its territorial 
authority in the Zone. This would involve disarming every armed group and dealing with 
criminal elements in the Zone. However, this cannot be achieved in a hostile environment 
where individuals feel they have been unjustly treated. The first step to solving the 
insecurity must consist in dealing with the grievances of the people of the Zone, 
especially in the area of political inclusiveness and youth empowerments. 

Evaluation, Conclusion and Recommendations

Evaluation

A number of scholars believe that realism as a theory of security is outdated and has no 
place in the current world of complex security challenges. In the place of realism which 
emphasizes territorial integrity, these scholars place emphasis on protection of human 
rights and preventing states from abusing the rights of their citizens. For instances, 
Francis Deng (1996, p. 1) argues that “sovereignty carries with it certain responsibilities 
for which governments must be held accountable. They are accountable not only to their 
national constituencies but ultimately to the international community.” The essence of the 
idea lies in the suggestion that the sovereignty of states should no longer be understood as 
the unimpeachable or absolute control of a given territory by its government.  All states, 
now have responsibilities to protect the rights of their citizenry and sovereignty is ceded if 
a state fails to act according to these responsibilities.   

This set of responsibilities, which is enforceable by the international community, is 
“normatively grounded in the fundamental values of human dignity.”Drawing upon the 
post-WWII successes in the promotion of universal human rights as well as the 
“evolution of increasing demands for democratic values, institutions, and practices,” 
Deng (1996, pp. 6-10) argues that increased interference in the affairs of other states in the 
post-Cold War world reflects “the growing resolve of the international community to 

126

Application Of State-centric Security Approach  To The Security...  -    C.N. Oguga & P.C. Okoli



override sovereignty in support of international human rights and humanitarian 
intervention.”
Such arguments have since remained at the centre of efforts to bring about a normative 
transformation of state sovereignty to allow greater intervention in the domestic crises of 
states.  The influence gained by Deng's notion of sovereignty as responsibility was further 
reflected in Kofi Annan's 1999 speech on what he termed “two concepts of sovereignty.” 
Speaking in the wake of the NATO intervention in Kosovo and the Australian-led 
intervention in East Timor, Annan pursued the idea of “individual sovereignty” as a 
foundation for the amelioration of the absolute sovereignty of states, arguing that:

State sovereignty, in its most basic sense, is being 
redefined—not least by the forces of globalization and 
international co-operation. States are now widely 
understood to be instruments at the service of their peoples, 
and not vice versa.  At the same time, individual 
sovereignty—by which I mean the fundamental freedom of 
each individual, enshrined in the charter of the UN and 
subsequent international treaties—has been enhanced by a 
renewed and spreading consciousness of individual rights 
(pp. 49-50).

Overall, all the opponents of realism believe that security and peace thrive better in an 
environment where human right is respected by sovereign states.  Realizing this in their 
opinion requires a redefinition of sovereignty that allows the international community to 
take action within the territory of a sovereign state with or without the consent of that state 
to protect human rights and prevent atrocities.

This argument notwithstanding, it is pertinent to underscore that realism still remains the 
dominant theory of security in international relation and politics. This is because it is not 
just true that states remain the key actors on the international arena, but also that human 
rights can hardly be protected outside the nation state. Protection of human rights and 
protection of territorial integrity are the opposite sides of the same coin. Thus, the 
protection of human rights and territorial integrity in the Southeast can both be achieved 
as suggested in this study.

Conclusion 

Specifically, this study applied the theory of state-centric security to investigate the 
causes and explore the solutions to the insecurity in the Southeast. The study discovered 
that the primary cause of the problem is the inability of the Nigerian Government to fulfill 
its obligations of protecting lives and properties in the Southeast. The situation was 
further complicated by the fact that the people of Southeast felt and rightly so that they 
have been marginalized both politically and economically by the Nigerian Government. 
To ameliorate the situation, the study will proffer the following recommendations:

Recommendations

1.   The Nigerian government should embark on massive economic development of the 
Southeast to give the people a sense of economic belonging.

2.  The present Nigerian government should also ensure that Southeasters are justly 

127

                                            Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 3 Issue 2, 2023
ISSN: 2786-9792

December 



represented in national decision making bodies. Particularly, efforts should be made 
to see that somebody from the Zone is included in the high echelon of the security 
architecture of the country. Also, ensuring that a Southeasterner becomes a president 
of the country will help to heal the wounds of past injustices.

3.  And finally, these other recommendations have to be combined with robust law 
enforcement to ensure that hoodlums don't hide under the genuine grievances of the 
people to perpetuate criminality. 

References
Al-Rodhan, F. (2007).The Multi-sum Security Principle (Berlin:  LIT), pp. 67-82.
Annan, K. (1999). “Two Concepts of Sovereignty”, The Economist, 352, pp. 49-82.
Anne-Marie Slaughter, A. (2004). “Sovereignty and Power in a Networked World Order” 

Stanford Journal of International Law, pp. 262-284.
Bajpai, K. (2000). Human Security: Concept and Measurement. Notre Dame: UNP.
Crisis Group commentary. (2015). “Nigeria's Biafran Separatist Upsurge”, 4 December.
Deng, F. M. l Kimaro, S. I. Zartmann, W. Rothchild, D. and Terrence L. (1996). 

Sovereignty as Responsibility: Conflict Management in Africa. Washington, DC: 
Brookings Institution.

Elisa B. (2017). Treaty of Westphalia VS. Responsibility to Protect, Austrian Almanac, 
4(1), pp.20-43

Hobbes, T. (1846). The Leviathan, (New York: Oxford University Press.
Kolodziej, E. (2005). Security and International Relations. Cambridge, C U P.
National Population Commission. (1998). 1991 Population Census of the Federal 

Republic of Nigeria: Analytical Report at the National Level. Government Printer, 
Abuja.

Nwajiuba, C. (2005). International Migration and Livelihoods in Southeastern 
Nigeria.Global Migration Perspectives No. 50, October.

Obasi, N. (2017). “Nigeria: How to solve a problem like Biafra”, in African Arguments, 
(29 May), pp. 16-38

Ogugua C. N. (2020). “Insecurity in the Southeast”. Angel Network News. (28 Nov), pp. 
15-37.

Paris, R. (2004).  “Still and Inscrutable Concept”, In Security Dialogue 35, Fall.
Slattery, K. (2016). The Igbo People – Origin & History. Queen's University of Belfast: 

Belfast.
The Authority (2016). “Unease over 'Islamization' plot”, 22 March.
Udenta, J., Nwosuji, E. & Chukwuemeka E. (2015). Migration and National 

Development: A Comparative Analysis of the Attitude of the First Generation 
South-East Nigeria Migrants and the New Generation. Arabian Journal of 
Business and Management Review, 5(5), pp. 15-36. 

UNDP. (1994). “Human Development Report.http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/ 
global/hdr1994/chapters/. 

Vanguard. (2016). “Fulani herdsmen: Attacks threaten Nigeria's existence.” 27 April.
…………. (2018). 27 April.
………… (2020). 17 Dec.
………... (2021). 30 Nov.
……….. 2022). 15 Jan.

128

Application Of State-centric Security Approach  To The Security...  -    C.N. Oguga & P.C. Okoli


	Page 126
	Page 127
	Page 128
	Page 129
	Page 130
	Page 131
	Page 132
	Page 133
	Page 134
	Page 135
	Page 136

