RESOURCE CONTROL AND SECURITY CHALLENGES IN NIGERIA: A LOCKEAN REFLECTION

Abstract

This paper examines the resource control quandary in Nigeria from the perspective of John Locke with a view to suggesting a viable system that can mitigate the problems of resource control with its concomitant security challenges. Resource control has remained a recurring subject and perennial challenge for the Nigerian state, resulting into numerous agitations and conicts. The agitations mostly come from the people of the oil producing regions who have suffered much harm as a result of oil exploration. The people of the region have suffered much injustice, alienation, exploitation, oppression, marginalisation and dehumanisation, yet, attempt to salvage this repulsive condition appears elusive. This has led to numerous conicts, acrimony, restiveness and the rise of many armed groups, thereby posing a serious security threat to Nigeria. John Locke's political theory is adopted as a model in tackling the resource control imbroglio. This owes to its signicance in social, political, ethical and legal discourses, ranging from natural rights, property right, freedom, equality, social contract to limited and representative government. Adopting the philosophical method of exposition and critical analysis, the paper contends that “Just Federalism” constitutes a viable theory that can robustly extenuate the problems of resource control with its concomitant security challenges facing Nigeria today; thus, ensuring the realisation of the desired “Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress”.