Urbanisation and Crime in Nigeria

“This book on Urbanisation and Crime in Nigeria is the first comprehensive book on the intersection between urbanisation and crime in Nigeria. It offers theoreti-cal and empirical explanations of the factors within the urban environments in Nigeria that shape and are shaped by crime. Scholars and students of criminology, urban sociology, and social geography will benefit from reading the book.”

—Etannibi Alemika, Professor of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria

“Urbanisation and Crime in Nigeria is a most timely and hugely important work that chronicles how crime in emerging cities of fast-growing developing nations can be better understood, managed and controlled. Incisive, deft and innovative, this book intelligently pulls together diverse big data sources to criti-cally expand scholarship in an innovative and accessible way. The authors illus-trate how spatial thinking and analysis is essential to solving urban criminogenic problems and generating insight for strategic and operational decision-making. The book is a “must read” for leaders of cities across our world, urban and rural planning practitioners, students, academics and everyone working towards a safer and more secure human society.”

—Paul Olomolaiye, Professor of Construction Engineering and Management, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Environment and

Technology, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom

“The Book—Urbanisation and Crime in Nigeria—is a bold attempt made by the two authors to discuss the nexus between urbanisation and crime in the country. By so doing, the authors are assuming that crimes can be understood through the theory of ‘environmental determinism’ or better still, ‘architectural determinism’, being a theory employed in urbanism, sociology and environ-mental psychology, which claims that the built environment is the chief or even sole determinant of social behaviour as postulated by many authors including Jeremy Bentham, Adolf Behne, David Smith Hubert J. Gans, Ray Pahl, David Correia and many others. The question is: can we say that urbanization or urban development is the sole determinant of crime? While environmental determin-ism theory as an explanation of social conduct is now most often referred to in the literature as discredited, yet surprisingly it is still to be found as an argument for urban renewal. In writing this new book, the authors are implicitly calling for a revisit of the subject matter. They have aptly the trends of urbanisation in

Nigeria and several aspects of crime. They reviewed theories of crimes on which the analyses presented in Chap. 6 on the contemporary configuration of crime across Nigerian cities were based. While urbanisation as the sole cause of crime is not proven, nevertheless, the causes of crime can be attributed to several socio-economic factors which the authors dubbed ‘crime precipitators’ such as pov-erty, poor parental upbringing, manipulation by politicians, unemployment, failure of the criminal system, ineffective policing etc. Certainly, both authors have opened up a new debate on the subject matter that is going to appeal to readers and researchers.”

—Johnson Bade Falade, Professor of Geography and Regional Planning, Former UN-Habitat Programme Manager for Nigeria and MD/CEO,

Gotosearch.Com Ltd, Lagos, Nigeria

Adegbola Ojo • Oluwole Ojewale

Urbanisation and Crime in Nigeria

ISBN 978-3-030-19764-3 ISBN 978-3-030-19765-0 (eBook)https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19765-0

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Adegbola OjoSchool of GeographyUniversity of LincolnLincoln, UK

Oluwole OjewaleCLEEN FoundationAbuja, Nigeria

To our families

vii

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this trail-blazing text on the link between two fundamental influences on socio-economic development of many a country—urbanisation and crime—influences that are particularly important in a developing country such as Nigeria. As a Nigerian national myself, I have noted the frenetic pace of urbanisation in the country and pondered the consequences of graduates and youths in different parts of the country abandoning the rural and semi-rural towns for the cities, and thus creating a squeeze of very large populations into such cities as Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, Kano and Port Harcourt.

Such a squeeze seems to me a plausible cause of crimes in those cities, given the lack of adequate economic opportunities to occupy the minds of city dwellers. It is, therefore, apposite to have to write a foreword to a text that, arguably for the first time, provides in fairly forensic details a multi-lensed understanding of urbanisation and crime in Nigeria.

Chapter 2 of the text discusses ‘Nigeria’s urbanisation history, trends, drivers and implications’ in light of increasing urban poverty and crime. Chapter 3 details the criminal justice system, pointing out such chal-lenges of the system as ‘failure of governance and institutions to design effective and flexible criminal justice policies’, which are suitable for expanding urbanisation.

In Chap. 4, the authors critically examine the ‘applicability of tradi-tional environmental criminological theories in developing country

Foreword I

viii Foreword I

contexts’. The focus of the chapter is the suitability of mainstream theo-ries for explaining geospatial patterns of crime in developing countries. These ideas provide clear guardrails for future research and interventions towards alleviating the scourge of urban crime in Nigeria and similar developing countries.

