By Oluwatoyin Bayagbon
Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is the worst in the world, according to the 2016 World Internal Security and Police Index (WISPI).
The WISPI was produced by two bodies – the International Police Science Association and the Institute for Economics and Peace.
The report measured the ability of the police to address internal security issues. The police in 127 countries were assessed across four key areas.
The areas are capacity, process, legitimacy and outcomes.
The report showed that Nigeria underperformed on all four domains, with a score of 0.255.
“There are 219 police officers for every 100,000 Nigerians, well below both the Index median of 300, and the sub-Saharan Africa region average of 268,” the report read.
“This limits the capacity of the force to measure up to its law and order mandate.
“In terms of process, legitimacy and outcomes, the story is not different which makes the force fall short of the required standard.
“High levels of political terror have been an issue for Nigeria since 1993, with the country scoring a 4 on the Political Terror Scale every year since then.”
“Terrorism remains one of the greatest threats to internal security. Terrorism has increased dramatically over the last three years, with more than 62,000 people being killed in terrorist attacks between 2012 and 2014. The biggest rise in the last year occurred in Nigeria.”
But Jimoh Moshood, spokesman of the police force, rejected the report saying Nigeria police is the best in Africa.
According to the report, the top 10 performing African countries are Botswana which ranked highest at 47, followed by Rwanda which took the 50 position.
Others are Algeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa and Mali, in that order.
The 10 underperforming African countries are Madagascar (111th), Zambia (112th), Ethiopia (115th), Sierra Leone (117th), Cameroon (120th), Mozambique (122nd), Uganda (124th ), Kenya (125th), Democratic Republic of Congo (126th).
Europe was at the top of the global rankings, with eight countries in total.
