Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

@article{207030,
        author = {Oludayo Olaniyi Fashola},
        title = {DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE AND NIGERIA’S NATIONAL SECURITY: AN ALTERNATIVE NARRATIVE OF SOUTHERN KADUNA},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {13},
        number = {2},
        pages = {4207-4213},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=207030},
        abstract = {This study examines the relationship between democratic governance and national security in Nigeria, with a specific focus on Southern Kaduna as a critical case study. While dominant narratives often frame insecurity in the region through ethno-religious conflict and criminality, this paper advances an alternative perspective that situates the crisis within the broader challenges of democratic deficits, governance failures, and structural inequalities. Drawing on qualitative analysis, the study interrogates how weak institutional capacity, politicization of identity, uneven resource distribution, and limited state presence have undermined citizens’ trust and exacerbated insecurity. Since the returned of Nigeria to civil democratic rule in 1999, there has been numerous cases of security threat in many parts of the country. This is worrisome because theoretically, democratic governance should engender security, development, and harmony. However, experience with democratic governance in Nigeria; with reference to Southern Kaduna has been on the contrary. This paper attempts a critical analysis of the security situation of the Southern Kaduna under the democratic dispensation. Given the seemingly irreducible place of insecurity in Southern Kaduna, this paper argues that the core factor responsible for the insecurity in Southern Kaduna is bad leadership. Based on its analysis, the paper concludes that the security of Southern Kaduna and the nation at large will continue to be threatened so long as the political leaders remain selfish, greedy, corrupt, and as long as political thuggery and inequality continue to exist.},
        keywords = {Democratic Governance, National Security, Democracy and Good Governance},
        month = {July},
        }