A novel framework for comparative analysis of intercity crime is pre-sented in Chap. 5. The wide range of methods for conducting such analy-sis will inform the fine-tuning of crime prevention strategies to the unique geographical, economic and socio-cultural contexts of different Nigerian cities and states in which they are emplaced.

The tenor of criminological theories and comparative analysis of inter-city crime in Chaps. 4 and 5 are balanced out with a ‘contemporary con-figuration of crime across Nigerian cities’, presented in Chap. 6. This chapter literally brings research on urbanisation and crime to the cutting edge, by using recent data to explore the geo-temporal manifestations of urban crime in Nigeria, in a way that will inform the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies in controlling urban crimes, more than cur-rently obtains.

The above theoretical and practical insights into urbanisation and crime in Nigeria are rounded out by a detailed discussion of crime pre-cipitators in Chap. 7 and urban crime harm in Chap. 8. The results in Chap. 7 integrate macro risk factors for urban crime, for example, inequality and social polarisation, and a ‘deep-dive’ analysis of emerging drivers of crime in Nigerian cities. This complements more effective mea-surement of the impact of urban crime in Chap. 8 in providing a more robust evidence base for better crime prevention policies and interven-tions in Nigeria.

The text further examines ideas related to urban crime prevention and control, including the need to expand economic opportunities to city dwellers whilst limiting their access to small and light weapons.

Chapter 10 distils from the overall research results in the text salient recommendations for evidence-based improvements in the theory, research and practice of urbanisation and crime in Nigeria, linked to such important perspectives as evidence-based policing, enhancement of pub-lic confidence, mitigation of corruption, kidnapping, young people, the

ix Foreword I

urban poor, civil security platforms, digitisation and speedy prosecution of criminal trials.

As seasoned researchers and writers, the rigour exemplified by Adegbola and Oluwole is matched by an unflinching search to understand the transformational and criminogenic consequences of urbanisation and to explain these to the reader. In a nutshell, I find this text compelling in its detailed treatment of the topic of urbanisation and crime in Nigeria and similar developing countries in Africa, for example. It is a must read for academics, students and professionals in related disciplines—for exam-ple, human geography, criminology, national security and policing, soci-ology and wider socio-economic development.

Patrick Oseloka EzepueAfrican Higher Education and Research ObservatorySheffield, UKCoal City University, Enugu, Nigeria1 April 2019

xi

Urbanisation as an irreversible process of socio-economic transformation has generated diverse consequences for most cities of the world especially in the developing nations where these processes of urban change have not been managed successfully. Not only have these manifested in the eco-nomic constellations of these cities where informality holds sway but also in the urban social fabrics where urbanisation has heightened the ‘ano-mie’ principle and, by inference, emboldened individuals to commit crime and or engage in various categories of criminal activities. As the intensity of crime and criminality increases, the capacity and capability of (urban) governments, and especially their governance structures, seem to have fallen far behind the accelerated pace of criminal actors who seem to have defied all traditional crime deterrent systems in this cyber age. Accordingly, new methods of and for crime fighting and new deterrent systems/measures must be evolved to capture the variegated nature of contemporary crime structures and settings across all ages and city morphologies.

This is why the advent of this book, Urbanisation and Crime in Nigeria, is very timely. Not only is the title topical but its ten chapters intimately capture the contemporary challenges of crime in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria. The book is a renewed attempt to present the known in new understandable ways and present new models for a better conceptualisa-tion of crime; this is presented in Chaps. 1 and 2. The criminal justice

Foreword II

xii Foreword II

system and a critical appraisal and application of the various crime and criminology concepts and theories are contextualised in Chaps. 3 and 4.

After these refreshingly rendered introductory chapters, the rest of the book takes a forensic look at the crime corridor of Nigeria and uses it as a lens to explore the crime landscape in the country. For example, while Chap. 5 develops a novel methodological framework for inter-city com-parative crime analysis, it uses this framework to analyse and discuss Nigerian cities in Chap. 6, where various urban crime morphologies and their intensity are identified. It is thus possible to now know which cities are more dangerous to live in than others. Following Chaps. 5 and 6, the authors then unearth in Chap. 7 the social, economic and environmental factors which precipitate crime and criminal tendencies in Nigerian cit-ies. All of these discussions lead the authors to examine in Chap. 8 a criti-cal but often least-considered area in criminal research, that of the costs of criminal activities. The authors not only present a conceptual defini-tion/interpretation of the cost of crime, they also evolve a model for such analysis and use the model to configure the crime differentiation and pattern of cost in the urban crime landscape in Nigeria. This is a very novel approach to crime analyses and one which will spur other research-ers to venture into this area of crime research.

