Nigeria: The Poor and Informal Policing
A 2003 study assessed poor people’s perceptions of safety, security, and informal policing structures in four states in Nigeria. Previous survey data indicated that the majority of Nigerians consider the official police to be both corrupt and ineffective. In response to the inability of the official police to adequately protect citizens from crime, people living in poverty have set up a number of informal policing structures (IPS). While the study principally assessed residents’ perceptions of safety and security, this summary focuses on respondents’ views of IPS. Despite the growth of these community-based groups there has been little research on IPS in Nigeria. This study is an attempt to fill that void. The states studied were Benue, Ekiti, Enugu and Jigawa. The study utilized a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods, including interviews and focus group discussions with citizens in the four selected states.
The study found that, at the local level, poor people experience a pervasive fear of crime, despite the majority in three states that felt generally safe and secure. People’s support for informal policing structures is related to perceptions of rising crime rates, low levels of confidence in the ability of the criminal justice system to respond to the needs of victims of crime, and distrust of the formal police service.
The study identified four main types of informal policing structures in Nigeria: religious vigilantism, ethnic vigilantism, state-sponsored vigilantism, and neighborhood or community organizations. Most research on informal policing structures focuses on the first three types and pays little attention to the fourth type. The current study is primarily interested in the role of neighborhood or community organizations in informal policing in Nigeria.
Neighborhood or community organizations are groups of people that are organized by street associations in the cities or villages in the rural areas and carry out foot patrols and community watch to foster a sense of safety and security in the streets. Respondents noted a number of groups operating in their communities to provide safety and security other than the police, with various names and characteristics. In Ekiti state, for example, the groups included:
- “Olodes” (hunters) in Oye local government area (LGA)
- Egbe (age grade) in Ilejemeje and Oye LGAs
- Boys Scouts (Ilejemeje LGA)
- Ijofins (warriors, settling land disputes) in Ilejemeje LGA.
Most of these informal policing groups operate during the night, essentially as night watchmen, patrolling and apprehending persons suspected of crime or violating regulations on movement during the night. They may carry machetes, swords, clubs, bows and arrows, whips, locally made guns. But those involved in the collection of intelligence information rarely carry any weapon.
Some groups also rely on charms to execute their tasks. Members of the groups may also punish wrongdoers, often with the supervision of elders. Respondents expressed confidence in the groups’ ability to protect the neighborhood from crime and provide speedy safety and security services which the formal police are unable to offer. They are also trusted because they are closer to the people than the formal police.
Despite the popularity and positive outcomes of the informal policing structures, these groups face a number of problems including lack of funding, harassment and extortion by the police when carrying out their duties, lack of basic operational equipment, such as flashlights, warm clothing, rain coats, whistles, uniforms, identity cards, etc., and lack of recognition by authorities in some of the LGAs. Other shortcomings include multiplicity of organizations, poor screening of new members, lack of representation of women and non indigenes in their structures and poor accountability by the non-traditional informal policing groups.
The most worrying concern, however, is possession of locally-made weapons outside the purview of the state. At a fundamental level, informal policing groups that are armed and managed outside the purview of the state raise several concerns, including state collapse that may throw up warlords in different parts of the nation. Better management of these groups is, therefore, a critical public policy issue for Nigeria.