At the recently organized Summit by CLEEN Foundation Nigeria, the security and governance challenges of the five states of South East Nigeria were examined. In this piece, the security and governance challenges in Ebonyi State was studied and presented by Dr.Otu of the Department of Sociology, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki. He started by tracing the history of Ebonyi State, describing the State as relatively new state among other states of South East region. He said that his study followed same pattern and methodology as that of Dr. Ukiwo. His said his study revealed that the following governance and security challenges exist in Ebonyi State:

• Evidences of bad and unaccountable governance pattern in Ebonyi State.
• No fair and credible elections in Ebonyi State.
• Lack of sincerity and insensibility on the part of government.
• Corruption and evidences of corrupt leadership in many facets of Ebonyi State governance.
• Ethnic conflicts and rivalries, Youth restiveness, Cultism, Unhealthy political rivalries and killings.
• Advance fee fraud [419] etc.
• Dearth of funds and programmes: It must be noted that Ebonyi State receives the least fund from federal account and has very weak internally generated revenue.
• Docility of Ebonyi citizens in engaging and criticizing the government constructively.
• Lack of people oriented programmes and projects.
• Unemployment.
• Incessant ethnic conflicts.
• Cultism and youth restiveness.
• Drug abuse and alcoholism
• Armed robbery
• Political thugs and thurggery
• Kidnapping
• Strikes
• Harassment and intimidation of women.

Despite the fact that some people who responded to the questionnaire of the study believed there is nothing government can do, vast majority believed that the government cannot be separated from the governance and security challenges in Ebonyi State. Many more believed that unaccountable governance breeds insecurity and bad governance.
RESPONSES OF GOVERNMENT TO INSECURITY IN EBONYI STATE
The responses of the successive Ebonyi State governments to the security and governance challenges include:

• Periodic employment of Ebonyi citizens into government civil service during the era of Sam Egwu
• Free and compulsory primary and secondary school education
• Harnessing abundant mineral deposits in the State
• Revitalizing Nkalagu cement Factory
• NGOs and CSOs response include the formation of Neighborhood Initiative for Women Advancement NIWA, Action Aid, Participatory Development Alternative PDA and Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre CIRDOCC
• The Faith based Organizations FBOs like the Anglican Church Evangelist Ephraim has mobilized people for protest march for good governance.
• The Nigerian Labor Congress and Trade Union Congress strikes to press for salaries etc
• Formation or allowing for the formation of vigilante groups by the town unions. There were no laws backing these vigilante groups the study reveals. The Ministry of Justice drafted a law for the vigilante groups but Dr. Sam Egwu did no accent to it when the State House of Assembly passed it.
• The Christian Association of Nigeria CAN, Traditional Council of Elders, Town Unions and Ebonyi Founding Fathers have continually intervened on critical issues effecting the state.

FINDINGS
The findings of the study include:

• That there are very strong interconnections between governance and security in Ebonyi State. Governance defines the direction of security so that the apparent high level of insecurity in Ebonyi State is traceable to bad, unaccountable governance.
• Poor revenue base, incessant strikes, bribery and corruption, cultism, political thuggery and assassinations, kidnapping, drug and alcohol abuse, unemployment and youth restiveness and communal crashes are major indices of poor governance and they therefore represent both governance and security challenges confronting Ebonyi State.
• The study shows that state and non-state actors such as town unions play important roles in governance and security in Ebonyi State. The roles include: mobilizing, forming, organizing, coordinating and directing young men into vigilante groups for security purposes and direct participation in community development projects as well as acting as check and balance to political leaders. However, the unions face numerous challenges , notably , government interference, lack of funds, embezzlement, politicization and leadership crisis.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The study recommended the following:

• There is need for the government of Ebonyi State to improve transparency and accountability in governance processes by engaging the people in decision making process.
• There is need for the Ebonyi State Government to create a forum that will specifically address the numerous insecurity challenges in the State through conducting action research on insecurity generally and specific pattern of policing in the State.
• The State Government should promote and mainstream rights based approach to community development in the State as an alternative to self help approach. Self-help approach encourages government to abdicate its responsibilities of providing basic amenities.
• The State Government should take steps to address the backwardness of the State. There must be mainstream right based approach to economic development of the State.
• The Ebonyi State Government should consciously re-enact the importance of the town union and reposition them for better service delivery in enhancing governance process and promoting security.