AmanaOnline

The last few years have been marked by widespread violent robberies, kidnappings, banditry, insurgency, and other manifestations of a troubled society. Very few areas of the nation escaped the effects of the troubling insecurity. The police – who were used to decades of military control and its swift and disparate justice – are now forced to assume the full duties of crime control and public protection. Unfortunately, the current police force is not equal to the task.

As a result of the agonizing experiences of these years, some fundamental changes need to be made now. Waiting will only prolong the agony. Our problems are numerous thus the following will only focus on insecurity and the Police role in our society. The whole concept of federalism is predicated on the idea that absolute power must never be centralized. What is best for Nigeria is not what is currently in place as a police force. We should decentralize the force and institute local control of the police force.

Let us observe that the progress of mankind over the past few millennia must be regarded as grounds for optimism towards peace and national security. In most parts of the world, quality of life has improved significantly through increased life expectancy. Many have witnessed the broadened distribution of wealth and improved social welfare. There is technological advancement in machinery, tools, and appliances which guaranteed greater efficiencies in Agriculture and Manufacturing. Except for many of us in Africa and other poor countries, “people live longer, and the hazards and problems of primitive life – such as disease, tribal combat, exposure to the extremes of climate, scarcity of food, and the need to expend enormous amounts of energy just to contend with these difficulties from day to day – have largely disappeared.”

Nevertheless, we can confidently say that here in Nigeria, ours is a ‘lot and life’ that has remained largely unchanged through most of the last 50yrs. We have failed to master the basics, and that which we have mastered, we have either refused to apply fully to our advantage, or have misapplied such for reasons that are not directed at improving our collective security and welfare. Thus, the question is who is better suited to police us? Is it the current system of a National police force, or should it be a localized police force that is staffed by our own kin and neighbours who face the same daily consequences of crime and lawlessness?

The present policing system is inadequate, overworked and misassigned. Whenever crime is discussed, the role of the Police is clearly defined as inadequate, however it is fair to say that the police have been assigned a disproportionate amount of responsibility. There are additional players left out, who must join forces for both the present level of insecurity and the efforts to cope with it in the future. We shall discuss those in another effort.

The primary purposes of a Police Force are the protection of life and property, the preservation of peace and order, the guarantee of safe movement of people and their goods, and to rapidly respond during life threatening, and medical, emergencies. The Nigerian police today is also faced with the additional difficulty of overcoming public suspicion, combined with low trust of police authority. Notwithstanding, “The ultimate goal of law enforcement in society should be to reach a level of maximum citizen compliance with the law through voluntary means with minimal enforcement”. The Constitution of today is fatally flawed in one important aspect; it imposes upon us the concept of ‘participatory management’ in public service – including the police, participatory management or democratic leadership is not suited for the police force, just as it is not for the military.

Consider this,

• Democracy and leadership tend to be contradictory in principle.
• Mostly individuals or individually dominated organizations achieve great advances in any field, and not a group whose members have equal status.
• The instinct to avoid friction and competition can lead to complacency.

The capacity to police our own communities should not be vested with one “IGP” hundreds of miles removed from the reality of our own environment, but rather it should be the duty of local officials to ensure equity in our “liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. The old system of Native Authorities that had a fully staffed constabulary should be modelled and implemented with emphasis on the principle that any community can and will police itself better, than by outsiders who have no stake or interest in the survival of such community.

Here again, we should look at the difference between democracy and leadership. In a democracy, the leadership cannot decide for us, the citizens as a group will decide for itself. Unfortunately, in matters relating to power, i.e. police power; the best approach is to have a dominant individual in charge. This is because a police force cannot operate as a democratic unit or even within one. It must be allowed to operate independent of all political implications. Of course, the Chief of police must be accountable to Local Authority, preferably a single individual such as a traditional ruler, a mayor, a town manager, or a chairman elected by the community.

The component that must be amended or removed from the policing system of today is the fact that they are not answerable to local authority. How can any police force respect the community that it polices if it does not depend on, or require any form of sustenance from? The force is likened to a ‘Peace keeping force’. The brutality and corruption that is associated with peacekeeping forces of the world is what obtains in Nigeria. Ask the people of Sierra Leone, or those of Sarajevo in old Yugoslavia about the atrocities associated with peacekeepers.

