Fortification of Policing in Nigeria Using ICT Backbone for Strategic Competitive Advantage: Trends, Challenges, and Prospects

Introduction

The explosion rate of crime in both metropolitan and local communities within Nigeria demands critical evaluation of existing techniques of law enforcement, surveillance and controlling crimes. Some commonly reported acts of insecurity in Nigeria are theft, murder, kidnapping, insurgency, tribal dispute and host of others (Rufai et al, 2011). Broadly, insecurity is defined as all actions that constitute breach of peace, safety, happiness, progress and tranquility, arising from historical tension, socio-political, ethno-religious and economic factors, which evidently lead to loss of human lives and destruction of property in the society (Eme and Onyishi, 2011; Raimi, et al, 2015). Another dangerous dimension to insecurity in Nigeria that has overwhelm the present policy system is the endemic conflicts between ‘indigenes’ (farmers) and ‘settlers’ (herders) leading to killings in Benue, Plateau and other parts of Northern Nigeria (Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, 2016). Had the policing system in the country been fortified and strengthened by ICT backbones, some of these avoidable communal crises would have nee nipped in the bud. With specific reference to Nigeria, insecurity manifests in four different ways, namely, ethno-religious conflict, politically based violence, organised violent groups and economic-based violence (Eme and Onyishi, 2011).

To ensure security for life and property in Nigeria, and by extension engender peace and progress, the National Security Agency, which comprises the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), State Security Service (SSS), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), is mandated to keep the country safe (Adebakin and Raimi, 2012; Raimi et al, 2015). However, the Nigeria Police Force has been established as the statutory body vested with the task of law enforcement. The mandates of the Nigeria Police Force include: the protection of life and property; detection and prevention of crime; apprehension of offenders; preservation of law and order; the due enforcement of laws and regulations with which they are directly charged; and performance of such other military duties within and without Nigeria as may be required of them by or under the authority of any other Act (The Police Act, 2009)

For the Nigeria Police Force to be able to redress the growing incidences of criminality and insecurity in Nigeria, analysts have consistently recommended that need to complement the traditional model of policing with a community policy model. Community policing is a unique organisational change philosophy that requires recognition and acceptance of the community in influencing the philosophy, management and delivery of police services in the society (Seagrave, 1996).

Failure of the traditional policing paradigm has spurred the police departments in developed countries to experiment with new forms of law enforcement, namely: community policing and problem-oriented policing. The community policing is a form of law enforcement that reshape the police departments and the workforce into community change agents working closely and collaboratively with the citizens to reduce incidences of crime and breach of peace at the neighbourhood level. However, the problem-oriented policing is a novel law enforcement that emphasises a preventive approach to policing as opposed to responding to incidences of crime after they occur (Siegel, 2008; Skogan, 2006). Operationally, both approaches (community policing and problem-oriented policing) require strong collaborative support, information sharing and assistance of the people in the community, where peace-abiding citizens co-exist with criminals (Ordu and Nnam, 2017). The focus of this chapter is the community policing.