Roles of Community Participation in Security Management in Nigeria A Study of Lafia L.G.A of Nasarawa State

Abstract

The ongoing state of insecurity in Nigeria threatened the very structure of national integration, and created an ecosystem of fear and anxiety that impacted negatively the socio-economic development of the country. Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has taken various steps and created various devices to address domestic security challenges through the conventional security agencies with some degree of failures. Against this background, this study focuses on examining the roles of community participation in security management of the Lafia municipality in Nasarawa State. The survey design is used for the study. Multi-level probabilistic / non-probability sampling was used in selecting a sample size of 222. The questionnaire method of data collection was used. In analyzing the data collected from the field, statistical analysis of both descriptive and inferential was adopted. The study found that community members’ role may range from fund contribution, reporting of threats and incidents of insecurity to security agencies.It shows that there was a significant positive relationship between community participation and security management (r = 0.275, N = 217, p <0.05).The study concludes that the extent of participatory roles of community members in security management as seen in the study is usually limited to reporting of threats to security agencies; participation in decision making and implementation is usually poor as the common masses are alienated from sensitive areas of security management. It therefore recommends among others that security management needs to be redefined in order to emphasize the role of community participation in producing effective and efficient results.