Impact Of Security Synergy Between The Police And Community Policing On The Constitutionally Guaranteed

RESEARCH PROJECT TOPIC ON IMPACT OF SECURITY SYNERGY BETWEEN THE POLICE AND COMMUNITY POLICING ON THE CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED RIGHTS IN NIGERIA

• Format:  Microsoft Word
• Pages:  72
• Price:  ₦5,000
• Chapters:  1-5
• Click to DOWNLOAD Materials

CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION

        1.1.      Background of the Study

In the discourse of security in Nigeria, Okorie,^[1] Jega,^[2] Salawu,^[3] Onyishi,^[4] Ezeoha,^[5] and Lewis^[6] have identified several causes of security crisis in Nigeria that pose grave consequences to national development. Chief among them is ethno-religious conflicts that have claimed many lives in Nigeria. By ethno-religious it means a situation in which the relationship between members of one ethnic or religious and another of such group in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society is characterized by lack of cordiality, mutual suspicion and fear, and a tendency towards violent confrontation.^[7]

Since independence, Nigeria appears to have been bedevilled with ethno-religious conflicts. Over the past decades of her Nationhood, Nigeria has experienced a palpable intensification of religious polarization, manifest in political mobilization, sectarian social movements, and increasing violence.^[8] Ethnic and religious affiliations determine who gets what in Nigeria; it is so central and seems to perpetuate discrimination. The return to civil rule in 1999 tends to have provided ample leverage for multiplicity of ethno-religious conflicts.

As part of the social contract which the state has the obligation to fulfil for exercising the power which belongs to the people, the government is expected to provide adequate security for the citizens. Consequently, the Nigerian government has set up various security agencies for both the internal and external protection of the citizens. The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria underscores this when it declares: that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.^[9] But the veracity is that security is a thing of partnership between the state and the citizens. A security system entails all that the state and citizens do from individual to institutional level to ensure the security of lives and property.¹⁰

The problem of the Nigerian polity is that there is no strong will to entrench law and order in the Nigerian polity. If there were only one man in a State in Nigeria, there would be no need for rules of law or regulationsbecause there would be no upsetting of existing equilibrium caused by the acts of another person; there would be no conflict of any type.

Perhaps all that would be necessary would be for one to avoid injuring oneself through one’s own act. No wonder, Farrar notes that a solitary individual is a hermit living in complete isolation from other human beings probably requires nothing more than habits.^[10] Since this scenario only exists at the utopic realm, law became necessary to help in the quest to actualise order. It became the tool for social engineering. Law is the pillar of social code; a society without laws is a living anachronism. In the absence of law and order organised life is impossible.^[11] Thus, law defines the extent to which it will give effect to the interests which it recognizes, in the light of other interests and of the possibilities of effectively securing them through law; it also devises means for securing those that are recognised and prescribes the limits within which those means are to be employed.^[12]

[1] I. Okorie, “Insecurity: Consequences for Investment and Employment”, The Punch, Thursday, September 9, 2011, pp. 37 – 38.

[2] I. Jega, “Tackling Ethno-religious Conflicts in Nigeria”, Newsletter of Social Science Academy of Nigeria, September 2002, vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 35 – 38.

[3] B. Salawu, Ethno-Religious Conflicts in Nigeria: Casual Analysis and Proposal for New Management Strategies,  European Journal of Social Sciences – vol. 13, No. 3, 2010.

[4] O. Eme and A. Onyishi, “The Challenges of Insecurity in Nigeria: A Thematic Exposition”, Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business. Vol. 3 No. 8, 2011.

[5] S. L. Ezeoha, “Causes and Effects of Insecurity in Nigeria”, The National Scholar, vol. 8, No. 2 pp. 28 – 28.

[6] P. Lewis, Islam, Protest, and Conflict in Nigeria, (Washington: Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Africa, 2002).

[7] B. Salawu, The Special Issue on Contemporary Issues in Social Science, (USA: Centre for Promoting Ideas,2010), pp.288, 346.

[8] Lewis, op. cit., p. 1.

[9] See the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as Amended), s. 14 (2) (b). ¹⁰  “Decentralized Policing System, the only Option before Nigeria, Declare Ekweremadu, Others”, Daily Sun, 11 March 2013, p. 53.

[10] J. Farrar, Legal Method, (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1973), p. 4.

[11] D. Ibekwe, The Barrister, Law Magazine Published by the Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria Enugu Campus, 1978, vol. 1, p. 7.

[12] L. Haskins, Law and Authority in Early Massachusetts, (New York: Macmillian, 1960), p. 226. ¹⁴Quoted in Ladan, op. cit., p. 237.

• Click to DOWNLOAD Materials