TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 EVOLUTION OF NIGERIA POLICE FORCE
2.2 THE PROBLEMS OF NIGERIA POLICE
2.3 THE IMPEDIMENTS TO EFFECTIVE POLICING IN NIGERIA
2.4 OBSTACLES TO EFFECTIVE POLICING
2.5 IMPLICATIONS OF POLICE CORRUPTION, INEFFECTIVENESS AND INEFFICIENCY IN POLICING STANDARDS
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
3.3 STUDY POPULATION
3.4 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
3.5 DATA FOR THE STUDY: INSTRUMENTATION
3.5.1 INSTRUMENTATION
3.5.2 VALIDITY OF INSTRUMENT
3.6 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 DATA ANALYSIS (QUESTIONNAIRE)
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
5.2 CONCLUSION
5.3 RECOMMENDATION
REFERENCES
QUESTIONNAIRE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The Nigeria Police is one of the most fundamental government bodies endowed with the rights and responsibilities of protecting the people and maintaining peace and order. The rights and responsibilities of the police are the duties aligned with the state’s primary responsibilities of guaranteeing peace, safety, and security of the people in the society. Reiner (1993) states that police are special carriers of state’s bedrock power, and are the agents with authority for legitimate use of force for maintaining public and private goods and services. In this regard, the police defend the character of the state as a capable political organization, protecting and preserving the interests of the entire society. When police abandon their legitimate endowment, the society is vulnerable to insecurity, crimes, brutality and various vices.
The long neglect suffered by the Nigeria Police from both military and civilian governments has led them to seek other illegitimate means of meeting societal institutionalized goals. When opportunities are closed to reach the societal approved goals, actors may likely seek other alternative means no matter how illegitimate. This structural defect with the frustrating ignoble treatment by successive regimes has constantly led to smearing and denigration of the police in Nigeria. The Nigeria police have performed creditably well on missions outside the shores of Nigeria, but their performance at home has been unexciting and excruciatingly unethical, probably because of the unfriendly and unwholesome environment in which they work. This has invariably led to being seen as corrupt, inept and unproductive by the public. The apparent public normative hatred against the police is deeply rooted in colonialism. They were used mainly to contain or suppress the „natives‟ who were against colonial exploitation, hence the hostility between the public and the police has been endemic. The absence of harmony and the deep rooted mistrust between the two continued even till date. The public has never seen the police as friends but as enemies that should be avoided or destroyed as occasion warrants. In fact so many people learnt very early to hate the police and see them as enemy.
Undoubtedly, Nigeria is currently bedeviled by myriads of worrisome challenges. The most recurring of these are bribery and corruption, unemployment, poverty and insecurity. Since independence in 1960, Nigeria has not experienced the nature and magnitude of insecurity she is enmeshed in, since her return to democratic form of governance in 1999. The return of democracy has witnessed an upsurge in violent crimes because of the withdrawal of the military personnel from security duties within the states (Ihekire 2014). Obviously, the level of violent crimes, such as militancy, armed-robbery, ritual killings, child and women trafficking, rape, politically motivated killings, ethno-religious rivalry, on one hand, and non-violent crimes, such as prostitution, bribery and corruption, public disorder, gambling and so on, on the other hand, appear to have defiled all known criminal justice system solution. The Boko Haram terrorism has further aggravated already the tensed security situation in Nigeria.
The need for assessment is particularly crucial in a developing country like Nigeria where we have new but simultaneously burgeoning social problems whose nature, patterns, and management demand new strategies; where instrumentalities and personnel concerned with these problems are relatively new and inexperienced; where a myriad of needs competes for very scarce resources with myriad of problems and where there is no long standing concern for research and professional competence to guide policy(Igbinovia, 1982; Karimu, 1999). The
Nigeria Police Force as it is known is the major organ that is saddled with responsibility of crime prevention and control in the country, but the burgeoning crime and the sophistication with which it is executed makes the functions of the Nigeria Police Force very cumbersome and arduous. This situation is aggravating considering the low morale of members of the police force and the numerous external and internal problems confronting the agency which include manpower shortages, lack of essential police equipment and quality of police personnel (Igbinovia, 1982; Karimu, 1999).
According to Igbinovia (1982) the external factors are those about which the police as an organization have little influence; for example, the overall budgetary allocations which are made in competition with other government organs, by politicians and bureaucrats. Such things as manpower shortages, lack of equipment, funds, etc. are problems that come to the police and limit their capacity to perform the task of crime prevention and control effectively (Igbinovia,
1982; Karimu, 1999). Yet other problems are much more amenable to police control. For example, police behavior and conduct during their work, the content and extent of the training they receive, the control superiors exercise over patrol men, and the degree of corruption within the agency, all constitute internal factors. Many of the internal factors are actually exacerbated or are brought about the external factors (Igbinovia, 1982).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In the face of ever increasing acts of lawlessness, social disorder, armed robbery, political assassinations, village rivalry and hatred, police is involved in collection of bribes and private gifts. This situation depicts the police to ‘negative image’ and ‘negative sanctions’, especially in Nigeria, where police‟s image is an open scandal of corruption.
Police corruption involves exploitation of their public position, resources, and power to suppress individuals in order to bargain for bribes (Amuwo 2005 & Obayelu 2007). Ogundiya (2009) states that “police corruption is a betrayal of public trust” (p.5). This behavior involves the misuse of public power, a deviation from acceptable norms, and unauthorized use of public resources for private gain. The problem is that, when the police are involved in thistype of criminal behavior [i.e. corruption],it undermines effective policing as professional work and creates obstacles to effective policing. The inevitable aftermath [implication] is that, a criminal cannot police another criminal, otherwise, the system becomes weakened, the society becomes vulnerable to various vices and criminal culture becomes liberalized.This situation provoked the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar to remove “road-blocks from the nation‟s highways” (Uma & Eboh 2013).
The crime problem in Nigeria has assumed a serious dimension despite the fact that official statistics down play the problem to a minimal level. This situation may explain why affluent people have resorted to hiring private security system which was hitherto foreign to the country to protect them, their family and property. Additionally, as a result of the crime situation the confidence people used to have in the police especially in the prevention and control of crime has waned considerably. No governmental agency in Nigeria except the defunct National Electric
Power Authority has been so severely criticized as the Nigeria Police for not living to its responsibilities and expectations (Igbinovia, 1982; Karimu, 1999).
Police criticisms in Nigeria generally center on the quality of the police personnel, their ineffectiveness and inefficiency in carrying out their tasks especially in preventing and controlling crime, manpower shortages, poor police attitudes and response to citizens’ lack of essential police equipment and facilities and constant conflict and tension between the police and the citizenry. Another area which has also resulted in efficiency in the police ability to effectively carry out its primary assign duties of crime prevention and control and which has further alienated the agency from the citizenry is the amount of corruption that exist in the agency.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The general objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness and efficiency of Nigerian police force, a case study of Agege LGA. The specific objectives of this study include the following:
1. To find out the level of effectiveness and efficiency of Nigeria police force.
2. To ascertain the challenges affecting the effectiveness and efficiency of Nigeria police force.
3. To examine the possible solutions to the challenges affecting the effectiveness and efficiency of Nigeria police force.
4. To determine the influence of corruption on the effectiveness and efficiency of Nigeria police force.
5. To investigate the role of the government in enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of Nigeria police force.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The relevant research questions related to this study include the following: