HARMS FROM ABROAD: IMPACT OF GLOBAL SECURITY MEASURES ON CIVIC SPACE IN NIGERIA

Nigeria is a signatory to numerous security-related treaties at the global and regional levels, professing its commitment to international cooperation on diverse security issues ranging from counterterrorism, organized crimes, weapons of mass destruction, nuclear non-proliferation, cybercrimes, human rights, international humanitarian law and other transborder crimes.  How does the transnational security architecture designed to prevent and counter global threats manifest in key national contexts? Are countries effectively transplanting the norms and measures entrenched in “global security playbooks”—such as the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Standards, UN Security Council Resolutions and others—in ways that align with the social, economic and political realities in the local context? What evidence exists to show that global security norms are providing countries with additional legal impetus to restrict civil liberties and tighten the civic space?

Indeed, Nigeria is struggling to rein in several theaters of insecurity in different parts of the country. As the severity and lethality of these security threats heighten, the country is deploying military and non-military measures mostly copied from abroad or transplanted from global security playbooks. This paper examines whether any links exist between the transnational security arrangements and the increasing constraints on the civic space in Nigeria built on the rhetoric of countering terrorism and defending national security.

The trends and patterns of governmental restrictions arising from the implementation of international counterterrorism norms at the local level illuminate whether the way Nigeria is following these standards is problematic or not. The findings show that the incorrect transplantation or misapplication of global security measures can and does happen even where the country has good intentions, creating opportunities for the weaponization of security laws and measures to suppress fundamental freedoms and tighten the civic space. Findings build evidence showing how the accelerated use of the global security playbook provides national governments with the justification to stifle civic freedoms, target dissenters and protesters under the guise of “national security.”

Based on the collective intelligence and diagnosis of this security playbook, the paper concludes by highlighting the opportunities that exist in short-term and long-term for civic actors to push back, to disrupt, to reform, and over long-term to transform the influence of security on the civic space in Nigeria and beyond.