The Mirror Image of Retired Police Officers and Corruption among Serving Officers in Nigeria

Abstract

The study examines the mirror image of retired police officers and corruption among serving officers in Nigeria, offering scrutiny on how corruption has survived and mutated across generations among members of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF). The youngest recruits, in most cases, nurse the idealism or ambition of continuing in the same manner even before joining the force. The work employed both social strain and frustration-aggression theory to analyse the subject matter, suggesting that serving members of the NPF suffer frustrations as a result of the obstacles they experience from the job. This study explores a qualitative research design to examine the views of serving and retired police officers on corruption. A purposive sampling technique was employed to select participants. The sample includes 10 serving officers and 10 retired officers, with a total of 20 respondents. The study results revealed that corruption exhibited among serving officers is adopted or adapted from the officers' mirrored image of retired officers as a survival strategy. In order to address properly the root cause of corruption in the NPF, there must be a deliberate reform that will address the real cause of corruption in the force with the aim of nipping the challenges in the bud. The study concluded that bold reforms must be pursued with the aims of improving welfare, enforcing accountability, and fostering a new ethical culture of policing. Thus, the NPF should engage both serving and retired officers as agents of change to rebuild public trust and fulfill the NPF mandate of justice and service.