Abstract
This study examined the security management strategies and operational challenges constraining the mitigation of armed banditry and its impact on economic development in Niger State, Nigeria. Framed within Rational Choice Theory, the study investigated how criminal syndicates exploit institutional gaps for material gain, turning vast, unpoliced frontiers like the Allawa and Kamuku forest reserves into highly volatile enclaves. Employing a mixed-methods research design, the study utilized a sample size of 400 respondents, reducing field data from 367 retrieved questionnaires and secondary macroeconomic data. The findings revealed that while government-led kinetic measures such as military sweeps and forest-clearing operations achieved localized, temporary successes, their long-term efficacy is severely undermined by a reactive “kinetic loop” and the absence of permanent civil-military holding forces. Consequently, vital economic routes across frontline Local Government Areas specifically Shiroro, Rafi, and Munya remain highly insecure, precipitating a severe agrarian collapse and driving transportinduced headline inflation above 34%. Furthermore, the study identified critical micro-level institutional bottlenecks, including delayed responses to distress calls, acute shortages of operational surveillance equipment, and fragmented intelligence coordination between formal security agencies and local vigilantes. Soft, nonkinetic measures like early warning units remain profoundly underfunded due to fiscal disbursements favoring reactive containment lines. The study concluded that armed banditry has evolved into a structurally entrenched economy of violence that systematically drains developmental capital. It recommended an urgent architectural shift toward balancing kinetic operations with permanent border-patrol assets, real-time intelligence-sharing repositories, and state-backed socio-economic stabilization frameworks.
Keywords: Security Management, Armed Banditry, Economic Development, Rational Choice Theory, Niger State, Joint Military Operations.
Author name(s):
Abdullahi Mohammed Abdul,
Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
Aminu Ibrahim,
Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
Ruth Caleb Luka,
Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
Abdallah Magaji Inuwa,
Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23161003
Copyright © [2026] The Author(s). Published by the Journal of People and Worldviews (JPW). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited.