The last four years have been immensely challenging for our security personnel. These have been the years when terrorism visited our streets, offices, public places and our places of worship with callous brutality. Sadly, the security services have borne the brunt of the casualties with fatalities in their ranks that number in their thousands. The Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, disclosed only recently that at least 435 of his officers have died just this year in the line of duty. These are fathers and mothers that have paid the ultimate price to keep you and me safe. With armed robbery, kidnappings and a host of other violent crimes now commonplace in Nigeria, we owe these brave police officers a duty to reform and adequately resource the police to enhance our protection as well as their personal safety. Apart from perhaps the change in uniform and a few tinkering around the edges, the reform promised by the previous administration barely left the dock because of the lack of political will to drive the changes needed.
The primary duty of any government is to protect the lives and property of its citizens. Our governments, especially in recent years, have fallen far short of this duty. With kidnapping rapidly becoming an industry in Nigeria, the country can no longer afford to put back the reform of the police service. The reform must start with an honest and robust assessment of our current security issues and the constraints on the ability of the police to respond to these challenges. The experience of many Nigerians is a police force that is grossly under-resourced, poorly trained, poorly paid and deeply corrupt. As the IGP alluded, it is time for us all as Nigerians to have an honest and open discussion about the policing we want in this country.
To address bribery and corruption in the police, the government will do well to first understand what is driving this behaviour. For most police officers, especially the thousands at the bottom of the ladder, corruption is a matter of survival. We pay them starvation wages, send them to work in deplorable conditions with little resources, house them in squalor and then expect them to perform like the FBI or London’s Metropolitan Police.
In contrast, a typical police officer on patrol in the developed world would be equipped with bullet-proof body armour for protection, a baton, a Taser gun, a cell phone, a pair of handcuffs and a two-way radio for real time communication with the station and other officers. They would also have on their belt pouches spare armour, first aid kit, gloves, a pen and a notebook. Compare this with a typical Nigerian police officer that depends largely on members of the public to provide him with the tools to do his job – stationery, fuel, etc. They even have to buy their own uniform from their meagre salaries. How sad! It is like sending a farmer to plough the field without a hoe and then complain that the farmer has not delivered the required harvest. States like Anambra and a few others have shown what can be accomplished when the police are properly resourced.
Regrettably, the leadership of the police, past and present, cannot absolve themselves from the current state of policing in the country and the way the force is perceived by the public. The deep culture of bribery, corruption and many allegations of police brutality would not have thrived without the implied or express acquiescence of the leadership. In most countries the police station is where people flee for refuge; in Nigeria it is where people avoid at all cost, a place Nigerians have described satirically as business centres where extortion is commonplace under the direct gaze of police commissioners. If the police are to endear themselves to the public, they must start by putting their own house in order, starting with the re-orientation of the leadership.
They must draw lessons from the overt partisanship of some of their senior officers in the previous administration. The locking out of the Speaker from the National Assembly, the withdrawal of police protection from elected public officials and the treatment of the #BringBackOurGirls group were deplorable conducts. The Buhari administration, as part of the change agenda, must learn lessons from the excesses of the past administration and resist all attempts to politicise the police and our security services. The opposition MUST be allowed to have its say, unhindered in a democracy. The police on their part must resist all attempts to be drawn into partisan politics.
Addressing crime effectively in Nigeria would require a complete reorientation of the police force and a rebuilding of a new force around new, well-trained recruits. This may involve the retrenchment of large numbers of police officers who are so mired in the current way of doing things that trying to retrain them would be an exercise in futility. The reform would require a huge investment in training and technology to improve the detection, investigation and prosecution of crime. It must address the pay and general welfare of police officers, as well as the calibre and qualifications of the people that are attracted and recruited into the police service. The reform will not be cheap and will require a huge investment in vehicles, equipment and modern police stations. The investment will pay for itself in the long run with a leaner and a more professional police force. We must re-examine the colonial practice of police officers living in barracks. It is not done anywhere else. They should be living in the community where the intelligence is. The current barracks can then be sold to fund the reform.
The merits of decentralising the current centralised structure to bring policing nearer to the people and make the service more accountable, as eloquently argued by former Governor Babatunde Fashola at his ministerial screening, should be explored.
Given the nation’s current realities, reforming the police must be one of the president’s toughest challenges. He must articulate publicly his vision and strategy for transforming this institution. From my experience, for the reform to have the best chance of success, he will need to have the same person at the helm to initiate and drive the changes required to completion. To this end, the president may need to waive the normal civil service retirement rules for the current IG if he is minded to use him as the change agent.
Policing in any nation is by the consent of the people and the police must set out to win back the trust and confidence of Nigerians. They cannot expect people to report crime to them if they are perceived as the enemy.
Emmanuel Nwachukwu
