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The dialectic of police reform in Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2008

Alice Hills
Alice Hills*
Affiliation:
School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, LeedsLS2 9JT, United Kingdom
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Despite decades of police assistance and the recent introduction of reform plans, Nigeria's public police remain notoriously brutal and corrupt. This raises the question of whether even flawed reforms in a relatively democratic environment can make a significant difference to policing standards and practices. Based on developments in the Nigeria Police since 2005, this article suggests that reform can make a normative and organisational difference, but that in the absence of fundamental socio-political change, its effects tend to be superficial, localised and temporary. Reform's dynamic is better understood as a classic dialectic than a serial succession of movements.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , June 2008 , pp. 215 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

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Interviews

Interview 2007a, British Council consultants, Abuja, 24.01.07.

Interview 2007b, assistant police commissioner, Abuja, 26.01.07.

Newspapers/Magazines (published in Lagos except where stated)

Daily Independent;The News;Newswatch;PoliceNews (Abuja);Sunday Punch;Vanguard.