TOWARDS A USEFUL POLICE IN NIGERIA
by Madaki O. Ameh
That
Nigerians have suffered untold hardships at the hands of the Police is
to state the obvious. Setting out from their houses in the morning,
most Nigerians pray against an encounter with the police or armed
robbers, and there does not appear to be much difference between the
two. The sight of a policeman in Nigeria elicits immediate feelings
of hatred and anger, and the colour of their uniforms does not help
matters either. Even the smallest child in Nigeria knows, when
growing up, that the policeman is your enemy, as you are more likely
to encounter them negatively than an armed robber.
But of all the acts of
brazen evil perpetrated by the police in Nigeria, none has captured
the public attention in recent times, like the events leading to the
recent murder, in cold blood, of five innocent young men and a woman
by the police in Abuja, the seat of Nigeria’s ‘democratic’
governance. In their now familiar efforts at covering up their
misdeeds, the Police High Command quickly put a team together, headed
by DIG Mike Okiro, to investigate the murders and come up with a
report, the contents of which were clearly predictable. But in a wise
move by the President, this team was disbanded and replaced by a
judicial commission of inquiry, and the nature of the evidence has
immediately changed and the revelations are telling indeed.
Witnesses who had earlier
been cajoled into lying through their teeth at the earlier
investigation by the Okiro panel, have come out to change their story
in a manner reminiscent of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set
up by the South African government shortly after the demise of the
apartheid era, an exercise which we so inelegantly tried to ape with
the Oputa panel. In spite of all the hard work put in by the selfless
members of that panel and the enthusiastic response from Nigerians,
the outcome is yet to be made public. But that is a matter for
another day.
In the past
couple of days, Nigerians have been told of how these innocent victims
of police brutality were hunted down like antelopes in their own
country and mowed down in their prime, for no apparent reason than the
fact that those who did it have become used to taking human life in
similar circumstances, such that it no longer matters to them whether
their victim is a human or a beast. And therein lies the fundamental
problem we face as Nigerians, because, what happened to those young
people has happened many times before to countless other Nigerians
whose plight could not attract the current attention, and will
continue to happen, if we don’t all collectively say that enough is
enough, with the government firmly on the side of the people, at least
for once!
And to further rob salt
into an already very sore injury, the Acting Inspector General of
Police, Sunday Ehindero, in an apparent show of insensitivity,
recently at an event in Ilorin, tendered an ‘apology’ on behalf of the
Police, calling what happened a ‘mistake’. But for God’s sake, if
what happened to those young people in Abuja was a mistake, that has
been one mistake too many, for which the usual Nigerian tendency of
saying sorry, and expecting that it will heal all wounds and forgive
all sins, should not be allowed to happen this time around. And we
all know that this ‘apology’ by the IGP is coming because this matter
has apparently become too hot to handle, and he has seen that it can
no longer be swept under the carpet like all the other ones before it,
which has become routine in police circles, as the President himself
appears to be personally interested in the outcome of this one, and
many big heads could roll as a result.
In a sane country where
people are accountable for their actions, what the IGP should have
done is not to tender a lame apology that means nothing to the
victims, who obviously cannot feel anything anymore, or their families
and other frightened Nigerians, who see the real probability of their
meeting similar fates at the hands of the many policemen scattered all
over the country, but to honourably resign his appointment. Some may
wonder what concerns a whole IGP with a seemingly insignificant
malfeasance of a DPO and his overzealous policemen in one obscure
corner of Abuja, but the fact still remains that he presides over a
Police Force that could do such mean things to people in a supposedly
democratic Nigeria of the 21st century. He should
therefore be ashamed of himself and if for nothing else, demonstrate
his feeling of genuine remorse, and at least for once, let us see a
highly placed Nigerian who took up the gauntlet and quit office
honourably on a point of principle. But such actions will definitely
be very hard to come by in a country where people find any reason, no
matter how ridiculous, to cling to whatever is left of a dishonourable
office, until they are either disgraced or forced out, when all honour
and dignity is gone.
