Policing a Multicultural Society: A Case for State, Local & Community Policing in Nigeria

Nigeria, a multicultural society and a federal state, practices a highly centralized policing system. Over time, this system has not been effective in curbing the incessant security conundrum in the country. Thus, the nation is currently facing several internal security problems and with the inability of the central police command to contain the challenges. So, as a result of the surge in the rate of highly sophisticated crimes in the country, the adoption of state, local and community policing is day-by-day gaining popularity. As such, the major focus of this paper is on the imperatives of state, local and community policing in multicultural Nigerian society. Relying on comparative method and using the lessons learned from cross-country experiences of some other federal democracies, the paper advocates for the establishment of state, local and community policing as one of the lasting measures to curbing the recurring crimes in Nigeria. This finding showed that by fostering a sense of partnership it is possible to achieve significant impacts in terms of promoting an understanding of cultural diversity among police officers, and overcoming issues which in the past have prevented ethnic minority groups from accessing police services.