Poverty, Unemployment and Insecurity Challenges in Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria is presently experiencing a high level of unemployment, which has significantly contributed to a higher level of poverty, whose effects and consequences have contributed to a high level of insecurity. Making use of Nigerian data from 1990– 2017, this paper sought to investigate the interactive effects of unemployment, poverty, and insecurity in Nigeria; and examine the response of poverty and unemployment to the emergence of conflict in Nigeria by employing the Granger causality test and the variance decomposition technique. The results show that as more people fall below the poverty line, the rate of unemployment increases and government spends more on security; and also as more people become unemployed, the level of poverty increases; and as government expenditure on security increases, poverty increases. Insecurity accounted for the greatest shocks in poverty and unemployment; and also, poverty and unemployment positively and significantly responded to shocks from insecurity. The paper recommends that appropriate micro- and macro-economic policies that are tailored towards elevating more people above the poverty line, creating more employment opportunities, and imposing more stringent penalties on culprits involved in insecurity vices must be pursued to enhance citizens’ quality of life.

JEL Classification: E24, F52, I32