And true to type, at the
same forum where the IGP was supposed to have tendered an apology on
behalf of the Police Force for this horrific and shameful incident, he
was quick to add that he would soon roll out the drums to celebrate
his stewardship for the past six months of being at the helm of
affairs in the Force, apparently to show that things have greatly
improved since he came into office to save Nigerians from Tafa Balogun.
That again is not unusual in Nigeria, as to do otherwise would be
contrary to the norm of public office holders who celebrate just about
anything, even where there is apparently nothing to celebrate. And
this is the same IGP who has not done anything to address the 3 months
ultimatum handed down to him by President Obasanjo to rid the highways
and luxury buses of daring armed robbers who kill and maim at will.
He also said that it was God that brought him into office at the time
he did, to correct the ills of the police. Again, the usual tradition
of calling on God’s name, even if done for vain reasons. I am really
at a loss about what he will write in celebration of his six months in
office. But we are waiting.
In a period when
Nigerians are still smarting from the rude shock and embarrassment of
an IGP who is currently facing uncountable number of charges for
allegedly stealing over N17.7 billion of police funds which passed
through his hands in his barely three years of being the helmsman in
the Police Force, as if he was possessed by a demon, one would have
thought that his successor should be sober and not too eager to roll
out the drums, in line with tradition. But in Nigeria, anything is
possible. Indeed, Nigerians have gotten used, over time to absorbing
such obscene celebrations, to see nothing wrong with it, even when
done with public funds.
The fact is that police
extortion and brutality has become so institutionalised in various
forms in Nigeria that most of them are now taken for granted by
Nigerians as part of the drudgery that their daily lives have become
over time. Apart from the regular menace of roadblocks and their
never ending demand for sums ranging from N20.00 upwards, depending on
the gravity of the ‘offence’, one form of police extortion which
personally offended my sense of justice was their demand, about two
years ago, that all vehicle owners in Nigeria must add another
‘particular’ to the already long list, called ‘ECMR’. For the lucky
ones who may not know what ECMR stands for, that was the ingenious
invention by the now disgraced IGP Tafa Balogun, which was meant to be
used to provide an electronic database for all vehicles plying
Nigerian roads, to facilitate their recovery in the event of a
robbery. And this was to cost N300.00 per vehicle. I did a quick
estimate at the time, and using a figure of at least one million
vehicles in various shapes and states plying Nigerian roads, this
would amount to at least N300,000,000.00 realised in one fell swoop,
for practically no effort beyond the printing of the cards, and for
something we all know will never be done, and which was also clearly
illegal. I am sure the actual loot realised from this exercise was a
lot more. I decided never to pay for the ECMR for my car, and never
did, even at the risk of all the inconvenience associated with the
many stoppages on the roads as a result. I understand that because the
police have become used to this source of ‘revenue’, this new
addition, which was supposed to be a one off imposition for a specific
purpose has become an annual requirement, and the amount has been
revised upwards, apparently due to inflation, to N1,500.00 per car!
Of course, many similar
stories abound in Nigeria, and every adult Nigerian must have a tale
of woe or two of a personal horrifying experience with the police.
Most Nigerians must also be agonising daily on what can be done to
sanitise this Force, which is so effective in other places, but so
abysmally useless in Nigeria today, and will remain so for the
foreseeable future, if something is not done urgently about it. I
have also agonised on the same subject myself, and come up with the
following suggestions, which I hope will help show some light in this
quagmire that we have all found ourselves.
Firstly, one of the many
problems of the Police Force appears to arise from poor leadership,
basically due to the manner the leadership is chosen. As a result of
the command and control structure in the Force, which usually throws
up one of the most senior officers as the next IGP after the
retirement or removal of the incumbent, people who get to the top are
those who have seen it all, and know all the tricks that have been
played at the lower levels and their skins have become toughened by
years of meanness. It is hardly possible therefore to expect such
people to effect any meaningful changes in a system with which they
can see nothing fundamentally wrong. My take on this score therefore,
is that the Nigerian Police Force needs to be led, at the National,
Zonal and State levels, by people who are not career policemen.
Managing any process just requires superior intelligence, and that is
why ministers are appointed to head ministries which have no bearing
with their core disciplines. The task of managing crime is no
different, and it would take forthright people, who are a number of
steps ahead of criminals in intellect, to effectively put them in
check, and such people are not necessarily career policemen. The
Minister of Police Affairs in the current dispensation cannot
effectively play this role because he has no command responsibilities
in the Force, and cannot remove or discipline an erring Police IG or
Commissioner. A number of successful multinational companies use high
calibre managers from different backgrounds to manage their security
apparatus, and they do so successfully and effectively. The Nigerian
Police Force may well borrow a leaf from this practice, as it is now
obvious that the time worn process we have adopted since colonial
times has not served us well and delivered the Police Force of our
collective dreams.
In making this
suggestion, one is not saying that the entire Police Force should be
completely written off, as there are obviously some really fine
officers and gentlemen, who are apparently embarrassed at the
happenings in the Force. When such people, such as Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu
of the EFCC are identified, they should be quickly isolated and
promoted out of turn to handle visible responsibilities in combating
crime in a specialised manner, and fully empowered to do their jobs.
Such elevation and recognition will also provide the much-needed
impetus to other officers, who will begin to see role models in the
Force, in the knowledge that their hard work and forthrightness would
also be noticed someday and rewarded.
Secondly,
the much talked about motivation and remuneration of police officers
should be looked at from areas other than money. It is a fact that
most Nigerians do not earn living wages, as the remuneration is hardly
enough to meet the most basic needs, not to talk of saving for the
rainy day or meeting family commitments of school fees, healthcare,
etc. After years of passing through the gruesome Nigerian University
system, a graduate who has roamed the streets in search of a job for a
long time usually thanks his stars if he finds a job which pays him
N15,000.00 in a month of 30 days. And he is expected to pay rent,
transport, feed himself and meet other basic needs from this salary,
and also save some money, and we all know that this is impossible.
Meanwhile, the most menial job you can find in the UK for example,
pays about £5.00 an hour, which at current exchange rates, translates
to about N1,325.00 per hour. So, computing on the basis of 8 working
hours a day, what the Nigerian graduate in the above example earns in
one month, is what the cleaner on the streets of London earns in 11
hours which is just over one day of work. The additional difference,
again to the disadvantage of the Nigerian graduate, is that the cost
of food, transport, housing, etc, relative to income in Nigeria is a
lot higher than in the UK because of the subsidy which the government
provides to cushion the cost of living, the idea being to ensure that
the lowest income earner is still able to maintain a relatively decent
lifestyle with what he earns. But this is not so in Nigeria, because
everyone is on his own, and the annual budgets, which now run into
trillions of Naira, only makes meaning to those in government
circles. I have always wondered that, were it not for the collective
sustenance of each other by the Nigerian society where we are all our
brothers’ keepers, and people can always rely on handouts that come
from time to time, no matter how meagre, from relations who are doing
better than others, the society would have long degenerated to
anarchy.
The same complaints by
the police of inadequate remuneration and motivation can be made by
most salaried persons in Nigeria, and certainly by their counterparts
in other uniformed Forces and government offices, but poverty should
never been an excuse for crime. Most very poor people still live
decent lives, bearing their burden of poverty with dignity, and so I
cannot agree that the problem of the police lies with poor salaries.
Rather, the problem lies with the manner in which our expenditure
profile is structured, and the fact that incomes cannot afford the
most basic things that are required to support life and the government
does not appear to care. Poverty is a relative term, as there are
many poor people in the developed world, who live on social security
handouts on a weekly basis, which have been set at levels to ensure
that they can support those basic needs on their own, but this is
lacking in Nigeria and most other African countries.
