Public Mistrust of the Police in Nigeria

Abstract

Based on a sample of 2,324 respondents from Nigeria collected by Afrobarometer in 2008, this paper examines the issue of public trust in the police. The findings show that about 46 percent of Nigerian respondents listed their level of trust in the police as "not at all". Responses were broken down by demographic factors, responses to single items, and constructed scales. Logistical regression was used to identify the factors that predict public trust in the Nigerian police. In order, these factors were trust in elected officials, perceived corruption, religion and age. Some factors that were expected to be significant were not, including fear of crime, prior victimization and poverty. The study suggests the need to mine the Afrobarometer files in depth in order to reveal the policy implications of this data source for sub-Saharan Africa as well as each of the countries that participate in these ongoing surveys.

Keywords: Nigerian Police,Trust police, Trust elected officials, and Perceived corruption.