Community Policing in Nigeria: Transplanting a Questionable Model

Studies on community policing program philosophy have shown the model to be problematic and highly questionable and could not be transplanted to other societies without regard to their different environmental contexts. Studies in previous efforts to implement community policing in Nigeria show that these initiatives have not only been bedeviled by factors which have proven so troublesome for the community policing model elsewhere, but also by the socio-cultural ethos of Nigerian population, the territory’s unique political and economic position and the institutionalization of the Nigerian Police’s paramilitary traditions. This paper examines the experience of community policing in Nigeria as well as problems in implementing community policing program philosophy. The article not only provides a further illustration of the questionable nature of the community policing model, but also illustrates how and why policy making should always take into account local conditions instead of simply borrowing foreign models. The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) since1960s has developed along paramilitary structure.