This article examines the involvement of youth — constructed as ‘area boys’ and ‘area girls’ — in crises of order in downtown Lagos. It explores the emergence of ‘bases’ and ‘junctions’ as modes of organization and differentiation between and among youth in urban Lagos. A ‘base’ is a neighbourhood meeting place where youths gather to relax, recreate, and discuss sports and politics. A ‘junction’ is where social miscreants, street marauders and touts congregate to exploit money-making opportunities. It is my argument that bases and junctions embody distinct, yet connected, forms of subcultures that are simultaneously imbibed and projected by members. Moreover, they constitute emergent forms of territoriality constructed around spaces of leisure, residence and commerce, manifested in extrastate regimes of (dis)order in downtown Lagos. The article unpacks the involvement of members of junctions and bases in the provision of (dis)order as ‘securo-commerce’ — payment of different kinds of fees and levies to purchase security or forestall insecurity in downtown Lagos.
This article interrogates emerging trends and patterns in the process of radicalisation and violent extremism in West Africa and the implications for regional and international security regimes, practices and thinking. It argues that there are real and imagined challenges of radicalisation and violent extremism. The overarching view is that the emergence of intra-and extra-African preoccupation with violent extremism alone, rather than alongside seriously addressing its structural undercurrents related to preventing and interrupting the process of radicalisation, distorts the security realities and further exacerbates the security situation in Africa. Radicalisation and violent extremism further integrates West Africa into global security assemblages, yet the absence or nonincorporation of an indigenous African (civil society) perspective or counter-narrative about radicalisation and violent extremism uncritically fuses and conflates the strategic interests of major powers with the local realities in Africa. Moreover, there is a huge potential that national governments could exploit local, regional and international interests in counteracting terrorism for domestic political advantages, such as mischaracterisation of subsisting conflicts, regular political opposition and other local grievances as cases of terrorism, thereby risking a deterioration in security conditions. q 2013 King's College London Olawale Ismail, PhD (Bradford), is the Head of Research at International Alert and associated researcher with the Conflict, Security and Development Group (KCL) and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Hisresearch interests include radicalisation and counter-terrorism, regional security mechanisms, peace-building and operations, security sector and justice reform, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration, military expenditure and youth, and political violence.
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