Social security as a panacea to kidnapping in South-West Nigeria: A theoretical review

Abstract

There are various security challenges facing societies around the world. Kidnapping is one challenge that undermines peace and stability in the globe. Kidnapping leads to death of victims, bodily harm, loss of properties and worsening economic conditions. To tackle kidnapping, social security is one valuable measure put in place. However, social security is bedeviled with challenges like corruption, mismanagement, lack of political will, ethnicity, bad policy and programmes. Therefore, this paper addresses the challenges of social security and kidnapping in South-West, Nigeria.  The study intends to fill the gap created by shortage of scholarly materials to explore challenges of social security and kidnapping in South-West Nigeria. The data were obtained secondarily through the content analysis of peer reviewed journals, edited textbooks, and credible online resources. It anchors on social control theory by Travis Hirsch. Findings revealed that corruption, lack of political will, ethnicity, religiosity and other challenges are working against social security drives to combat kidnapping in Nigeria. The paper recommends effective youth empowerment schemes to bring to the shore the potentials among the youths. This paper will be useful by improving knowledge on the social security and kidnapping, improve the extant literature on social security and kidnapping, the policy-makers, employment of labour, organized private sectors and researchers in the field of social and management sciences will find it beneficial.