Policy Framework for Community and State Policing in Combating Rising Security Challenges in Nigeria

Viability of decentralizing policing in Nigeria had been on the front burner of security discourse since Nigeria returned to democratic governance in 1999. Valid points had been put forward by both those in support and those in opposition. The Community Policing Department of the Nigeria Police had remained more of an administrative unit with little impact beyond the Police Community Relations Committee activities. Rising cases of herdsmen attacks of various communities, terrorist insurgency in the North-East, kidnappings across the different geo-political zones had resulted in the need to interrogate the efficacy of effective community policing and state policing as viable options to combating rising security challenges. The study adopted qualitative method, and being a library research relied entirely on secondary data. Sources of data included journals, relevant textbooks, newspapers, magazines, and materials downloaded from internet. The paper argues that the traditional security agencies had failed to effectively combat the many security challenges that Nigeria faces. The combination of the official security agencies and the military had failed to effectively combat insecurity in the country. The local vigilante groups on the other hand had made valuable inroad in curtailing some of the security challenges including terrorist insurgency as a result of their knowledge of the terrain. The paper concludes that to effectively combat the many security challenges, there is a need for new policy framework at the federal and state levels that would decentralize policing and give legal backing for collaboration between the official security agencies under the federal government and state security outfits including the vigilante.