The Need for Mathematics Education in Addressing Insecurity in Nigeria

The role of mathematics education is critical to the attainment of a state of security in the Nigerian society. This is because, without a strong basic foundation in mathematics, creating and maintaining a secured society is unlikely. This is emphasised in a document released by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) for the National Security Strategy, 2019. It was highlighted clearly that security is the cornerstone of development and progress in a free society and that security is a guarantee of the wellbeing of citizens and stability of the state. Also tracing the history of developed countries such as America, they have arrived at their developed levels after suffering from series of wars. Those wars were won with scheming strategies in which mathematical knowledge form the basis, because the service of great mathematical minds were employed to analyse movements, proportions, trajectories, implications (economic, population, etc.) as well as development of calculating and war machines with accuracy and precisions, among other things. This paper therefore justifies the need for mathematics education in addressing insecurity in Nigeria as it xrays the major mathematics skills needed to build security conscious individuals and concludes as an eye opener to the fact that mathematics remains a functional field of study embedded with necessary prerequisite skills needed for confronting rising insecurity issues and other challenges in the society.