It comes as no surprise that the Nigeria Police Force has been rated the “worst” globally in terms of its ability to handle internal security challenges according to the to World Internal Security and Police Index International, WISPI.
Successive governments have played ping pong with restructuring of the Police. The Nigerian Police is hampered by poor training and under funding. The Force is heavily politicized, always kowtowing to the dictates of those in authority or rich.
Nigeria police performed worst on the index on all the four domains- capacity, process, legitimacy and outcomes, with a score of 0.255 ranked 127 below Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda and Pakistan. The report was released by the International Police Science Association, IPSA, and the Institute for Economics and Peace, a not for profit organization that brings together experts, researchers and scholars concerned with security work from all over the world. 127 countries was analysed.
The report noted that countries with protracted civil conflicts were not eligible for the index. “There are 219 police officers for every 100,000 Nigerians, well below both the Index median of 300, and the sub-Saharan Africa region average of 268,” the report reads. “This limits the capacity of the force to measure up to its law and order mandate.
“In terms of process, legitimacy and outcomes, the story is not different which makes the force fall short of the required standard. “High levels of political terror have been an issue for Nigeria since 1993, with the country scoring a 4 on the Political Terror Scale every year since then.”
“Terrorism remains one of the greatest threats to internal security. Terrorism has increased dramatically over the last three years, with more than 62,000 people being killed in terrorist attacks between 2012 and 2014. The biggest rise in the last year occurred in Nigeria.”
According to the report, the top 10 performing African countries are Botswana which ranked highest at 47, followed by Rwanda which took the 50 position. Others are Algeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa and Mali, in that order.
The 10 least performing African countries are Madagascar 111th, Zambia 112th, Ethiopia 115th, Sierra Leone 117th, Cameroon 120th, Mozambique 122nd, Uganda 124th, Kenya 125th and Democratic Republic of Congo 126th.
The report showed that Singapore performed best on the index, followed by Finland, and then Denmark. There were only four non-European countries in the top 20. The United Arab Emirates was the highest ranked country from the Middle East and North African, MENA, region as it ranked 29th overall.
The recent unprofessional, trivial handling of a case involving a top musician by the Nigerian Police left many angst and aghast. The police flagrantly demonstrated favouritism and insensitivity.
