DIGITAL GOVERNANCE: A PATHWAY FOR COMBATING EMERGING PUBLIC SAFETY AND SECURITY CHALLENGES IN XXI CENTURY NIGERIA

The digital revolution of the XXIst century has not only positively affected all aspects of social life, but has also precipitated broad negative impacts such as cybercrimes which globally resulted in the loss of about $600 billion (0.8 percent of the global GDP) in 2018. As need for a new form of governance to address the disruptive effects of the digital revolution arose, governments across the globe shifted from the 20th century bureaucracy-centred analogue governance model to a 21st century citizen-centred digital model. This paper examined the digital model of governance and its application with specific focus on Nigeria. The paper utilised secondary data from different sources including journal papers, national dailies and reports. Thus, the meaning of digital governance and Nigerian journey in the digital landscape are examined. It is revealed that while Nigeria made a significant progress in its journey to digitalisation with the introduction of National Identification Number (NIN) among other digital initiatives, exclusion and insecurity are twin challenges that continue to inhibit the achievement of their ultimate objectives. It is therefore recommended that a policy framework to guide the efforts aimed at solving the problems should be designed by navigating through e-democracy, e-administration and e-services being the core relationships that characterise e-governance.