Abstract: Since the early 2000s, the Nigerian authorities have been grappling with a dangerous and dramatic twist in both the rate, dimensions, and forms of act of insecurity particularly the rising cases of terrorism, kidnapping, armed banditry, oil bunkering, and piracy. A point appears to have been reached that the known conventional strategies of combating the dreaded scourge of violent criminality appear to have proved most ineffective, particularly where they are left to operate alone. This paper, therefore, employed the methodological approaches of review of related literature and content analysis to examine the role a form of informal security structures (ISS) known as local hunter strategy could play as part of an evolving security architecture in Nigeria. The paper made a number of findings chief among which was that right from the pre-colonial era, the various pristine communities across what later came to be known as Nigeria at independence had evolved for themselves various efficient systems for fighting crime of all types; that during the colonial era ( between the 1930s and 1950s) local hunter known as di-nta , sode, sode or ode and yantauri among the Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa respectively was adopted in fighting violent crime across the country; and that the strategy (the local hunter system) has been popularized, abandoned, and re-adopted time and time again by various communities across the country. The paper also found that the said strategy (the local hunter system) which was built on very strong reliance on such local implements as Dane guns, bows and arrows, machetes, torch lights, whistles, and above all, various assortments of anti-criminal charms or occult medicine had proved very effective in fighting crime during the period. It was also the revelation of this paper that quite recently a number of States in both Northern and South–western parts of Nigeria have re-adopted the local hunter system as a tool for fighting crime. In certain instances in North-east Nigeria both the military and police formations currently engaged in fighting terrorist insurgency in parts of the region are successfully deploying the local hunter strategy not only for intelligence gathering and surveillance but also for special direct physical confrontation with the heavily armed terrorist insurgents. Finally, a number of recommendations were made for the way forward in the concerted assault at the scourge of insecurity across the country prominent among which was a clarion call for the remaining State Governments across the country to embrace the said strategy as part of their official security architectures, recruitment and training greater number able-bodied youths, practising hunters, retired military personnel and police officers with a view to strengthening the fast emerging local-hunters unit of the state security system.
Keywords: security, informal security structure, local hunter, police, community, (di-nta, ode, yantauri).
Title: Dane Gun - Machine Gunb Nexus: The Local Hunter Strategy as a Tool for Modern Security Provision in Communities in Nigeria
Author: Zems, Mathias
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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