Conflict Entrepreneurship and Rural Banditry in Nigeria Fourth Republic

Persistent attacks by bandits in states across the country have compounded the security challenges with attendant negative implications on all aspects of social life. Despite the efforts of the government and other stakeholders in curtailing the social menace, all amounted to futility, with the bandits becoming more emboldened devising several means of evading apprehension. Therefore, the paper investigated conflict entrepreneurship and rural banditry in Nigeria. The entrepreneur disposition theory was adopted as a theoretical framework. The paper relied on the mixed method based on the use of survey which included the administration of questionnaire and interview. The study was analysed using ordinal regression analysis. It was revealed that the problem of rural banditry in the affected places and Nigeria at large seems impossible because conflict compradors who benefit from the activities of the bandits see it as a form of business investment. It further argued that the rising rate of unemployment and poverty in the state over time has led many youths into banditry industry. Therefore, the paper concluded that the approaches in making peace deal with the bandits in the state has encouraged arms dealers and Government at all levels must come up with reliable and dependable people-oriented policies and plans or programmes to unravel the basic needs of livelihood of the people in the country particularly, poverty reduction, employment creation, inclusiveness among others. Hence the paper recommended among others, that government should be intentional about concerned agencies undertaking different strategies towards dealing with banditry and establishing legitimacy.