Emplacing Nigeria as Peaceful and Secure State in the International System: The Monarchy’s Intervention as an Imperative

With the outbreak of Boko Haram insurgency since 2009, surge in Niger Delta militancy in the Yar’Adua/Jonathan years, proliferation of kidnapping particularly of expatriates and Chibok Girls coupled with the orgy of killings unleashed on harmless and armless farmers, women, and children by some Fulani herdsmen in parts of Nigeria, the country is terrorized. Thus, it can be safely argued that Nigeria is at the threshold of becoming a failed state in terms of peace and security. Apart from the obvious implications of this state of insecurity on the State-Citizen relationship within Nigeria, it has impacted negatively on the country’s external image, strength of sovereignty and integrity, as well as discouraging the much-needed foreign investment. While the Nigerian State has been making strident efforts to stem the tide of threatened peace and insecurity, it is a truism that such efforts need to be upgraded through thinking out of the box, in furthering the search for solution to these problems. In agreement with scholars on the central relevance of culture to any people’s development trajectories, this paper unpacks some roles that the institution of monarchy can play in arresting the unpleasant trend. The paper argues that, given the vantage position of traditional rulers as custodians of community traditions and culture, coupled with their closeness to the people in the grassroots and the quantum of reverence they command among their subjects, they should be statutorily integrated into the mainstream of the governance architecture for direct involvement in the peace-building and security maintenance process.