PERCEPTION OF POLICE AND SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC PREDICTORS OF FEAR OF TERRORISM IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The media plays an important role on issues of national security and in the context of the challenge of insecurity in Nigeria. Objective of this study was to find out the relationship between social media, perception of police and fear of terrorism. A cross-sectional and correlation designs were used. The statistics were Pearson Product Moment correlation and regression analyses. Participants were 426 persons of 226 males (51.4%) and 200 females (45.5%) with age range 18-65years (M = 33.42, SD = 12.11). Results showed that age, education, social media and ethnic group; as well as perception of police significantly correlated with fear of terrorism. Nigerians with less favorable perception of police showed an increase in their fear of terrorism (β =.110, p<.05). Recommendations is for the Nigerian police to genuinely abstain from violation of people’s rights.