Exploring Innovative Ways of Protecting the “Soft Targets†in Volatile Countries: The Experience of Children and Women in Northeast of Nigeria

Currently, the most crucial challenge facing Nigeria is insecurity of lives and properties of the citizens .The situation has become more complicated and unbearable, particularly in Northeast of Nigeria where terrorist group, called Boko Haram which in Housa language means Western education is evil and the group fighting to establish an Islamic State of West Africa in Nigeria, resorts to the abduction of teenage girls, boys and women and use them as soldiers, suicide bombers and human shields in battles against Nigerian troops. Despite all the efforts, the abduction, recruitment and usage of children and women for insurgent activities by those terrorists continue to escalate. Thus, the work intends to explore the better ways of safeguarding Nigeria children and women from access, attack, recruitment and usage by insurgents. It also explores the ways and means of sustaining institutions and businesses in Nigeria from insurgent’s destruction. In the course of the work, both empirical and library methods of data collection were utilized. Empirically, personal interviews and roundtable discussions were conducted on the top security operatives, political and community leaders as well people of various backgrounds. In the process, the responses, views and opinions of people interviewed and information from secondary sources were analyzed by drawing inferences and conclusions to uphold, reject or as supporting information to the research question in order to provide answers to the objectives of the work. The researcher recommends that in Nigeria, communities should organise community security systems where everyone is suspicious as well as a suspect due to the nature of membership of Boko Haram where even some members of the communities forms parts of the group. In addition, security gadgets should be mounted at every strategic point to monitor movements, actions and activities at strategic targets such as schools, shops, motor parks, markets and public gatherings. In the process, security scanning and checking devices should be utilised to checkmate people with dangerous materials that can be used to kill and inflict injuries on people. Above all, as there are insinuations that even Nigerian enforcement officials are playing double standards in the fight against the insurgents, the central government should find new ways of recruiting the fighters of the insurgents. Furthermore, though the insurgents are non-state actors, the international community should find ways of including protective treaties that will restrict the insurgents from capturing children and women and using them for military purposes. The work is presented qualitatively.