Nigeria Police And Contemporary Law Enforcement: Issues And Challenges

The police is regarded as the gatekeeper of the criminal justice process and the biggest and most visible subsystem of the criminal justice system entrusted with the constitutional duty to protect the citizens. In Nigeria, however, the police suffer from negative public image, and have come under intense criticisms over the way they carry out their law enforcement duties. Therefore, this work presents a review of major issues and challenges facing the Nigeria police force regarding its capacity to effectively discharge its constitutional duties. The work employed secondary sources of data such as text books, journal articles, newspapers and internet-based materials among others. The result shows that, some of the major factors hampering police effectiveness include corruption, poor personnel welfare, shortage of manpower, police brutality and abuse of power, colonial legacy, political interference, nepotism, among others. It is recommended among others that the police force should make the welfare of their officers a top concern, and the issue of police corruption should be thoroughly dealt with using reward-punishment approach. In addition, nepotism and favoritism in recruitment and promotion of officers should be discouraged.