CONFLICT ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND BOKO-HARAM INSURGENCY: UNEARTHING A PEACEFUL PARADIGM FOR NIGERIA

Abstract

Boko Haram insurgency has remained a recurring challenge to Nigeria’s national security, having failed to respond to many provided solutions due to the activities of conflict entrepreneurs and profiteers of violence, whose business interest is directed to stimulate conflicts and elongate same through various methods. Thus, the research seeks to examine the culpability of business-oriented groups and individuals in Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, including their modus operandi. The paper adopted desk research methodology with secondary data from extant literatures and third-party intervention theory as explanatory framework. The result showed that conflicts such as Boko Haram insurgence in Nigeria is a product of state failure to offer the needed protection and apprehend conflict engineers and that availability of rich resources and struggle for political power are propensity for violence. It recommends for speedy trials of conflicts entrepreneurs and that federal government should disengage from rehabilitation of criminals and conflicts profiteers, including a paradigm shift from granting political and business patronage to conflict provocateurs across Nigeria.