Economic gaps and crimes among the States of Nigeria

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Solomon A. Olakojo,Abayomi T. Onanuga,Olaronke T. Onanuga
• Date: 01 December 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2732

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Economic gaps and crimes among the States of Nigeria

Solomon A. Olakojo

1

| Abayomi T. Onanuga

2

| Olaronke T. Onanuga

3,4

1

Department of Economics, University of

Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

2

Department of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo

University, Ago Iwoye, Nigeria

3

Department of Economics, KolaDaisi

University, Ibadan, Nigeria

4

Centre for Economic Policy and Development

Research (CEPDeR), Covenant University, Ota,

Nigeria

Correspondence

Solomon A. Olakojo, Department of

Economics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo,

Nigeria.

Email: solomonolakojo@gmail.com

In recent times, rising insecurity and crimes are some ofthe major problems confronting

Nigeria. However, crimes vary significantly across the States in the country. This study,

therefore, investigated the effects of State's economic gaps on crimes employing panel

instrumental variables technique for 21 States in Nigeria and Federal Capital Territory

(FCT) between 2016 and 2017. The results showed that States' income per capita is

not crime reducing but States' income per capita gaps. A 10% reduction in States'

income per capita gaps reduced all crimes and crimes against people by 1.8% and 3.0%,

respectively. Also, 10% increase in the population density increased crimes against the

authority by 7.0%. Reducing State's economic gaps and population reducing policy

would be effective approaches at minimising crimes inNigeria.

KEYWORDS

crimes, economic gaps, sustainable development

1|INTRODUCTION

Goal 16 of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) aims at significantly

reducing all forms of violence, end conflict and insecurity. This becomes

imperative because there can be no sustainable development without

peace and stability. World over, insecurity in all its forms has become

central to the debate over whether countries are on a sustainable eco-

nomic growth path (Shapiro et al., 2013). In Nigeria, crimes including ter-

rorism, armed robberies, banditries, small insurgencies, and kidnapping

for ransom have been on the rise in recent times. The persistent conflicts

and insecurity in Nigeria makes it rank 124th of 128 countries in the

2019 Global Finance magazine's safety index.

1

Hence, Nigeria could be

categorised as very risky. This has implications for investors' confidence

in and the overall health of the economy. However, security risks and

types vary significantly across different States of Nigeria.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) crime report of 2018

grouped crimes into three categories: offences against persons,

offences against property and offences against lawful authority. Of

these three, offences against property was the highest (68,579 cases),

followed by crimes against persons (53,641 cases) out of 134,663

total cases in 2017. This represents an increase of 4.9% and 17.8%,

respectively, compared to 2016, while total crime rate increased by

7.1% within the same period. There is a wide disparity across the

36 states of the Federation in offences types and intensity. In 2016,

Lagos had the highest crime cases (45,384), followed by Federal Capi-

tal Territory-FCT (13,181) and Delta (7, 867). The dynamics changed

marginally in 2017. While Lagos maintained the lead with 50, 975

cases, it was followed by Abia (12,408 cases) and Delta state (7150

cases). The lowest state on the criminality radar was Kebi state which

recorded a total of 120 and 205 crime cases, respectively in 2016 and

2017. The above shows that crimes, on the average, has increased

across types and states between 2016 and 2017. However, some

states such as Anambra, Bauchi, Cross-river, Delta, Ekiti and FCT

experienced a decline in total crimes within the same period.

Also, the Q1–Q3 2017 labour force statistics (volume 1) of the

National Bureau of Statistics shows that Rivers, Lagos, Kaduna, Kano

and Akwa-Ibom reportedhighest unemployedand underemployedpop-

ulation in the third quarter of 2.64 million, 2.33 million, 1.99 million,

1.90 million and 1.81 million, respectively. These five states constitute

31.14% of the total unemployed and underemployed population in

Nigeria.Connecting the unemployment rates to crimes,these States are

equally among the richest States in Nigeria and are among the States

with highest population density.

The relationship between household economic circumstances and

criminal activities has been studied (Baltagi, 2006; Borooah &

Collins, 1995; Chamlin & Cochran, 2004; Clarke et al., 2000;

Dickinson, 1994; Harries, 2006; Krivo & Peterson, 1996; Nolan, 2004;

Stucky et al., 2015). For instance, Stucky et al. (2015) showed

1

https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/non-economic-data/worlds-safest-countries-2019.

Received: 22 June 2020 Revised: 8 April 2021 Accepted: 20 July 2021

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2732

J Public Affairs. 2022;22(Suppl. 1):e2732. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 1of12

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2732