By Chibuike Njoku & Ndu Nwokolo
Policing is central to democratic governance, public safety, and the protection of citizens’ rights. In democratic societies, the police are expected to uphold the rule of law while maintaining legitimacy through accountability, professionalism, and respect for human rights. In Nigeria, however, policing has increasingly been associated with coercion, excessive use of force, corruption, and weak accountability mechanisms. This concern was reinforced in April 2026 when an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) shot and killed a 28-year-old in Effurun, Delta State. Viral footage showed the victim seated on the ground with his hands tied behind his back and pleading for his life before being shot. Incidents such as this have deepened public and community distrust in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and intensified concerns about democratic governance, human rights compliance, and effective security management in Nigeria.
The urgency of police reform has become more pronounced amid Nigeria’s worsening security challenges, including terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, communal violence, and rising urban crime. Despite increased security operations, allegationsof arbitrary arrests, torture, extortion, unlawful detention, and extrajudicial killings continue to undermine public confidence in law enforcement institutions. These concerns reflect not only operational failures but also deeper structural and cultural problems within Nigeria’s policing system.
The crisis of legitimacy surrounding the Nigeria Police Forcegained global attention during the End SARS protests, which emerged in response to widespread allegations of abuse by the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The protests evolved into a broader national demand for accountability, justice, and institutional reform. Although the government introduced reform measures following the protests, concerns persist regarding the limited depth and sustainability of these changes.
This trust deficit has serious implications for national security and democracy. Effective policing depends on public cooperation, intelligence sharing, and institutional legitimacy. Where citizens perceive the police as abusive or unaccountable, trust declines, weakening both law enforcement effectiveness and democratic stability.
ThisNextier SPD Policy analysis argues that Nigeria’s policing crisis is fundamentally a crisis of institutional culture and legitimacy. Moving “from force to service” therefore requires a transition toward citizen-centered, rights-based, and accountable policing capable of rebuilding public trust and strengthening democratic governance.
- Colonial Legacy and Militarised Police Culture
The contemporary policing culture in Nigeria is deeply shaped by colonial legacies that prioritised state control over citizen protection. Colonial policing structures were primarily designed to suppress resistance, maintain order, and protect state authority rather than provide public service. This orientation created an institutional culture in which the police were accountable mainly to the state rather than to citizens. Although Nigeria transitioned to democratic governance in 1999, many of these authoritarian practices remain embedded within the operational structure and mindset of the Nigeria Police Force.
The persistence of militarised policing reflects the dominance of a state-centered model that prioritises regime stability and coercive enforcement over citizen-centered service delivery. Aggressive policing tactics, militarised responses to protests, and frequent reliance on force demonstrate the continued influence of authoritarian traditions within law enforcement institutions. In contrast, democratic policing emphasisesaccountability, procedural justice, public trust, and community partnership. In Nigeria, this institutional culture has contributed to adversarial relationships between the police and the public, weakening democratic policing ideals and reducing institutional legitimacy.
- Human Rights Violations and Institutional Legitimacy
The militarised orientation of policing in Nigeria has contributed significantly to persistent human rights violations, including police brutality, torture, abuse of detainees, unlawful detention, and extrajudicial killings. Reports by local and international human rights organisations consistently document patterns of excessive force and misconduct within police operations. The End SARS protests exposed widespread public frustration over allegations of torture, extortion, and killings linked to police units, particularly the now-disbanded SARS.
These violations have serious implications for democratic governance and institutional legitimacy. Procedural justice theory suggests that citizens are more likely to trust and cooperate with law enforcement institutions perceived as fair, accountable, and respectful of rights. Conversely, persistent abuses erode public confidence and weaken the legitimacy necessary for effective policing. In Nigeria, distrust of the police has reduced community cooperation and intelligence sharing, thereby undermining broader security efforts. Human rights violations, therefore, represent not only legal and ethical failures but also significant threats to democratic stability and sustainable security governance.
