Police accountability forms the bedrock of any functional democracy in which law enforcement agencies must work within the dictates of the law and respect the rights of its citizens. In Nigeria, however, public confidence has sunk to an all-time low due to widespread reports of corruption, brutality, and impunity by the Nigerian Police Force. The police have also been further denied their sovereignty and independence through long years of military rule, lack of investment in policing, and elite consensus. Entrenched loss of confidence and historical and structural weaknesses in the NPF form an enormous challenge to public safety and governance in the country.
The Nigeria Police Force, inherited from the colonial era and reformed for decades, still grapples with deep-seated structural and operational deficiencies. While accountability mechanisms, such as the PSC and its internal disciplinary units, exist on paper, their actual effectiveness, to say the least, remains questionable. The #EndSARS protests, among other high-profile incidents, cast a spotlight on systemic issues of police misconduct and underlined the dire need for comprehensive reforms. This edition of the Nextier SPD Policy analyses Nigeria’s police accountability crisis, exploring systemic failures, public mistrust, and the impact of corruption while advocating reforms like transparency, training, and community collaboration to rebuild trust and effectiveness.
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