AN ASSESSMENT OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE ON NIGERIA’SNATIONAL SECURITY IN KADUNA METROPOLIS.

This paper is an assessment of the Impact of Democratic Governance on Nigeria’s National Security in Kaduna Metropolis. The study aims to among others, examine the relationship between democratic governance and national security in the fourth republic (2015-2021) through which it interrogates the issues, challenges and suggests measures for improving democratic governance in Nigeria and Kaduna Metropolis in particular. The research adopted the Centripetal Governance Theory as a framework of analysis. The study also adopted a hybrid methodology, and relied on primary and secondary data collected through questionnaire and unstructured interview. Findings from the study revealed that there is a casual relationship between democratic governance and national security. The paper further shows that democratic governance has negative and positive impact on the security of Kaduna State. The positive impacts include the introduction of new salary scale for civil servants, spread of digital technology across the state through deregulation of the communication sector which led to the introduction of the Global System for Mobile telecommunication, passage of the freedom of information bill, some measure of respect for the rule of law, establishment of agencies such as Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency (KADIPA), which has assumed impressive drive in attracting businesses to the state and promoting harmonization across various agencies of government. While on the negative side, the impacts include unemployment, inequality, and uneven distribution of resources, electoral fraud, and slow pace of human and capital development. The study therefore recommends among others that, The Federal Government of Nigerian should (i) encapsulate, reinforce institutions and processes of governance to improve social provisioning for its citizens, who are attractive and increasingly frustrated over governance failure; (ii) create job opportunities for Nigeria’s teeming youths who have as a result, become hopeless, thus the rise in crimes and SALWs; The research also recommends that Kaduna State Government should strengthen and promote peaceful coexistence amongst the diverse people in the State through recognition of her various diversities and promoting joint sense of belonging in equitably distribution of her scarce resources.