Introduction: a preface to the understanding of the aesthetic and ethical imperatives for viable national security in the post-colonial African state / Dapo Adelugba -- The bounds of security theorising: envisioning discursive inputs for the rectification of a post-colonial situation / Philip Ogo Ujomu -- An aesthetic theorising of the challenge of national security in the post-colonial context / Philip Ogo Ujomu and Dapo Adelugba -- Rethinking traditional security in Africa: the reconstruction of the cosmological foundations of security / Dapo Adelugba -- Cultural dimensions of the national security problem / Olusegun Oladiran and Irene Omolola Adadevoh -- The gender dimensions of the national security and human security problematic: core theoretical, conceptual and historical issues / Irene Omolola Adadevoh -- Rethinking ethical security in the light of European institutional security and integration strategies: the quest for methodological convergence / Aduke G. Adebayo.