MILITARY IN INTERNAL SECURITY OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHT: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ONGOING MILITARY OPERATIONS IN NIGERIA.

MILITARY IN INTERNAL SECURITY OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHT: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ONGOING MILITARY OPERATIONS IN NIGERIA.

CHAPTER 1:

Introduction

Security is the enduring yet elusive quest. Today most of us similarly seek security, yet our quest is tempered by the reality that while humans have sought safety history, they say have usually failed to achieve that goal for long (Rourke & Boyer, 2002:243). Most scholars agree that security is a ‘contested concept’. There is a consensus that it implies freedom from threats to core values (for both individuals and group) but there is a major disagreement about whether the main focus of enquiry should be on ‘individual’, ’national’, or ‘international’ security (Baylis & Smith, 2001:300). Some security experts argued that the concept of security has always been associated with the safety and survival of the state and its citizens from harm or destruction or from dangerous threats. This conception generally holds that the state is the only institution with the primary responsibility and power for the safety of its territory and its people (Zabadi, 2005:3). The concept of security in this paper is operationalized within the context of a nation hence the concept of

Internal security. Civil war writing was dominated by ideas of national security which was largely defined in militarized terms with scholars and statesmen advocating on the military capabilities of states to deal with threat that face them. More recently, however, this idea of security has been criticized for being ethnocentric (culturally based) and too narrowly defined. A number of contemporary writers have argued for an expanded conception of security outward from the limits of parochial national security to include a range of other considerations. Buzan (1992) in his study, People, States and Fear, argues for a view of security which include political, economic, societal, environmental as well as military aspect and which is also defined in broader international terms as in the case of security, the discussion is about the pursuit of freedom from threat. When this discussion is in the context of the international system, security is about the ability of states and societies to maintain their independent identity and their functional integrity (Baylis & Smith, 2001:300).

Security is often viewed in terms of the basic survival, welfare, and protection of the state existing in an international system characterized by self- help (Viotti, P. & Kauppi, and M. 2009:15). As Ozoemena (2009) argues, security is all about national interest and involves “the sum total of actions and measures, including legislative and operational procedures, adopted to ensure peace, stability and the general wellbeing of a nation and its citizens” (Ozoemena, 2009)

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MILITARY IN INTERNAL SECURITY OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHT: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ONGOING MILITARY OPERATIONS IN NIGERIA.

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