HEALTH IMPLICATION OF TERRORISM AMONG CIVIL SERVANTS IN MAIDUGURI METROPOLITAN COUNCIL BORNO STATE,NIGERIA

Abstract

Globally, the position of peace to man is beyond expression. Terrorism refers to the calculated
use of unlawful violence of threat to include fear, intended to coerce or to intimidate
government. The objective of the study is to assess the health implication of terrorism among
civil servants in Maiduguri Metropolitan council Borno State, Nigeria. The survey research
design was used for this study. Convenience sampling was used to select one hundred and fifty
(150) civil servants from the total population of seven thousand two hundred and thirty (7,230)
working in Borno state secretariat and residing in Maiduguri Metropolitan during the heat of
terrorist activities. The instrument used for data collection was a self-developed questionnaire
titled Health Implication of Terrorism Questionnaire (HITQ) which was validated by
Professional in Health Education Department University of Maiduguri. The questionnaire is
divided into four (4) sections A-D which consisted of questions on the variable under study
namely emotional, physical, social and psychological health implication of terrorism on civil
servants. The reliability instrument of the study was obtained using test-retest split-half which
shows 0.76 Cronbach alpha at 0.05 level of significance. To collect data for the study, the
research instrument was randomly distributed among the civil servant available to serve as
sample to the researcher at the time of data collection. the data collected for the study was
analyzed using inferential statistics of mean, standard deviation and rank for research question
one to four (1-4). The decisions rule was that any mean equals to or above 2.50 was regarded as
agreement while any mean below 2.50 was taken as disagreement. The study revealed that due to
the activities of terrorist, significant terrorism activities exist in Maiduguri, which include
extortion, killing, destruction of property, abduction, and threat to life and property which had
led to significant health consequences on the civil servants in Maiduguri Metropolis. It was
recommended therefore that; psycho-social support training should be given to civil servants in
Maiduguri Metropolitan.