State Policing and Police Efficiency in Nigeria

Abstract

In Nigeria today, the National Conference is ongoing to fashion a more robust way to reposition the country’s federalism and strengthen its democracy. As such, one of the major issues being discussed at the conference borders on security; stressing the need for devolution of the highly centralized police power to reposition the institution to adequately maintain law and order and secure the lives and property of people. This, obviously, is as a result of the upsurge in both violent and non-violent crimes across the country following the inability of the police to prove its worth. The inability of the police to efficiently perform its constitutional duties, among others factors, is now blamed on the over-centralization of the force in Nigeria. This situation has brought about the increasing demand for the decentralization of the force, while many are stressing on the need to maintain the status-quo. This  paper has weighed both sides of the coin and argued that one of the ways the Nigerian police would be able to function efficiently, not through any form of reform, but through the establishment of state police. Therefore, this paper advocate for the establishment of state policing as one of the lasting measure to curbing the recurring crime problem in Nigeria.

Key words: Nigerian Police, State Police, Policing, Police Efficiency