- Public Trust and Democratic Policing
Public trust is a fundamental requirement for effective policing and democratic governance. In democratic societies, policing is expected to operate based on legitimacy, accountability, and public consent rather than solely on coercion. However, in Nigeria, public confidence in the Nigeria Police Force has been significantly undermined by persistent allegations of corruption, brutality, extortion, arbitrary arrests, and human rights abuses. For many citizens, interactions with police personnel are often associated with fear, intimidation, and exploitation rather than protection and justice. This perception has contributed to a widening trust deficit between the police and the communities they are expected to serve.
Several factors explain this distrust. Repeated incidents of excessive force and weak disciplinary measures have reinforced perceptions of institutional impunity, while corruption, including bribery, illegal checkpoints, and extortion, has undermined police credibility. In addition, poor responses to insecurity have raised doubts about the effectiveness and professionalism of law enforcement agencies.
This erosion of trust has important implications for security governance. Effective policing depends heavily on intelligence gathering and cooperation between law enforcement agencies and local communities. Citizens are more likely to report crimes, share intelligence, and cooperate with investigations when they perceive the police as friendly, legitimate and trustworthy. Conversely, distrust discourages collaboration and limits access to community-based information critical for crime prevention and countering insecurity. In contexts where fear of police abuse persists, communities may avoid engagement with law enforcement institutions altogether, thereby weakening intelligence networks and undermining public safety.
- Accountability and Oversight Challenges
One of the major obstacles to effective policing by NPF in Nigeria is the weakness of accountability and oversight mechanisms within the policing system. Although formal disciplinary structures exist within the Nigeria Police Force, internal accountability processes are often criticized for being ineffective, opaque, and inconsistent. Cases of misconduct involving brutality, corruption, or abuse frequently fail to result in meaningful sanctions, reinforcing perceptions of institutional impunity. Weak disciplinary enforcement undermines professionalism within the police and reduces public confidence in the institution’s ability to regulate its own conduct.
External oversight mechanisms also face significant limitations. Institutions such as the National Human Rights Commission play important roles in investigating abuses, promoting human rights awareness, and advocating accountability. However, these bodies often struggle with limited enforcement powers, inadequate funding, and bureaucratic constraints. As a result, their ability to compel institutional reforms or ensure the prosecution of offending officers remains restricted.
- Human Rights-Based Policing as a Reform Strategy
Addressing Nigeria’s policing crisis requires more than operational reforms or increased security funding; it demands a fundamental transformation in policing philosophy, institutional culture, and state-society relations. Human rights-based policing has increasingly emerged as a critical reform framework for democratic societies seeking to balance security enforcement with the protection of civil liberties. This approach emphasises accountability, procedural justice, community partnership, transparency, and respect for human dignity. Rather than relying primarily on coercion, human rights-based policing seeks to build legitimacy through fairness, professionalism, and public trust.
A central component of this framework is procedural justice, which emphasises the fairness of policing processes rather than enforcement outcomes alone. Reforming police-citizen interactions through procedural justice principles such as respectful communication, transparency in operations, and impartial law enforcement can therefore improve legitimacy and strengthen public cooperation.
Community policing also represents an important dimension of human rights-based reform. Unlike militarised policing models that prioritise force and centralised control, community policing encourages collaboration between law enforcement agencies and local communities to identify and address security challenges.
Another critical reform area involves rights-based training and institutional culture change. Police training in Nigeria has historically emphasised command structures and force-oriented enforcement, with limited focus on human rights, de-escalation techniques, or democratic policing principles. Embedding human rights education within police training institutions can help reshape operational norms and professional ethics. However, training alone is insufficient without broader institutional reforms addressing welfare conditions, disciplinary systems, and leadership accountability. Sustainable reform requires transforming the broader organisational culture that normalises impunity and excessive force.
