Contemporary Community Policing and National Security in Nigeria

Gabriel I. Oikhala

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Abstract

Crime has been identified as the most endemic problem affecting security in Nigeria. This was confirmed by the United Nations which listed Nigeria among the fifteen countries of the world that are most vulnerable to insecurity. Just like a natural disaster, crime and insecurity retard a nation’s progress. Thus, the amended 1999 Constitution of Nigeria prescribed a national police structure to maintain internal security for the country. Noting that its incident-driven policing approach has not provided adequate security for Nigeria, the police reinforced it with a police-community partnership paradigm. Even with this, frequent cases of bombings from Boko-Haram, brutal attacks on communities by herdsmen, kidnappings, killings and harvesting of human organs for money rituals among others have not reduced. The paper interrogated the challenges of contemporary community policing against national security in Nigeria and what should be done. It is an analytical-empirical paper whose data were sourced from relevant published materials and observation methods. The data were analysed through descriptive methods. Using the liberal structural conflict theory as a theoretical framework, community policing was found appropriate to deal with national security issues in Nigeria. However, among other challenges, the existing community policing was identified as incompatible with the present Nigerian political environment. Hence, it has failed to guarantee security in Nigeria. The paper concluded that community policing is central to the proper management of public security and recommended comprehensive community policing to deal with national security issues in the country.

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