The Challenges of Fighting Corruption in the Nigeria Police Force

Abstract

Corruption is the bane of development in many countries, including Nigeria. The seriousness of this cankerworm in Nigeria was such that President Obasanjo declared it Nigeria's No.1 enemy in 2000 while signing the Bill on the Anti- Corruption into law. Today, despite the Anti-Corruption Law and the establishment of Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and other agencies to fight corruption, Nigeria is still perceived as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. What is most worrisome about corruption in Nigeria is that like cancer the menace seems to have permeated every sector of the society including the security agencies. Indeed, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), being the first line of defence in the country's internal security arrangement is itself being perceived as neck deep in corruption. There is no gainsaying the fact that many years of neglect of the NPF by successive governments has given rise to decay in the Force. It is common knowledge that many Nigerians are daily being confronted with several ugly faces of corruption among the rank and file of the police. The most obvious is the extortion of motorists at roadblocks on the highways but there are indeed many dimensions of corruption in the NPF as revealed in this study. This study examined the serious problem that corruption is posing to the NPF and come up with far-reaching parameters to confront the challenge. The study took cognizance of the already existing measures that have been put in place both by government and the present authorities of the NPF to fight this problem. Given that despite those measures, the problem still persists, it is obvious that additional strategies have to be adopted. These new strategies must go beyond improved funding. They should include determined and sustained political will on the part of the authorities to carry out simple but concrete actions against policemen involved in corrupt practices, the details of which were outlined in this work. This work relied essentially on library research. It was complemented, however by an exploration of the elite perception of the problem of corruption in the NPF and how that could be eliminated. Also, unstructured interviews were held with some selected stakeholders including some police officers, officials of the National Union of Road Transport Workers and Nigerian Labour Congress. The insight gained by the author from the briefing on how the Singapore Police Force operates a zero tolerance for corruption during the study tour of that country was very vital to the study. Also, the personal experience of the author, himself a Senior Police Officer of 28 years standing was brought to bear on the research.