- Comparative Examples
Comparative experiences from other countries provide important lessons for Nigeria. In Kenya, police reforms following the 2007–2008 post-election violence led to the establishment of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), aimed at improving accountability and investigating police misconduct. In South Africa, post-apartheid reforms focused on transforming the police from a repressive force into a service-oriented institution grounded in constitutional rights and community engagement. Similarly, the United Kingdom has emphasised procedural justice, independent complaints systems, and neighborhood policing models to strengthen public legitimacy. In Ghana, community policing initiatives and partnerships between security agencies and local communities have been promoted to build trust and prevent crime.
These comparative examples demonstrate that effective police reform depends on accountability, institutional transparency, community partnership, and sustained political commitment. For Nigeria, transitioning “from force to service” requires adopting democratic policing principles that prioritise citizens’ rights, institutional legitimacy, and public trust as the foundation of sustainable security governance.
- Recommendations
Effective reform of policing in Nigeria requires coordinated, institution-specific, and implementable interventions that address both structural weaknesses and cultural practices within the security sector. The following recommendations are designed to support the transition “from force to service” within the Nigerian policing system.
i. Comprehensive Police Reform Legislation: The federal government should enact and implement reforms that clearly redefine policing as a rights-based public service institution, with explicit emphasis on accountability, transparency, and citizen protection. Establish an independent national policing oversight commission with full investigative and disciplinary powers over misconduct involving security personnel.
ii. Sustainable Funding for Rights-Based Reform: The government should increase budgetary allocations specifically for human rights training, welfare improvements, digital accountability systems, and themodernisation of policing infrastructure to reduce reliance on coercive practices.
iii. Institutionalise Mandatory Human Rights Training: The Nigeria police should integrate continuous human rights education, procedural justice, and de-escalation techniques into all levels of police training and promotion requirements. Develop and strictly enforce clear operational guidelines for the proportional use of force, including body-camera adoption and mandatory reporting for all use-of-force incidents.
iv. Strengthen Internal Accountability Systems: The Nigeria police should establish transparent disciplinary procedures with defined timelines for investigating misconduct and ensure publication of disciplinary outcomes to enhance public confidence.
v. Amend Police Governance and Oversight Laws: the National Assembly should update existing legal frameworks to strengthen the independence, efficiency, and authority of police oversight institutions. Mandate periodic public reporting by the police on complaints, disciplinary actions, arrest patterns, and use-of-force incidents to improve accountability.
vi. Support Institutional Capacity-Building: development partners should provide technical and financial assistance for police reform programs focused on professionalism, accountability systems, and digital policing tools.Support training programs, monitoring systems, and evaluation frameworks that align Nigerian policing practices with international human rights standards.
This policy brief has demonstrated that challenges facing the Nigeria Police Force are not merely operational but also fundamentally institutional, cultural, and democratic. The persistence of force-centered policing practices, weak accountability systems, and recurring human rights violations continues to undermine public trust in the Nigeria Police Force. These challenges are no longer isolated concerns but have become structural issues that directly affect national stability, crime control effectiveness, and the legitimacy of the state. The widening gap between citizens and law enforcement institutions underscores the urgency of reform. Repeated incidents of excessive force, alongside sustained public dissatisfaction, most visibly expressed during the End SARS protests, highlight the depth of institutional mistrust and the risks it poses to democratic governance. Moving forward, the central challenge is institutional transformation. Reforming policing culture from a force-driven model to a service-oriented institution requires sustained political commitment, legal reforms, professional reorientation, and stronger oversight mechanisms. It also requires rebuilding trust between citizens and the policing agencies by consistently respecting human rights and engaging with communities. Ultimately, Nigeria cannot achieve democratic policing through force-centered approaches. Lasting security and democratic stability will depend on the extent to which policing institutions embrace legitimacy, accountability, and compliance with human rights as their core operational principles.
(Dr. Chibuike Njoku is an Associate Consultant at Nextier, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Ile-Ife, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique (IFRA-Nigeria). Dr. Ndu Nwokolo is a Managing Partner at Nextier and a Reader (Associate Professor) at the Institute for Peace, Security and Development Studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria)
