Impacts of insecurity on recreation and tourism in Katsina State, northwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Insecurity has become a global phenomenon affected even the most advanced countries of the world such as the United States of America where periodic gun violence or mass shooting of unarmed civilians has been claiming many lives annually. Though insecurity is more prevalent in developing countries where series of armed conflicts have claimed many lives, destroyed properties, and forced displacements. This paper examined the impacts of insecurity on recreation and tourism in Katsina State Northern Nigeria. The methodology employed to collect data for the research includes field visits to the affected areas to observe the physical and human settings. There is also the use of focus group discussions involving ten participants each from two groups in each of the eight local government areas most affected by the insecurity. The results have shown that Katsina State possesses a variety of recreational and tourist centers such as historical sites and monuments, recreational parks and resorts, waterfront areas, geomorphic features, and durbar festivals. The results further showed that banditry is the form of insecurity affecting recreation and tourism in the State from 2011 to date (2023). Banditry has negatively affected recreation and tourism in form of loss of lives of recreationists, taking over forests and villages containing tourist's sites, halting recreation and tourism projects, deliberate clearance of forest areas, restricting travelling and cancellation of durbar festivals. This is despite the series of efforts by the Federal and State Governments towards curbing insecurity to allow recreation and tourism to flourish. There is therefore the urgent need to adopt more active and decisive measures to combat the insecurity thereby promoting tourism and recreation in Katsina State northern Nigeria.

Keywords

• impacts
• insecurity
• banditry
• bandits
• recreation
• tourism
• katsina state