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Article Title:
TRANS-BORDER CRIME AND THE CIVIL-SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS IN NIGERIA
| Abstract: The triumph of civil society engagement in stamping out military rule in Nigeria and the success recorded especially in South Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe have largely given discourse on civil society an innate positivity in developing nations. Civil society has therefore become a buzzword touted by policy makers and political scientists as key to political, economic and social development and a conventional prescription for solving the global socio-political and economic ills. Strongly funded and supported by international donor agencies for its role in advancing democracy, civil society organizations have become so potent in societal administration and governance. However, the potency of civil society organizations in curtailing trans-border challenges and the type of civil society needed for this purpose has largely been glossed over by scholars. This study therefore examines and re-contextualizes civil society against the backdrop of the escalating trans-border crime in Nigeria. The paper attempts to provide answer to the following questions: what is trans-border crime in Nigeria? What are the social variables that underpin its resilience? Can civil society be harnessed to curtail the challenges posed by trans-border crime? What type of civil society can be harnessed? Secondary data was used to obtain data for the study. Liberal and theory of state fragility provided a theoretical framework. The paper contends that rather than focussing on interest based civil society, the activities of which further hurt the poor, traditional civil societies that largely engender social capital should be strengthened and repositioned to assist in curtailing challenges posed by trans-border crime in Nigeria |
| Keywords: Civil Society, Crime, Trans-Border Crime and Social Capital |
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