A kaleidoscope of control and prevention of the known, the less- known and practised, and the unknown are presented in Chap. 9. It is a chapter which calls for the cooperation of all actors—state and non-state, community, non-governmental organisations, the evolvement of new legislations and many more. The book concludes with a chapter on how to protect our cities, which are the bastions of national economy, from crime as the costs of these crimes are getting prohibitive by the day.

All the findings of this book are as relevant to all nations of the devel-oping world as they are to Nigeria, about which this book is written. This book is not only valuable for researchers and academics but to all practi-tioners in all spheres of human endeavour because without safety and security there cannot be progress and development.

The book has been written by seasoned academics and practitioners who are not only versed in the concepts and theories of safety and secu-rity but are also adept in crime and criminology discourses. They have used their wealth of experience to interrogate the crime and criminal

xiii Foreword II

landscape of Nigeria and, by inference, the criminal landscape of cities in the developing countries of the world. It is a ready handbook for all pro-fessionals and practitioners.

Department of Urban and Regional Planning

Babatunde Samuel Agbola

University of Ibadan Ibadan, Nigeria15 April 2019

xv

In parallel to human population growth, Nigeria is currently experienc-ing an urbanisation fever. Over a period of 60 years (1950–2010), urban agglomerations grew by a combined minimum average of 10  million urban dwellers every decade. During the period between 2000 and 2010, urban centres grew by more than 25 million additional urban dwellers. There is no doubt that Nigeria is presently at an accelerated stage of its urban transition, with more than half of its total population now residing in urban agglomerations. Between 2018 and 2050, it is projected that 189 million more people would have been added to Nigeria’s urban pop-ulation. Approximately seven in ten Nigerians will live in cities by 2050 in search of what we described as the Nigerian urban dream—the pursuit of a better life.

The Nigerian state has profited tremendously from rapid urbanisation. Cities have emerged as the dominant engines of economic growth; the main channels for extending and decentralising democratic values and political power and the hubs of enterprise, creativity and diffusion of innovation. Nevertheless, the implications of the country’s rapid urban-isation are profound for urban dwellers, urban economies and the sus-tainable development of what is considered by many as a fragile democracy. Rapid urbanisation is happening in an unmanaged manner in the midst of highly decaying social and public infrastructure. This has massive implications for the provision of employment opportunities,

Preface and Acknowledgements

xvi Preface and Acknowledgements

food, housing, transport, water, social services, waste disposal services and environmental protection. These challenges are further compounded by poverty and inequality, weakening social capital bases and increasing levels of social disorganisation. Despite the systemic weaknesses that characterise Nigerian cites, they are under huge pressure to deliver the goods of the urban dream for an ever-increasing and impatient number of urban dwellers. These competing demands combine to make many cities flashpoints for crime and violence.

Urban crime is arguably one of the most pressing social issues con-fronting Nigeria, with its only serious rivals being human and economic development. Leaders are increasingly coming to recognise the signifi-cance of the problem. Crime constitutes a serious impediment to social and economic development in Nigeria. In numerous urban centres, high burdens of crime threaten human welfare, undermine the growth of small, medium and large enterprises and hinder social development. Furthermore, urban crime drives away foreign and domestic investment, thereby impeding economic growth. Others have also observed that crime nurtures the exodus of highly skilled labour force. In several other ways, urban crime continues to stunt the growth and development of Nigerian cities.

The fundamental aim of this book is to bring the subjects of urbanisa-tion and crime together through a focused and engaging discussion of key concepts, data, processes, analytical techniques and illustrative appli-cations. This helps to ensure that students, scholars, practitioners, policy-makers and volunteers can better understand the evolving dynamics of both urbanisation and crime in Africa’s most populous country. In addi-tion to this, through an evidence-based prism, the book aims to critically engage the myths and debates about the factors that are actually causing Nigeria’s rapid levels of contemporary urbanisation. The book points out the importance of criminological theoretical frameworks, but it also chal-lenges the assumptions and suggestions by some that traditional Euro- American theories of environmental criminology are directly applicable in African urban contexts. A strong case for the development of context- relevant criminological theories is provided. The book explores the cur-rent state of crime and its impact on various groups of people in Nigerian cities, providing evidence of spatial and sequential patterns, as well as case

xvii Preface and Acknowledgements

studies of prevention and reduction mechanisms, and a robust body of recommendations aimed at future-proofing urban centres and residents from crime.

