ABSTRACT
Exploring the contentious landscape of Nigeria’s escalating violence, this book describes the changing roles of traditional authorities in combatting contemporary security challenges.
Set against a backdrop of widespread security threats – including insurgency, land disputes, communal violence, regional independence movements, and widespread criminal activities – perhaps more than ever before, Nigeria’s conventional security infrastructure seems ill-equipped for the job. This book offers a fresh, empirical analysis of the roles of traditional authorities – including kings, Ezes, Obas, and Emirs – who are often hailed as potent alternatives to the state in security governance. It complicates the assumption that these traditional leaders, by virtue of their customary legitimacy and popular roots, are singularly effective in preventing and managing violence. Instead, in exploring their creative adaptation to governance roles after a dramatic postcolonial downturn, this book argues that traditional leaders can augment, but not substitute, the state in addressing insecurity.
This book’s in-depth analysis will be of interest to researchers and policy makers across African and security studies, political science, anthropology, and development.
The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |22 pages
Introduction
part I|126 pages
Continuity and Change
chapter 2|27 pages
Assessing the Capacity of Traditional Institutions and Authorities in Maintaining Security and Peace
chapter 3|24 pages
The Changing Roles of Traditional Authorities in Security Management
chapter 4|29 pages
Female Traditional Institutions and the Travails of Conflict Management, Peace, and Security in Ekiti Society
chapter 5|22 pages
The Diminishing Relevance of Traditional Rulers and Securitization in the South-West
part II|122 pages
Contemporary Problems and Solutions
chapter 7|18 pages
Importing Militant Jihadists
chapter 8|22 pages
Traditional Institutions and the Management of Herder-farmer Conflicts in Nasarawa State
part |20 pages
Conclusion