Implications of Decentralization of the Nigerian Police to National Security

Abstract

The paper examined the implementation of state and local government police systems in Nigeria, with special emphasis on the problems and prospects that may accompany such policy implementation. It also investigated the major challenges of the current centralised police system in Nigeria that have made the establishment of the state and local government police structure necessary. The paper depended on the secondary method of data collection as a methodology used in gathering data for the research work. After doing a thorough study of the secondary data obtained, the researchers concluded that the centralised police system in Nigeria was no longer able to guarantee the protection of its citizens, due to its centralised, autocratic, political, inefficient, nepotistic, and other factors identified in the work. Finally, the study's policy implications recommended that the Federal Government of Nigeria immediately draft and put into effect the current policy discussion around the establishment of state police, the necessary portions of the constitution must be changed to provide a place for the establishment of the state and local government police departments, the recruitment exercise in the decentralised police system should be based on men and women of integrity and of good character among others.