It is a delightful duty for authors to acknowledge and recognise those persons and organisations that have helped in the research and prepara-tion of a book. We are immensely grateful to the Department for International Development (DFID). Without generous funding from DFID to support the primary research project that underpins much of the evidence gathered and documented in this book, our vision might have remained a dream only. We are also indebted to ICF’s Dr Robin Bloch and Nikolaos Papachristodoulou (formerly at ICF) for their invalu-able support, advice and helpful edits. We acknowledge the support received from other members of the team at ICF’s international develop-ment division in London. We also extend our appreciation to Jon Parry (Skills for Justice, Sheffield) for the helpful comments and suggestions provided during the early part of our manuscript development. The anonymous reviewers of our book proposal also helped to sharpen our thoughts on several issues. We thank them as well.

The authors also appreciate the unalloyed commitment and support of numerous Nigerian urban residents who participated in various research consultations, members of professional associations as well as state and non-state security actors who participated in the focused group discus-sions and in-depth interviews conducted across cities and towns in Nigeria for the purpose of this book. These include Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), CLEEN Foundation, Nigeria Bar Association, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Nigeria Police Force, Private Security Companies (PSCs) and Vigilante Group of Nigeria. Others are Community Policing Partnership Association of Nigeria, Voluntary Policing Sector, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Hisbah, Council of Ulama and National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).

Finally, we are forever indebted to our spouses, Funmilola Ojo and Yetunde Ojewale, and our children for their patience, endurance and moral support throughout the period of intensive research and frenetic writing. These are the people who add colour and meaning to our lives on a daily basis.

xviii Preface and Acknowledgements

All these wonderful people, groups and many others too numerous to mention have contributed in one way or another to help make the book better. The opinions expressed in the rest of the book are solely those of the authors.

Lincoln, UK Adegbola OjoAbuja, Nigeria Oluwole Ojewale

xix

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Nigeria’s Urbanisation History, Trends, Drivers and Implications 13

3 The Criminal Justice System: Actors, Processes and Policies 59

4 Applicability of Traditional Environmental Criminological Theories in Developing Country Contexts 83

5 A Framework for Intercity Comparative Analysis of Crime 113

6 Contemporary Configuration of Crime Across Nigerian Cities 135

7 Crime Precipitators 171

8 Urban Crime Harm 187

xx Contents

9 Urban Crime Prevention and Control 199

10 Conclusion 223

Index 239

xxi

ACJA Administration of Criminal Justice ActASR Average Spatial ResolutionBCDSC Business Development and Coaching Services CentresBOYES Borno Youth Empowerment SchemeCCTV Closed Circuit TelevisionCDD Centre for Democratic DevelopmentCIA Central Intelligence AgencyCID Criminal Investigation DepartmentCJTF Civilian Joint Task ForceCPA Criminal Procedure ActCPC Criminal Procedure CodeCPTED Crime Prevention Through Environmental DesignCRAVED Concealable, Removable, Available, Valuable, Enjoyable and

DisposableDDR Demobilisation, Disarmament and ReintegrationDFID Department for International DevelopmentDMSP Defence Meteorological Satellite ProgramDSS Department of State ServicesEFCC Economic and Financial Crimes CommissionFCT Federal Capital TerritoryFRSC Federal Road Safety CorpsGDP Gross Domestic ProductGIS Geographic Information Systems

Abbreviations

xxii Abbreviations

GPW Gridded Population of the WorldGRUMP Global Rural-Urban Mapping ProjectHEI Higher Education InstitutionsICT Information and Communications TechnologiesIDP Internally Displaced PersonsIDS Institute for Development StudiesIHDI Inequality-adjusted Human Development IndexIJR Institute for Justice and ReconciliationJOR Joint Operations RoomLEI Life Expectancy IndexLGA Local Government AreasLNSC Lagos Neighbourhood Safety CorpsMDA Ministries, Departments and AgenciesMEND Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger DeltaMERIS Medium Resolution Imaging SpectrometerNAPTIP National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in PersonsNBS National Bureau of StatisticsNCE Nigeria Certificate in EducationNCGIA National Centre for Geographic Information AnalysisNCVS National Crime Victimisation SurveyNDLEA National Drug Law Enforcement AgencyNGO Non-governmental OrganisationNPC National Populations CommissionNPF Nigeria Police ForceNSC Neighbourhood Safety CorpsNSCDC Nigeria Security and Civil Defence CorpsNUCHI Northern Urban Crime Harm IndexNYSC National Youth Service CorpsOECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentOPC O’odua People’s CongressPGC Private Guard CompaniesPSC Private Security CompaniesPSG Private Security GuardsSALWs Small Arms and Light WeaponsSCP Situational Crime PreventionSSA Sub-Saharan AfricaSSS State Security ServiceSUCHI Southern Urban Crime Harm Index

xxiii Abbreviations

SWAC Sahel and West Africa ClubUCHI Urban Crime Harm IndexUN United NationUNDP United Nations Development ProgrammeUNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and CrimeURN Urbanisation Research NigeriaVIVA Value, Inertia, Visibility and AccessWHO World Health OrganisationYPG Yobe Peace Group

xxv

Fig. 2.1 Political and administrative geography of Nigeria 17Fig. 2.2 Percentage shares and projected urban and rural population in

