Funmilola Aduke Akinola, Otikwu Sylvanus, Samaila Ignatius, Mohammed Auwal

Keywords: Research, community needs, security, social stewardship

Abstract

Across Nigeria, insecurity have created apprehensive citizens, overstretched statutory policing agency and agitated non-state actors. The emergence of different forms of insecurity at every nook and cranny of Nigeria has created fear in the mind of Nigerians. Kidnapping, banditry, inter-tribal conflict, communal clashes, religious conflict, herdsmen and farmers in conflict over land for grazing, all these brought new policy and policing challenges in contemporary Nigerian society. There is no doubt that stemming the tide of conventional criminality has been very overwhelming for the grossly inadequate existing police
resources and overstretched policy. Hence, Nigeria cannot afford to rely
on the already overstretched conventional police resources to combat the emerging insecurity. This paper, therefore, explores how universities could tailor their research efforts towards community needs to achieve sustainable security in Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was
adopted for the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured
questionnaire with open-ended questions and IDI. Findings stressed
social stewardship using community-based research, corporate social
responsibility, publishing and dissemination of research findings to
community members to achieve sustainable higher education and
combat security challenges in Nigeria. The paper’s conclusion recognized the interdependence and shared responsibility between the University and the host community to achieve sustainable security.

Author Biography

Funmilola Aduke Akinola, Otikwu Sylvanus, Samaila Ignatius, Mohammed Auwal

Department of Sociology, Federal University Gashua, Yobe State, Nigeria.

Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

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