Crime in Nigeria
[4] Nigeria’s president-elect bought a $11 million London mansion that his predecessor’s government was seeking to confiscate as part of a probe into one of the biggest corruption scandals in the West African nation’s history.
For example, the Tiv people view wife-beating as a "sign of love" that should be encouraged as evidenced with the statement "If you are not yet beaten by your husband then you do not know the joy of marriage and that means you are not yet married".
[7] All the major ethnic groups, especially Yoruba and Igbo, have strong patriarchial societal structures that lead to the justification of domestic violence.
[9] Nigerian women and children are taken from Nigeria to other West and Central African countries, primarily Gabon, Cameroon, Ghana, Chad, Benin, Togo, Niger, Burkina Faso, and the Gambia, for the same purposes.
Nigerian women and girls are taken to Europe, especially to Italy and Russia, and to the Middle East and North Africa, for forced prostitution.
[14] They extort money from passers-by, public transporters and traders, sell illegal drugs, act as informal security guards, and perform other "odd jobs" in return for compensation.
Various Nigerian confraternities or student "campus cults" are active in both organised crime and political violence as well as providing a network of corruption within Nigeria.
[20] In lower levels of society, there are the "area boys", organised gangs mostly active in Lagos who specialise in a mugging and small-scale drug dealing.
[35][30] Several countries such as China, Russia, and European Union (EU) member states deploy Distant Water Fishing (DWF) fleets to the Gulf of Guinea.
[34] Chinese DWFs, which account for 75% of fishing off the coast of West Africa, are reported to fish with bottom trawlers, in restricted areas, and without license, misreport catch and manipulate Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, bypass local law by flagging their ships in African nations, and rent smaller, unrestricted boats of neighboring countries Chinese DWFs.
[37][30] While piracy and armed robbery attempts have decreased in recent years – 2023 only one attack in Nigerian waters was reported[38] – the violence by pirate groups transferred to coastal communities.
[39] Moreover, the Niger Delta experiences pipeline vandalism with the intent of stealing and selling the crude oil or of industrial and governmental sabotage.
[30] High levels of corruption, weak governance, and conflicts within Nigeria contribute to low coastal welfare and the proliferation of blue crimes.
[30] Artisanal fisherfolk also put themselves at risk of accidents with oil installations by going into previously avoided areas to find fishing grounds.
Furthermore, arm smuggling leads to a high number of weapons entering Nigeria possibly contributing to violence on land.
Piracy and armed robbery can lead to ships avoiding Nigerian waters threatening the fishery sector and job opportunities.
Lastly, IUU fishing by Nigerian artisanal fisherfolk in neighboring territorial waters of Cameroon could lead to conflicts between the states.
[37][26][44] Despite being the best equipped and relatively active in addressing maritime insecurity in the GoG,[28][26][30] Nigeria, lacking capacities and adequate regulation, being underfunded and understaffed, and hindered by problematic bureaucracy,[32][26][22][49] struggles to fulfill coast guard functions,[24] patrol the country's EEZ,[27] and address the whole range of blue crimes at the same time.
[53][54] In cooperation with the latter and Trygg Mat, Nigeria is part of the West Africa Task Force which has a higher success rate than other initiatives.
[24] The various regional initiatives aim at facilitating coordination and consultation among the member states, unified enforcement and capacity building, information sharing and resource pooling.
[35][30][33][22][48][54][26][27][32] Despite progress, problems in the form of lacking monitoring and enforcement capabilities, funding, and harmonization as well as a member states being unwilling to commit and tackle root causes obstruct their implementation.
