Paper Title
Community Policing through Neighbourhood Watch: A Strategic Security Development in Nigeria. Enugu State Experience
Abstract
In Nigeria, security development has been one of the greatest challenges facing every government, especially in this fourth republic. The incessant security threat has not only been national embarrassment but international concern. The ethnic unrest occasioned by Fulani headsmen, Boko Haram menace, Arewa vulgar incitement, the Indigenous People of Biafra’s (IPOB) utterances, the Afanifere altercation, the various militant groups from South South Nigeria and of course the ubiquitous threat in every community both in urban and rural communities are armed robbery and kidnapping. A state of emergency had at one time or other declared in some areas and in some cases, international communities were involved to help and quelled the calamitous situations.The Enugu State Government has been noted and acclaimed the most peaceful and stable state in Nigeria. Despite the Nimbo massacre by Fulani headsmen, it never attracted communal or ethnic clash as was envisaged. The state’s security apparatus involves not only all the armed forces but also the paramilitary, the local vigilantes called neighbourhood watch and all the traditional rulers and local government chairmen/town union chairmen in the state. The paper was designed to discuss the strategic security programmes in Nigeria via Enugu state. It explains the effectiveness of security operative in the state. It also examines the roles of government in sustainable security/neighbourhood development. By evaluating the community policing through neighourhood watch, the paper highlights the challenges involved and proffers recommendations on the best strategies to be engaged so as to avert crises and reduce crime. Conceptual and theoretical frame work expatiate the concepts of the theme of this work while systems theory was applied in the discourse
Keywords - Community Policing, Sustainable Development, Neighbourhood Watch