Migration And National Security: A Study Of Nigeria’s Porous Borders

Abstract

One of the unsolved puzzles that provoked this study is the porosity of Nigeria’s borders which triggered unmitigated inflows of voluntary and involuntary migrants to our country. This of course, poses serious security threats to the corporate existence of Nigeria. The study aims at showcasing the synergy between migration and national security and by extension addresses the question of whether migration represents a threat to national security or not. Of course, common response to this question is that migration could be a vehicle for importing terrorists, criminals and for spreading infectious diseases. The nefarious activities of the dreaded terrorist group known as Bokko Harram which has made lives and properties insecure in Nigeria could be attributed to the incursion of migrants from the Republics of Niger and Chad to Nigeria. Therefore the burgeoning migrant smuggling and human trafficking industries do not only undermine the sovereignty of our country but also weaken the public confidence in the integrity of government policy. This undoubtedly, impact on the practical implications of our resource allocation as well as conceptual models of integration and national identity. The study adopted content analysis techniques and comparative analysis.  While, data collected through secondary sources were analyzed through expository mechanism. Rational decision theory provided the theoretical framework for the study. As panacea to mitigate the inflows of migrants and curtail the challenges pose by Nigeria border’s porosity, the Nigeria government should articulate and develop more sustainable socio-economic cum security policies to prevent labour and refugee migrants. Nigeria government should also adopt environmental peculiaristic surveillance paradigm to combat the incursion of migrants by improving on her border security personnel, equipping them with sophisticated hardware and weapons, work on her legal framework for punishing corrupt border personnel and simultaneously intensify border patrol.