Human security means to safeguard the vital core of all human lives from critical pervasive threats in a way that is consistent with long term human fulfilment.

Human security takes its shape from the human being; the vital core, that is to be protected. Human security is an ancient phenomenon. Threats of famine, war, drought, food, plagues etc. The term human security has a recent and increasingly wide usage. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 1994 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ReporT, states that the scope of global security covers seven areas which are economic, food, health, environment, personal, community and political security.

Economic security requires an assured basic income for individuals, usually from productive and remunerative work or, as a last resort, from a publicly financed safety net. In this sense, only about a quarter of the world's people are presently economically secure. While the economic security problem may be more serious in developing countries, concern also arises in developed countries as well. Unemployment problems constitute an important factor underlying political tensions and ethnic violence.

Food Security requires that people at all times have both physical and economic access to basic food. According to the United Nations, the overall availability of food is not a problem; rather, the problem often is the poor distribution of food and a lack of purchasing power. In the past, food security problems have been dealt with at both national and global levels. However, their impacts are limited.

Health Security seeks to guarantee a minimum protection from diseases and unhealthy lifestyles. In developing countries, the major causes of death are infectious and parasitic diseases, which kill 17 million people annually. In industrialized countries, the major killers are diseases of the circulatory system, killing 5.5 million every year. According to the United Nations, in both developing and industrial countries, threats to health security are usually greater for poor people in rural areas, particularly children. This is mainly due to malnutrition and insufficient supply of medicine, clean water and other necessities for healthcare.

Environmental Security aims at protecting people from the short and long term ravages of nature, man-made threats in nature, and deterioration of the natural environment. In developing countries, lack of access to clean water resources is one of the greatest environmental threats. In industrial countries, one of the major threats is air pollution. Global warming caused by the emission of greenhouse gases, is another environmental security issue.

Personal Security aims at protecting people from physical violence, whether from the state or external states, from violent individuals and sub-states actors, from domestic abuse, or from predatory adults. For many people, the greatest source of anxiety is crime, particularly violent crime.

Community Security is intended at protecting people from the loss of traditional relationships and values and from sectarian and ethic violence. Traditional communities, particularly minority ethnic groups are often threatened. About half of the world's states have experienced some inter-ethnic strife.

Political Security is concerned with whether people live in a society that honours their basic human rights. According to a recent survey conducted by Amnesty International, political repression, systematic torture, ill treatment or disappearance was still practiced in 110 countries. Human rights violations are most frequent during periods of political unrest. Along with repressing individuals and groups, governments may try to exercise control over ideas and information.

In an ideal world, each of the UNDP's seven categories of human security would receive adequate global attention and resources, but this is not so. As a result, two major schools of thought emerged on how best to practice human security - "Freedom from Fear" and "Freedom from Want".

"Freedom from Fear" seeks to limit the practice of human security to protecting individuals from violent conflicts while recognising that these violent threats are strongly associated with poverty, lack of state capacity and other forms of inequities.

"Freedom from want" advocates a holistic approach in achieving human security and argues that the threat agenda should be broadened to include hunger, disease and natural disasters because they are inseparable concepts in addressing the root of human security and they kill more people than war, genocide and terrorism combined. It expands the focus beyond violence with emphasis on development and security goals.

Human security is related to a number of concepts such as development, human rights, and gender.

Human development refers to the broad approach to expanding people's choices or capabilities not only in terms of income, but in areas such as health, education, technology, environment, employment and so on. Human development clearly holds that socio-economic policies should focus on people and their well-being as the final objectives, rather than focusing on economic growth or any other state of affairs as ends in themselves.

Frances Stewart's paper, "Development and Security" argues that security and development are deeply connected. Human security forms an important part of people's well-being, and is therefore an objective of development. An objective of development is "the enlargement of human choices". Insecurity cuts life short and thwarts the use of human potential, thereby affecting the realisation of this objective. Lack of human security has adverse consequences on economic growth and development. Unbalanced development that involves horizontal inequalities is an important source of conflict.

Human security and human development share three fundamental elements. First, they are both people oriented. Second, both are multidimensional; they address people's dignity as well as their material and physical concerns. Third, both perspectives consider poverty and inequality as the root causes of individual vulnerability. Human security and human development both address chronic poverty.

There has been a recent rise in optimism about Africa's prospects: increased economic growth, renewed regional, national and political commitments to good governance; and fewer conflicts. Yet given the current trends and with less than eight years until 2015, Africa is likely to fail to meet every single one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Almost one- third of the world's poor, Africa's challenges remain daunting as ever. The combined economics of Africa has on average, actually shrunk and is far from meeting the required 7% growth needed to tackle extreme poverty. In a world where security and development are inextricably connected in complex and multifaceted ways, Africans are amongst the most insecure.

Human security is indebted to the human rights tradition (the ideas of natural law and natural rights). The development of the human security model can be seen to have drawn upon ideas and concepts fundamental to the human rights tradition. Both approaches use the individual as the main referent. Human security and human rights address both violence and poverty. Poverty is a multifaceted concept, which manifests itself in different forms depending on the nature and extent of human deprivation. The World Bank, 1990 and Fields, 2000, refers to poverty as a rural phenomenon. By this, it means that rural communities are the worst hit by poverty. The importance of the rural poor is not always understood, partly because the urban poor are more visible and more vocal than their rural counterparts. This poverty situation in Nigeria is quite disturbing. Both the quantitative and qualitative measurements attest to the growing incidence and depth of poverty in the country.

The human security model focuses on the serious neglect of gender concerns under the traditional security paradigm. Traditional security's focus on external military threats to the state meant that majority of threats women face have been overlooked. By focusing on the individual, the security model aims at addressing the security concerns of both women and men equally. Women are often the most victims of violence and conflict: they form the majority of civilian deaths, majority of refugees, and are often the victims of cruel and degrading practices such as rape. Women's security is also threatened by unequal access to resources, services and opportunities. It therefore seeks to empower women through education, participation and access, as gender equality is seen as a necessary precondition for peace, security and a prosperous society.

While human security is not an unfamiliar concept and while it overlaps with other concepts that underlie systems of state security, human development and human rights protection, its distinctive emphasis makes a valuable contribution that the present altered security environment requires.

Sodipo wrote in from Maiduguri, Borno State