GRASSROOT LEADERSHIP AND SECURITY MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF OKOLOBA COMMUNITY IN KOLUKUMA/OPOKUMA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BAYELSA STATE
Keywords:
Grassroot, Community, Security, ManagementAbstract
This paper generally examined the relationship between grassroot leadership and security management in the Okoloba community of Kolukuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The Complexity Leadership Theory (CLT) developed by Keene in the year 2000 was used. It made use of a descriptive survey research design, and a sample of 200 respondents was determined using the random sampling technique. Both primary and secondary/documentary data were used. A structured questionnaire titled, "grassroot leadership and security management (GLSM)" was used for primary data collection. The mean scores and standard deviation (SD) were used for data analyses while the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMCC) was used to test the hypothesis at .05 level of significance. The paper established a significant relationship between grass-roots leadership and security management. It found that the impacts of grassroot leadership on security management in Okoloba community are significantly positive. It further identified the challenges of leadership in the fight against crimes in Okoloba community to include indifferent attitude of police towards vigilantes, lack of personnel training, inadequate crime combating equipment, unwillingness of community members to provide relevant information on crimes to vigilante groups, lack of proper enlightenment of vigilante group activities to the community members, poor security information management, poor salary or stipends payments to the vigilante groups for their services, resistance to arrests or invitation from vigilante groups, disobedience to hierarchical order, and power tussle between Chiefs and vigilante groups. The paper concluded that effective security management can be guaranteed through improved and good leadership system at the grassroot levels. It recommended that in order to enhance the functioning of grass-roots leadership and improve security management, the traditional rulers should be relevant at the State and federal levels, and that the local governments must be encouraged to operate as the third tier of administration in Nigeria.
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