INTER-AGENCY COLLABORATION IN COMBATING MULTINATIONAL THREATS IN NIGERIA: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

Abstract

Inter-agency collaboration is crucial to curbing and combating multinational threats in Nigeria, including terrorism, transnational organized crime, human trafficking, and smuggling. However, achieving effective cooperation among government agencies and stakeholders remains fraught with challenges due to bureaucratic inefficiencies, lack of trust among agencies, and conflicting mandates that result in jurisdictional disputes. Poor communication channels and inadequate information sharing further undermine coordination efforts, enabling threats to persist or evolve. Resource limitations, coupled with political interference, often exacerbate these problems, reducing operational effectiveness. Furthermore, corruption and weak institutional frameworks compromise joint strategies and hinder long-term planning. This paper highlights these challenges and proposes actionable solutions to improve inter-agency collaboration in combating multinational threats in Nigeria. The paper employs the theory of organizational behavior, and relies on the documentary method of data collection, utilizing content analysis. The finds that lack of rust and communication, institutional rivalries and turf wars, different mandates and priorities, bureaucratic inadequacies, resource constraints and corruption among other factors are the challenges of inter-agency collaboration in combating multinational threats in Nigeria. The paper recommends among other things, fostering a culture of mutual trust and streamlining overlapping functions among agencies in Nigeria.