Armed banditry is prevalent in Nigeria. It has competed with insurgency for the soul of Nigeria’s national security. Contemporary trajectories of armed banditry in Nigeria have been full of complications. One of the complications is the emergence of crime lords who engage in a self-aggrandizing but also socially sensitive criminal career. This paper seeks to explore the phenomenon of ‘crimelordism’ as a new trend in armed banditry in Nigeria. Utilizing a mixed qualitative method, the paper posits that the prevalence of grossly under-governed territorial spaces, especially in the countryside and borderlands of Nigeria, has created a vacuum of security that is being exploited by criminal kingpins to establish enclaves of criminality where they wield and exercise quasi-territorial powers. The paper submits that ‘crimelordism’ holds critical implications for Nigeria’s national security in view of its ruinous impacts.

武装匪徒在尼日利亚很普遍。它与叛乱分子争夺尼日利亚国家安全的灵魂。尼日利亚武装匪徒的当代轨迹充满了复杂性。并发症之一是犯罪主人们的出现，他们从事自我强化的工作，但也从事对社会敏感的犯罪职业。本文旨在探讨“ crimorordism”现象，这是尼日利亚武装匪徒的新趋势。本文采用混合定性方法，认为存在严重不足的领土空间，尤其是在尼日利亚的农村和边疆地区，这种情况造成了安全真空，犯罪主人们利用这些真空建立了犯罪场所并行使准领土权力。