Nigeria (1950–2025) 20Fig. 2.3 Levels of urbanisation in Nigeria and West Africa, 1950–2050 25Fig. 2.4 Spatial distribution of urban agglomerations in Nigeria

(1950–2010) 27Fig. 2.5 Trajectory of shares of urban agglomerations by geopolitical

zones (1950–2010) 32Fig. 2.6 Expansion of urban frontiers in (a) Calabar (1990–2010) and

(b) Zaria (1990–2010) 34Fig. 2.7 Urban system of Western Africa (2010) and innovation

(2009/2010) 42Fig. 4.1 Characteristics of good urban criminological theories 86Fig. 4.2 The crime analysis triangle 96Fig. 5.1 Temporal patterns of crime 127Fig. 5.2 The social ecological model 129Fig. 6.1 Estimated prevalence rates of urban crime (2005–2011) 143Fig. 6.2 Relationship between fear of crime and estimated prevalence of

crime (2005–2011) 145Fig. 6.3 Specialisation of murder (2005–2011) 146Fig. 6.4 Specialisation of robbery (2005–2011) 147Fig. 6.5 Specialisation of kidnapping (2005–2011) 149Fig. 6.6 Specialisation of physical assault (2005–2011) 150

List of Figures

xxvi List of Figures

Fig. 6.7 Specialisation of domestic violence (2005–2011) 151Fig. 6.8 Trends in urban violent crimes 152Fig. 6.9 Specialisation of vehicle theft (2005–2011) 155Fig. 6.10 Specialisation of motorcycle theft (2005–2011) 156Fig. 6.11 Specialisation of mobile phone theft (2005–2011) 157Fig. 6.12 Specialisation of burglary (2005–2011) 158Fig. 6.13 Specialisation of theft of money (2005–2011) 159Fig. 6.14 Specialisation of theft from car (2005–2011) 160Fig. 6.15 Trends in urban property crimes 161Fig. 6.16 Specialisation of rape (2005–2011) 164Fig. 6.17 Specialisation of attempted rape (2005–2011) 165Fig. 6.18 Trends in urban serious sexual offences 165Fig. 7.1 City-level correlations of robbery prevalence versus polarisation

risk factors in Nigeria 173Fig. 8.1 Relationship between harm of crime and estimated prevalence

of crime in northern Nigeria cities (2005–2011) 195Fig. 8.2 Relationship between harm of crime and estimated prevalence

of crime in southern Nigeria cities (2005–2011) 195

xxvii

Table 2.1 Selected definitions of urban settlements across Africa 14Table 2.2 Urban population to urban agglomeration ratio (thousands) 33Table 2.3 Share of migrants in an urban or rural place of residence

(2010) 38Table 3.1 Selected innovative provisions of the Administration of

Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 73Table 3.2 Passage of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 75Table 4.1 Families of major criminological theories 89Table 4.2 Hotspot places and causal mechanisms 98Table 5.1 Calculation of crime incidence rate 120Table 5.2 Interpreting results of the location quotient analysis 126Table 6.1 Estimated prevalence rates of crime by settlement hierarchy

(2005–2011) 143Table 6.2 Crime concentration versus crime prevalence rate in Nigerian

cities (2005–2011) 144Table 6.3 Average daily share (%) of urban murders (2005–2011) 152Table 6.4 Average daily share (%) of urban robberies (2005–2011) 153Table 6.5 Average daily share (%) of urban kidnappings (2005–2011) 153Table 6.6 Average daily share (%) of urban physical assaults

(2005–2011) 154Table 6.7 Average daily share (%) of urban vehicle thefts (2005–2011) 162Table 6.8 Average daily share (%) of motorcycle thefts (2005–2011) 162Table 6.9 Average daily share (%) of mobile phone thefts (2005–2011) 163

List of Tables

xxviii List of Tables

Table 6.10 Average daily share (%) of rapes (2005–2011) 166Table 8.1 Differences in general guidelines for punishing criminal

offences in Nigeria 191Table 8.2 Weights used to construct the NUCHI and SUCHI 193