Fact-Check: Is Nigeria Police the Worst Police Force in Africa, World Ranking?

Fact-Check: Is Nigeria Police the Worst Police Force in Africa, World Ranking?

Claim:

A viral video shared widely on social media, mostly on WhatsApp claims that the Nigeria Police Force is ranked the Worst Police Force in Africa and in the World.

Verdict:

The Official Website of the International Police Science Association, IPSA, which carries out the World Internal Security and Police Index, WISPI, as a sub-project of its thematic focus, has no recent ranking for the worst police force. The most recent ranking was released in 2019 and Nigeria was neither the worst in Africa nor in the world.

Full Text:

A viral video on WhatsApp claimed that the Nigeria Police Force is ranked the Worst Police Force in the World by the Global Police Index.

The clip allegedly featured the top ten African Countries with the worst police force in the world.

In the clip, Madagascar was the 10th being ranked 111 of 127 of the Global Index, Zambia as 9th with a 112/127 ranking, Ethiopia as 8th with a 115/127 ranking, Sierra Leone as 7th with a 117/127 ranking, Cameroon as 6th with a 120/127 ranking, Mozambique as 5th with a 122/127 ranking, Uganda as 4th with a 124/127 ranking, Kenya as 3rd with a 125/127, DR Kongo as 2nd with a 126/127 and Nigeria as the 1st with a 127/127 ranking.

Verification:

A simple online search of the keyword “global police index 2020” generates at huge results with the top result being from the IPSA-WISP 2016. The ranking was released during the tenure of Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Kpotun Idris (2016-2019). There had been two IGPs in Nigeria since then, namely: IGP Mohammed Adamu (2019-2021) and the current IGP Usman Alkali Baba (2021-).

A thorough inspection of the IPSA-WISP official website, its 2016 ranking listed

The five worst-performing countries included Pakistan which was ranked 123, Uganda 124, Kenya 125, Congo 126 and Nigeria 127 being the last position. http://www.ipsa-police.org/Images/uploaded/Pdf%20file/WISPI%20Report.pdf

The WISP ranking examines the four domains of internal security: capacity, process, legitimacy and outcomes.

Reacting to the 2016 report, the then Police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood explained that the IPSA survey at the time did not take into account the reforms the NPF had been undergoing. https://www.channelstv.com/2017/11/11/we-are-the-best-in-africa-nigeria-police-reject-world-security-ranking/

“Nigeria Police Force is ranked high in UN Peace Keeping Operations, the best in Africa and one of the best in the world. The Force rejects the report as unempirical and absolute falsehood, should be disregarded and discountenanced,” Moshood said in the statement.

2019 RANKING

However, the Global Police Index (GPI) 2019, obtained by PRNigeria, it measures the perceived levels of police departments in 211 countries and territories where over 40 countries were ranked poor for performing below average. The country in the worst category included Azerbaijan, Somalia, Venezuela, Djibouti, Uganda, Liberia, Vietnam, Niger, Iraq, Turkmenistan Republic, Burundi, Egypt,

Syria, Chad, Congo, Cameroon, Sudan, North Korea, Libya, Congo republic among others. https://www.saferspaces.org.za/uploads/files/Global_Police_Index_2019_Digital3.pdf

Meanwhile, the report ranked Nigeria among average performing police forces under a satisfactory category which included Argentina, Bahamas, Bahrain, Cuba, Kenya, Morocco Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and United Arab Emirates among others.

In terms of corruption, Hello Travel, a holiday travel advisory website ranked Kenya, Burma, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Russia, Pakistan, Haiti and Mexico as the ten most corrupt police forces in the world. https://www.hellotravel.com/stories/10-most-corrupted-police-force-in-world

Conclusion:

The trending video that claimed and ranked Nigeria Police Force as the worst in the world was a mere reflection of the World Internal Security and Police Index, WISPI 2016.

The 2019 Global Police Index listed Nigeria among the average performing police forces in the World.

By PRNigeria