Counting the Cost: An Assessment of the Effect of Abduction and Killings on the Nigerian Human Capital Development

The need for the provision of security is the basis of the social contract between the citizens and the state, thus, it is the core responsibility of the state to ensure the protection of the lives and properties of all citizens. However, despite the provision of this fundamental right in the constitution, lives of citizens are being threatened daily by the ostensible increase in cases of kidnappings and killings. The heightened cases of insecurity have continuously hampered the human capital development efforts of the Nigerian government. Against this background, this work examined the impact of the eclipsing cases of kidnappings and killings in Nigeria on the Human Capital Development. The broken window and Robert K. Merton’s anomie theories were employed in analysing factors that influence these anti-social behaviours. In other to have a robust work, this paper adopted both documentary and survey methods while utilizing the content analysis method in analysing the gathered data. This intellectual discourse observed that the spate in killings and abduction across the nation, deplete the workforce of the country and hamper national productivity. This is because the majority of persons killed are youths, who are considered engine of the country. The threats and attacks of bandits and killings have created a climate of fear and continues to have a surging effect on public safety, food security and social cohesion in Nigeria. The study suggests that Government and Policy makers should as a matter of urgency give high priority to human capital development through review of the education and health policies, and increase budgetary allocation to these two critical sectors, reconfigure the overtly centralized and unitarized security architecture that is struggling to provide security in a supposedly federal structure and refocus the conceptualisation and pursuit of national security to human security by taking concrete steps to prioritize and right-size the deployment of available national resource to address the vulnerability of marginalised groups, especially the poor in vulnerable and isolated places.