Developing an Original Theory of Police Legitimacy and Its Determinants in Nigerian Communities

Police legitimacy, understood as public recognition of police authority as morally valid and worthy of compliance, is a foundational concept in policing scholarship, but existing legitimacy theories developed primarily in Western democratic contexts require systematic reformulation for Nigerian community contexts where colonial policing legacies, ethnic diversity, and informal governance structures fundamentally shape legitimacy dynamics. This study developed an original theory of police legitimacy for Nigerian community contexts. A multi-phase constructive theory-building methodology was employed: systematic review of police legitimacy theory (76 publications from 2018 to 2024); empirical legitimacy assessment surveys in communities across six geopolitical zones (total n=720) using a validated but culturally adapted instrument measuring procedural justice, outcome fairness, community embeddedness, and compliance behaviour; qualitative community focus groups at 18 sites; and expert validation with 22 policing and governance scholars. The empirical surveys confirmed significant regional and ethnic variation in legitimacy determinants: procedural justice was the strongest predictor of legitimacy in South West communities (beta = 0.51) while community embeddedness and traditional authority alignment were stronger predictors in North West and North East communities (beta = 0.47 and 0.43 respectively). The original Nigerian Police Legitimacy Framework proposes a contextually differentiated legitimacy model with five components: procedural justice calibration, outcome effectiveness signalling, communal trust building, traditional authority interface, and colonial legacy narrative management. The framework advances global legitimacy theory by demonstrating that a single legitimacy model is inadequate for multi-ethnic post-colonial policing contexts.

Keywords: police legitimacy, procedural justice, Nigeria, policing theory, original framework