Political Security as Essential
Component of National Security
By Zakari Usman
Political insecurity, such as electoral violence and an attempt to topple
democratic governance, is one of the biggest threats to national security and
nationhood. Once there is political insecurity, society tends to reinforce fault
lines and revert to social, cultural and geographical identities capable of
creating divisions along such lines as ethnicity, religion, region, etc. Whether it
is the Holocaust or the Rwandan Genocide, political insecurity has a history of
igniting further threats and its resolution has a poor reputation of being a slow
and torturous process.
In many African countries where there had been conflicts in the past and in the
ones currently experiencing conflicts, political insecurity has played a role in the
escalation of such conflicts. Even in Nigeria, the Civil War of 1966 started as a
breach of political security. It is for this reason that stakeholders and the general
population should understand the concept of political security and how it forms
an imperative component of national security.
One of the triggers of political insecurity in developing countries is the process
of political transition in form of elections. It is with this understanding, for
instance, that Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, at
the first quarterly meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on
Election Security (ICCES) for the year 2022, tasked the Independent National
Electoral Committee (INEC) to address all logistics and operational challenges
ahead of the 2023 general elections.
“This is important, given the fact that the 2023 general election is around the
corner. The Area Council elections in the FCT is holding on 12th February, 2022
and there are two off-cycle elections in Ekiti and Osun states as well as other
bye elections in the country,” the NSA said.
According to a 1994 Human Development Report, political security is one of the
seven security frameworks associated with human security. Other securities
within the policy circle are: economic security, food security, health security,
environmental security, personal security and community security.
One academic definition of the concept of political security was given by Buzan
and Kelstrup thus: “Political security concerns itself with organisational stability
of states systems of government and the ideologies that give them legitimacy.”
In essence, political security is concerned with protection of human rights and
well-being of all people. It also includes protection against people from state
repression such as freedom of press, freedom of speech and freedom of voting.
Abolishment of political detention, imprisonment, systematic ill treatment and
disappearance are also covered under political security.
After the 9/11 attacks, both the concept of human security and what constitutes
political security changed. At the core of those changes was an attempt to shift
traditional approaches to security away from the integrity of the state and state
sovereignty to the community and individual. In doing so, the concept of threat
is modified away from inter-state war, nuclear proliferation and revolutions to
broader concerns with disease, poverty, natural disaster, violence, human rights
abuses and genocide amongst other threats.
By then, the concept of national security, which had assumed different
definitions in the past, thereby leading to misconceptions about its components
and actors, evolved into something widely understood to cover the protection of
citizens, livelihoods, critical infrastructure, the environment and cyberspace, as
well as ensuring food security and response to natural disasters. As mentioned,
responsibility on matters of national security has also evolved; from integrity of
state and state sovereignty to community and individual-based involvement of
non-state actors.
Whether it is the old definition of political security within the concept of human
security or the evolving definition of national security, one thing is clear: political
security is the focal point of other security frameworks – economic, health,
environmental, cyber, food, maritime and border, etc.
This connection has been vividly captured in Nigeria’s National Security Strategy
(NSS, 2019); a policy blueprint developed by Office of the National Security
Adviser (ONSA) which outlines how the country’s national security is being
coordinated. Page 44 of the NSS states on political security: “The nexus
between political stability and economic prosperity calls for appropriate
measures to be taken to ensure the political security of Nigeria. Accordingly, the
objective of political security is to aggregate and unify the aspirations of
individuals and groups in the Federation through reasonable distribution of
power as well as wholesome generation and equitable distribution of resources.
“To achieve this objective, we will ensure the exploitation of the opportunities
provided by our endowments in terms of size, resources, population and
strength inherent in our diversity. We will equally foster the interdependence of
our people, while taking deliberate measures to overcome the challenges of
managing diversity.”
The NSS further states that Nigeria’s political security measures will include
multi-sectoral responses such as: promoting unity and national cohesion by
fostering a culture of civility and inclusive public discourse; ensuring political
stability based on multi-party democracy, grassroots political participation,
political inclusiveness, strong democratic and political institutions and a free,
fair and credible electoral process devoid of all kinds of violence; enhancing
good governance based on development, accountability, zero tolerance for
corruption at all levels, sound regulatory mechanisms, due process, rule of law
and human rights; promoting non-discrimination among all Nigerians
irrespective of gender, religion or ethnic origin; ensuring sound fiscal federalism
as a deliberate socio-economic strategy; and ensuring freedom of information,
national orientation, de-radicalisation and political education of the populace as
a political strategy to facilitate citizens’ commitment to our national security
goals, among others.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria will drive the implementation of our political
security measures under the principle of delineation and distribution of
responsibility among the different tiers of government. To this end, we will
employ all national strategic assets to coordinate the achievement of our
national political security goals,” the document states.
Crucially, as the nation enters into an election season, it is important for
stakeholders to make the connection between political security in the context of
national security and a threat to it as an existential threat to nationhood, just as
NSA Monguno did with INEC’s logistics and operations. In this light, vile political
rhetoric, electoral violence, propagating fake news and hate speech, corruption
and instigating discordant socio-cultural sentiments, among other vices, before,
during and after the election are gestures capable of endangering political
security in particular and national security in general.
