The Role of British Colonial Administration in the Establishment and Workings of the Nigerian Police Force, 1930 – 1960

Abstract

Ideally, colonial administrations, including the British colonial administration, played significant role in the establishment and workings of security agencies to maintain peaceful coexistence and protect the lives and property of all members of any given society around the world. This paper examines, critically, the role of the British Colonial Administration in the establishment and workings of the Nigerian Police Force, contrary to bourgeois claim that the Nigerian Police Force protect all members of the Nigerian society; the paper posits that the Nigerian Police Force was established primarily to save guard the British colonial state and also to protect the lives and property of British Officials and influential members of the Nigerian society. Although the British colonial administration ended in 1960, the Nigerian Police Force continued providing state security services for the Nigerian state with minimum attention to the people – oriented security services for common Nigerians. The writer has observed that the preoccupation of the British colonial administration with the provision of state security services instead of providing people – oriented security services for all members of the Nigerian society provoked nationalist agitation against the British colonial administration. The writer has out rightly condemned colonialism and the associated discriminative practices against the colonized Nigerians. The paper concludes that it was the British colonial state’s preoccupation with the protection of colonial state institution and the lives and property of the British and influential Nigerians rather than the provision of people – oriented security services for all members of the Nigerian society that brought about the end of British colonial administration in 1960.