Our national police force should be disbanded, and in its place a highly skilled, purely investigative federal unit formed. A local community police should be assigned to handle the day-to-day activities of enforcement and public protection. These two police organs must also be complemented with a State Highway patrol formation which will assume the duties of protecting our roads and highways. Other forces of the state, or federal, should also be created to manage other areas of security like the forest reservists, etc.

But, NO to State Police!

The State governors in Nigeria’s presidential system MUST NEVER be given the Powers to control a State Police. It is evident from their behaviours with the Monthly allocations, that they act like emperors who own everything in the state. Adding police power to the money they control will make them behave like gods. Instead of practicing a participatory government, if they have control over money and police power, they will become imperial dictators who will have no fear. They will act with more impunity. The biggest mistake already was giving them immunity. IT IS TOO MUCH POWER IN ONE HAND. Democracy survives on shared power, not absolute power in one hand.

There should be no doubt in any one’s mind that the present system has failed, and that it is time to move on. We should ask for and support the creation of local police forces for our communities. Every municipality that currently manages a local government body should also have a police department with statutory control vested within its local charter or ordinance. Call it a State Police or a local government Police. It does not matter the Name, but we do need a local police force in our communities – answerable to the powers vested in that community. Any other structure will be derisory and ultimately result in failure.

The late Abubakar Tsav, former CP in Kano and Lagos wrote this, “The situation in the Police as it is, calls for very drastic and decisive action. It should be salvaged. It is a great pity that while other police forces in the world have gone scientific in the investigation of criminal cases, we in Nigeria still apply manual method of investigation. Investigators handbooks and many other Force directives bequeathed to us by the British have been abandoned. Investigators are not even keen on investigating cases to their logical conclusion but rather to hurriedly arrest suspects, release them on bail and dump the case file.”

The Minister of Police Affairs, the IGP and the Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria (ARPON) need to join hands and take steps to redeem the image of the Nigeria Police. Presently, Policemen go cap in land begging for money to fuel and service their patrol vehicles. This situation provides fertile grounds for corruption. In some cases, money provided by Local Government Chairmen for fueling and servicing of patrol cars are misappropriated by DPOs. Welfare of the junior rank of the Police Force and creation of incentive should be paramount in the minds of Senior Officers. Certainly, corruption involving large numbers of officers is more common now than it was a few decades ago. Institutionalized corruption is still with us and still insidious. Many well-meaning police commissioners have been unable to master the uses of power, unable to control a large bureaucracy of a whole state, in ways that can achieve sufficient control over corruption.

It is perhaps needless to say, the smaller the bureaucracy, and the more strictly the top management is held accountable by means of powerful sanctions, then the lesser the corruption. The corruption of an individual officer is occasionally a possibility, even in the best of police forces, but the worst kind of corruption involves many police officers, all of whom connive, and all of whom know that it is going on.

Although many other occupations are susceptible to corruption, police corruption is more dangerous to our society for several reasons. First, the police have a unique position with respect to the use of force and the capacity to deprive people of their freedom. Second, people who benefit from police corruption can do greater damage to the community. The elimination of corruption will require courageous actions in several directions by several people, with emphasis on the leadership of the Police.

• First, the police chief must make plain to all police rank and file and the public at large that corruption will not be tolerated.
• Second, proper police selection standards (especially those relating to character and education) must be established and followed.
• Third, the force must be organized so that public oversight and internal investigations on abuses can be carried out effectively.
• Fourth, command officers must be held accountable for the corrupt acts of the police officers under their command.
• Finally, public resistance to corruption must be developed through education and information, so that there is no tolerance. And most importantly, the chief of police must solicit and secure the support of elected local officials, prosecutors, and the news media in their fight against corruption.

The current federal police force is a failure and a disgrace to Nigeria. The power is too centralized and therefore not placed where it can be most effective – at the local level. How much chaos and bloodshed are we prepared to endure before we act?  It is a consensus that we have had enough.

hdfika@gmail.com
February 20, 2024

Hf Dauda MoiSoro writes from Abuja.