State culture and terrorism in Nigeria: an alternative approach to realism

Abstract

Since September 11th, 2001 world attention has again been riveted on terrorism as a sudden menace. The memory of the 1998 horrific bombings in Kenya lasted as long as the public outrage followed by the March 11th, 2004 attacks in Madrid. Terrorism is not confined to any specific geopolitical space, and cannot always be reduced to Realism as a common denominator. Social and cultural movements that are anti-sovereign and anti-national need culturally sensitive but firm handling. The fact remains that a new way of looking at Africa is emerging (Abraham 2001). This new way combines the social science with the political science for a holistic understanding of Africa's security problems and hence their solutions.
In this context, Nigeria is an African state that is worthy of attention. Paul Wolfowitz was partly right when he said: “I emphatically disagree” with people who apply historical and cultural determinism to the future of countries. But he also missed the point that institution building in furtherance of security has to take place contextually (Wolfowitz 2004), and there is no military solution to terrorism in Africa.

Institute of African Studies: Research Review 2005, Vol. 21(1): 59-72