Theory of Securitization to Counter Ebola Virus: The Nigerian Approach

The 2014 outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is one of the zoonotic diseases[1] that became health security threat for international community. It affected Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Senegal and Mali in West Africa and also USA and Spain outside of Africa. However, in Africa, Nigeria and Senegal securitized it successfully, but others not potentially contained it in time. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the Nigerian approach to counter Ebola through theory of securitization and highlighting the lessons that others affected and non-affected countries and international community could learn how to protect any pandemics in the future. In light of this understanding, the paper discussed the military and nonmilitary issues of security studies, the Nigerian situation and history of Ebola as background; Ebola as health security threat, the Nigerian approach, the Copenhagen Schools theory of securitization, the Nigerian securitization framework and major lessons. To achieve reliable findings of the study, qualitative research approach is applied with the help of secondary data and focused literature review using document analysis.