Remapping Secured Neighbourhoods in Conflict Prone Nigeria: The Jos Example

Abstract

An emerging issue in Nigeria is the rising security consciousness of Nigerians. Military rule created a security tradition which excludes human being in favour of the state or regime survival. The coming of democracy raises people’s expectation that things would change. The lifting of restraints encouraged the outbreak of conflicts between groups. One consequence is the rising exclusion among hitherto friendly neighbours on the basis of religion and ethnicity. Thus in the emerging settlement readjustment and in the determination of places to reside, Nigerians are guided by this safety consideration as the government can no longer guarantee this. This paper examines neighbourhood readjustment in Jos, the capital of Plateau state in central Nigeria, and argues that elected government have not distance themselves from the security tradition they inherited and begin to cater for human being. It is this that creates the condition for disintegration which every violent outburst produces in the readjustment of residential areas among citizens.

Keywords: Economic Deprivation, Conflict, Segregation, Nigeria