Police-Citizen Relations in Nigeria

This bookoffers an historical and contemporary analysis of policing and police-citizen relations in Nigeria, tounderstandwhy people co-operate (or don't) with the police. Itexaminespolice legitimacy and the validity of procedural justice theoryin a post-colonial African context wherecorruption, brutality and lack of accountability are not uncommon,to find more refined and alternative answers to the question of why people co-operate (or don't) with the police. The history of policing in Nigeria is explored first and thenprocedural justice theoryis tested through an extensive,cross-sectional survey of the public. One of the corefindings is that citizens' co-operation with the police is driven less by legitimacy but more by effectiveness considerations and "dull compulsion", a concept akin to legal cynicism. This study represents one of the first attempts totest and understand"dull compulsion" andits relevance in this context. Overall,it develops the field by illustrating thatthat there are significant variations between contexts when addressing the influence of perceived procedural justice policing on perceptions of police legitimacy, and it explains the implicationsforpolicy makers.