Abstract
The paper examined the professional practices and the legal framework on ethical conduct in the Nigeria Police with its service discipline and institutional procedures, as applicable in Nigeria. These were with a view to undertaking a holistic review of the nature and meaning of associated terms and various ethical instruments in the Nigeria Police.
The study adopted doctrinal methodology and placed reliance on both primary and secondary sources of information. The primary source included the successive Constitutions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, international laws and conventions, and various statutes in Nigeria relating to regimentary institutional ethics, unstructured interviews, and judicial decisions. The secondary source of information included books, journal articles, conference proceedings, newspaper and magazine publications and the internet. Data collected were subjected to content analysis.
The study found that damning past image remains the greatest of all the challenges which continue to haunt the police. The study also found that, if the police must fulfil the accomplishment of its noble objectives, in Nigeria, it needs the citizens’ support through an effective and selfless service. The study further found that, though there is enough legal framework or provisions in the Nigerian law for enhancement of sound moral values in the Police Force, individual officers’ greed, psycho-social imbalance and eco-political dilemma continued to play a counter-productive role in the attainment of sound ethical standards. In conclusion, the various constitutional and statutory provisions prescribing an ethical code are emplaced to impact police officers positively in the service of the nation.
KEYWORDS: Work Ethics; Ethical Conduct; Police officer; the Nigeria Police; Ethical Standard; Service
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Given that the Nigeria Police is a creation of the Nigerian Constitution,[1] it is nonetheless found with high incidence of ethical misconduct and disciplinary delinquencies resulting in misuse of powers and abuse of rights. The possibility of corruptibility, coupled with adverse influence which social interaction often engages, propels the need to institute certain work ethics/code, indicative of ethical norms or conduct that may compel those conferred with so much extensive powers, as its members are, to subject their conducts to regulated norms. This would ensure police personnel work within the limits of the law in their operational work environment.
In this discourse, police work environment is presented broadly, to accommodate other law enforcement agencies with a view to promoting an enduring right-based policing in Nigeria. The burden of this paper is the evaluation of extant statutory laws governing work the maintenance of enviable ethical conducts in the Nigeria Police Force while enforcing law in Nigeria. The essay therefore, is divided into six segments, apart from the introductory which is the first segment. In its second segment, the paper examines the conceptual meaning and definitions of terms just as it considers, in its third segment, the legal frameworks for ethics in the Nigeria Police. In the fourth segment, sundry extant ethical codes are evaluated while, in the fifth segment, the paper analyses disciplinary offences and sanctions for the breach of ethical codes of conduct for members of the Nigeria Police. In its concluding part, the sixth segment, the paper proffers some suggestions that would promote efficiency and instil discipline in the Force.
[1] See the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as altered [CFRN 1999] at s 214.