No abstract

The security, economic, social and political disruptions of the state induced by the activities of organized crime has weakened the state’s authority to carry out its expected functions of good governance. In Nigeria, the illegal activities of criminal cartel groups affect government’s resources and its ability to enhance the welfare, basic human needs and living standard of its citizens. The criminal cartels who in their corrupt practices penetrate political offices to wax their influence, strengthened by the integration of security agencies and judicial organs of the state to shield their illegal activities carried out by violence or threat of violence have become a course for national concern. This is why urgent attention needs to be taken to address the menace. It is against this background that the paper examined the impact of organized crime on good governance and also to proffer ways the menace can be reduced to the barest minimum. The paper adopted the bureaucracy model of organized crime since it is organized like a conventional bureaucracy pyramid shape with members in hierarchical leadership through which its activities are carried out. The paper utilized secondary sources of data and was historically analyzed. The findings of the paper revealed that the ill activities of organized crime undercut government’s transparency, accountability, popular political participation and ability to harness resources for the well-being of the citizens. It is also observe that the infiltration of organized criminals in public affairs subverts government’s welfare policies of its citizens, due to gross corruption all over public office, among others. The recommendations include inter alia: That political and economic agencies should beef up their administrative tentacles and arsenals to stem the tide of organized criminal cartels, leaders should muster the political will to restrict people from lifestyles that encourages organized crime, the government should ensure that welfare dimension of human needs is provided to attract citizens’ patriotism to shun criminal groups and their activities, among others.

There is growing recognition that peace and security are fundamental for socio-political and economic development of any country in the world. Yet Violent conflicts, whether social, political, or environmental, has significantly contributed to the crisis of sustainable development and security challenges in terms of loss of human and material resources. This paper has therefore, examined the nature of peace, security and sustainable development in Nigeria. The study adopts a combination of theories like; the clash of civilization theory, the frustration-aggression theory, state fragility and failed state theory. Qualitative method, such as textbooks, journal articles, internet, among others was used as sources of data collection. The work was descriptively analyzed through the content of the information gathered. The paper explores various dimensions of the social, political, economic and other conditions that have over the years affected the indices for measuring peace, security and sustainable development in Nigeria. Consequently, the paper revealed some of the symptoms that have truncated the "God given" peace, security and sustainable development in Nigeria, which includes; corruption, unemployment, Weak institutional system, structural imbalance, human trafficking, bad leadership, among others. The paper concluded with some useful policies recommendations regarding the way forward therein and most importantly, called for the need by the Nigeria government to learn from history, as attempts been made to tackle the challenges currently upsetting the attainment of sustainable peace, security and development in the country.