Terrorism and Moral Panic in Nigeria

Abstract

Terrorism and Moral Panic in Nigeria, is an investigation of the impact of terrorist attacks in the psyche of Nigerians. The sovereignty of the Nigerian state was threatened following the emergence of a terrorist group known as Boko Haram, which conquered a substantial part of Northeast Nigeria, using modern military hardware such as bombs, rockets, military tanks and high caliber machine guns. Boko Haram carried their terrorist attacks to many parts of Northern Nigeria, including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which made the entire country to panic by creating genuine fear of insecurity in Nigeria. The study was conducted in August and September, 2015, in Abuja. A cross-sectional survey method was used to select 276 respondents by accidental sampling technique through the use of administered questionnaire. The study indicates that there were rampant terrorist attacks in Abuja, and the frequency by which people felt panicked was high. Also, the study found the role of the mass media in spreading information about the activities of the terrorists to be high. The study indicated high perception of personal risk by the respondents with a greater percentage knowing at least one dead victim of the terrorist attacks in Nigeria. The study recommended the improvement of the nation's security network and public enlightenment as the panacea to the security challenges facing Nigeria at the moment.

Violent crimes and insecurity on Nigerian highways: A tale of travelers’ trauma, nightmares and state slumber

“…A combination of the poor ranking of the Nigerian state on the global poverty, terrorism and corruption indices, coupled with the country's poor economic profile and infrastructure deficits in addition to the rising wave of previously established crimes like robberies, assassinations, rapes and financial frauds, have placed the Nigerian society on the edge of an imminent socio-cultural disorganization. The theory adds utility to the present study when situated against the backdrop of the fact that it formed the major plank of the narratives of similar disorganized social environments interrogated by some authors in previous studies [ 2 , 4 , [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] , [40] ].…”

“…Recent security based researches and some major newspaper commentaries have classified Nigerian highways as high risk zones [ [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] ]. This has cast a dark shadow on the integrity and ability of the government in protecting its citizens and foreigners living and crisscrossing the nation's highways.…”

“…In this section, we present a review of scholarly articles and sundry analyses of spiraling violence and unconscionable insecurity along Nigeria's highways. Previous empirical studies have portrayed the Nigerian highways as the most dangerous hotspots of routinely high crime risk environments [ 2 , 4 , 5 , 42 ]. Following the July 2019 assassination of Mrs Funke Olakunrin, whose father, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, is the leader of the Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organization, Afenifere, there was outpouring of anger, hate, pessimism, threats, counter threats and ultimatums from across the length and breadth of the country over high level of insecurity on Nigerian highways [ 34 ].…”

The politics of moral panic: Anthropology of mass-panicking processes of contemporary Sri Lanka

“…The Pressreader.com (19 th August 2013) 27 The same article quoted the Science and Technology Research Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka "We cannot allow our children to be used as "Guinea Pigs" in this exercise for experiments". Many other significant individuals and social organizations made a magnitude discourse within mass media against unaccountability of the estate sector and depraved actions multinational companies.…”