Countering Violent Extremism in Nigeria: an examination of politics and power in policy and practice

Countering violent extremism (CVE) approaches are internationally recognised as an alternative to counter terrorism approaches that rely on kinetic, militaristic, and punitive methods of curbing threats. CVE, referred to as a non-kinetic, whole of society approach, is often perceived as a western initiative as it was initially adopted by western countries after the September 9/11 attacks, London, and Madrid bombings. As required by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA, 2015), Nigeria has developed a national framework and action plan for preventing and countering violent extremism. This thesis examines how state and non-state actors and institutions shape the politics of countering violent extremism policy and practice in Nigeria.
Extant literature on security and terrorism studies perceives approaches on preventing terrorism as dominated by western framed discourses which are often state centric and promoted through internationally funded initiatives (Stephens et al., 2021; Shanaah and Heath-Kelly,2023; Ucko,2018). This study examines how global CVE initiatives and narratives interact with the local context in Nigeria, building on a wider framing of post¬colonial state politics in Africa. It does so through a case study of CVE in Nigeria drawing on analysis of policy and media sources, key informant interviews and focused group discussion in the period July-September 2022
The thesis applies Kashwan’s power in institutions matrix to analyse how CVE is shaped and practiced in Nigeria. Through disaggregating forms of overt, agenda and ideational power the study uncovers the complex and contested dynamics of CVE in relation to the activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria.
The research reveals three key sets of findings:
1) That external and internationally driven CVE agendas are co-opted by state actors at a policy level, but that this adoption is relatively shallow and characterised by isomorphic mimicry.
2) That CVE policy and practice is shaped by a set of actors embedded in existing patronage relationships that strategically excludes other actors;
3) That blame for the failure of CVE is widely understood as a lack of ‘political willingness’ to take action, but the deeper complexity of the roots and structural drivers of conflict go beyond the ability of the state institutions and actors to directly control them.
The findings in this thesis reinforce positions in literature on how less dominant states are conscribed into international agenda including CVE agenda (Shanaah and Heath-Kelly,2023; Martini,2021; Mdee and Harrison,2019). The findings also demonstrate that patterns of exclusion based on patronage is complex and comprehensive and transcends the notes in literature on the exclusion of CSO, religious and ethnic groups (Kundnani and Hayes, 2018). The research further contributes to both CVE and postcolonial literature (Ekeh,1975; Chabal and Daloz,1999), on how complicated political dynamics are described as political will, stifle the implementation of CVE, erodes resilience to violent extremism, and aids radicalisation and mobilisation to violent extremism.