Relationship between Poverty, Socio-Political Factors and Global Terrorism

The study examined the relationship between poverty, socio-political factors and global terrorism. Social injustice, poverty, political exclusion, and religion served as the independent or predictor variables of the study. While global terrorism served as the dependent variable. The population of the study consisted of all the places where terrorist acts are being unleashed. Cross-sectional/survey design was used for the study. Data were sourced by using secondary sources. The study reviewed extant literature to generate data for the investigations. Data analyses were done with statistical tool of regression analysis (ordinary least square estimation) through the help of SPSS 25.0. The study found that there are nine countries most impacted by terrorism according to the 2022 GTI, and how they have been ranked on the index since 2011. The countries are Afghanistan 1st, Iraq 2nd, Somalia 3rd, Burkina Faso 4th, Syria 5th, Nigeria 6th, Mali 7th, Niger 8th and Pakistan 9th. The study also found that despite a one per cent decrease in the number of deaths from terrorism overall, the nine countries most impacted by terrorism remained largely unchanged. Afghanistan and Iraq maintained their positions as the two countries most impacted by terrorism, for the third consecutive year. There were some movements in the rankings with Burkina Faso overtaking Syria and Nigeria to be the fourth most impacted country, Pakistan moved from eighth most impacted to ninth and Nigeria dropped two places to sixth most impacted country. The study observeed that terrorism has become a global phenomenon with fierce destructive tendencies claiming lives and properties. Conclusively, it is obvious and evident based on the findings of the study that: There is significant relationship between social injustice and global terrorism; there is negative, but significant relationship between poverty and global terrorism; there is significant relationship between political exclusion and global terrorism, and there is no significant relationship between religion and global terrorism. The study therefore recommends the adoption of impartial characterization in handling democratization and government businesses of various nations. With that in motion equity and social justice must always be maintained in sharing dividends of democracy. Also, jobs should be created for the youths to reduce luring them to participate in terrorist acts. It is important to understand, however, that reducing poverty will have a relatively modest positive impact on countering terrorism. Governments should look at the factors that promote socio-economic development and societal resilience, taking the view that the way to build and sustain peaceful societies requires a revision in attitudes, institutions, and structures. Positive peace identifies developmental factors that lead to resilient societies, kinetic approach is not the way to stop terrorism in the world.