Al-Hikmah University Journal

This paper juxtaposes data on Nigeria's demographics, insecurity and human development indices to illustrate their connection. Population, security and development are intricately connected. However, the nature of their relationship is sometimes non-linear or even ambiguous. Nigeria is faced with population explosion, spate of insecurity and worsening human development indices. In other words, in the face of rapid population growth and rising insecurity, the country's human development indices are below the global and sub-Saharan African averages. The paper uses secondary sources to generate data on Nigeria's demographics, insecurity and human development indices. Changes in size and structure of the Nigeria's population have translated into youth bulge, growth of urban population and competition over access to increasingly scarce natural resources (specifically wetland for farming and grazing) in rural areas. These demographic dynamics are not accompanied with increased investment in social services or human capital. Consequently, youth unemployment, poverty, livelihood displacement and hopelessness have become prevalent. The preponderance of these stress factors (youth bulge, urban population growth and growing scarcity of land) and declined investment in social services have resulted in different forms of insecurity — youth gangs, insurgency, farmer-herder conflict, militancy, ethno-religious clashes and rural banditry. The paper argues that widening ungoverned space, ecological crisis, poor economic policies and mobilization of primordial identities in Nigeria may have further confounded the association between demographic changes and security, and together they slow its pace of development. The country requires a robust population policy and massive investment in social services to leverage its demographic dividends.