INSTINCTIVE FUEL SUBSIDY REMOVAL AND THE DEBACLE OF HUMAN SECURITY IN NIGERIA: AN EXPOSITION OF THE RIVERS STATE EXPERIENCE

The likelihood that the catastrophe and machinations surrounding Nigeria’s fuel subsidy removal could alarmingly affect human security was an issue. This prompted the scrutiny of the instinctive fuel subsidy removal and the debacle of human security in Nigeria: An exposition of the Rivers State experience. The study formulated three research questions and their corresponding objectives, which were to ascertain how the politisation of fuel subsidy removal impedes the attainment of social security, evaluate how the politisation of fuel subsidy removal affects economic security, and examine how the politization of fuel subsidy removal impedes physical security in Rivers State. The study adopted Karl Marx's political economy approach on dialectical materialism as the theoretical framework. An 18-item self-structured instrument was used to collect data from 406 selected public servants in Rivers State. Collected data was analysed using mean and standard deviation. The study revealed that the politicization of fuel subsidy removal has far-reaching implications for social security ( = X =3.72), economic security ( = X =3.74), and physical security ( =3.76) in Rivers State. The study recommended, among others, that the government should strengthen the implementation of social welfare programmes such as transportation subsidies, food assistance programmes, and direct cash transfers to support and cushion the financial burden on struggling households and vulnerable populations. Alongside, the government should strategically adopt and implement a “Conflict-Sensitive and De-Escalation and Law Enforcement (CSDLE) policy by training security personnel on human rights-based policing that will help foster trust and minimize the risks of human rights violations, injuries, and fatalities even during protests.