URBANIZATION, POLICING AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigeria is urbanizing faster than its governing institutions can manage, producing environmental collapse and security strains that existing policy frameworks have failed to contain. This paper examines how rapid urban expansion generates slums, environmental and ecological damage, with new crime geographies, and argues that rural urban migration leads to proliferation of slums which can cause environmental and eco system, and from the broken windows perspective if not quickly meet in the board can degenerate into a very decayed and unsafe society.   Policing in Nigeria must not just be maintained but be reconfigured if environmental sustainability is to be achieved. The study demonstrates that urban decay and public disorder amplify one another. The paper further contends that effective policing in Nigerian cities must not only be reactive in crime control, but  should infuse models that encourage community participation, environmental design, and rigorous enforcement of environmental statutes. The analysis rests on secondary sources and a systematic review of the literature. The central finding is that sustainable urban development in Nigeria requires security and environmental governance to be co-produced by state agencies, local communities, and regulatory bodies.

Keywords: Urbanization, Policing, Environmental Sustainability, Nigeria, Community Policing, Environmental Crime