What the government needs
to do urgently therefore is to ensure that the basic cost of living is
set at the level of the least earner in the country. For instance,
that shop attendant who earns N3,000.00 a month should be able to
feed, pay transport, house rent, school fees of her children, and meet
other basic needs from that salary, and still have a little savings at
the end of the month. Where this is impossible, as it is clearly so
in our present day Nigeria, then the government must subsidise the
cost, to ensure that people operate at that basic subsistence level,
below which they will be reduced to the level of animals. And the
lives of most Nigerians have been basically reduced to this level,
with people sleeping under the bridges and feeding from dustbins in
countless number all around the country. If the playing field were
levelled in this manner, then the police would have no justification
for asking for a special treatment, because whatever they face is
being faced daily by millions of other Nigerians, the only difference
being that those other millions do not legitimately carry guns. I
have never been able to appreciate all the arguments against subsidy
in Nigeria, because it is only through such subsidies that the
positive impact of government revenue can be felt by the ordinary man
on the streets. After all, all the developed countries, with all
their resources and the relatively high income levels, still heavily
subsidise key sectors of their economy, and Nigeria and other African
countries should be no different. In fact, judging from the pervading
poverty in Africa, it can be safely argued that these subsidies are
even more relevant on the continent than elsewhere.
Thirdly, our policing
efforts should begin to transcend the usual show of force through
excessive manning, which results in the stop-and-search syndrome, with
the resultant high contact with the citizenry and their consequent
brutalisation. Policing world-wide has moved beyond these ancient
levels to more sophisticated reliance on electronic measures through
CCTVs, communication gadgets and high mobility, relying mostly on
credible information from supportive citizens and an ability to
respond within minutes. The surprise element is most effective in
crime prevention and control, and it is highly arguable whether those
regular checkpoints have been any real use in checking the ever rising
incidence of crime in Nigeria, beyond being a source of perpetual
annoyance and conflict with the citizens. And we can afford these
modern policing measures, with the sort of budgets we make these days,
and the fact that a single police chief can be accused of siphoning
over N17 billion Naira in only a few years of being in office, without
the entire police system collapsing under his weight. Or maybe it
did.
Fourthly, the Nigerian
Police Force should urgently embark on a vigorous recruitment drive to
dilute its ranks with new people, with emphasis on the graduate
entrant level, supported by others from the NCE/OND level upwards.
This exercise should go hand in hand with an exit strategy which sees
to the smooth transition of those who have outlived their usefulness
in the Force to other less visible areas of the nation’s service
delivery, with deserving exit packages and retirement benefits
promptly paid. This should happen quickly to ensure that the new
entrants do not imbibe the meanness of the existing ones, and that a
fresh orientation is given to the new Police Force of our dreams,
which will truly see itself as part of the society, and can be
genuinely perceived as friends. The initiative at the beginning of
President Obasanjo’s administration of recruiting 40,000 policemen
annually has largely been a failure, because it saw the entry of a lot
of criminals and dropouts into the Force, as a place could be
purchased for sums ranging from N10,000.00. Even the Police High
Command has admitted that the exercise was an abysmal failure.
Finally, our public
office holders should temper down their grandiose lifestyles and
realise that in the country where they maintain that level of
affluence, millions of others are daily dying of mundane ailments and
outright starvation, and they cannot claim ignorance of this fact.
Such lifestyles bring out the devil in otherwise honest men, who begin
to aspire to live like them, no matter how illegitimate their chosen
approaches may be. The denigration of our collective psyches may well
be responsible for the inhuman feeling of many policemen towards their
fellow humans, resulting in such dehumanising incidents as the ones
currently under judicial inquiry in Abuja.
To ensure that we never
see such incidents again, the current commission of inquiry should be
transformed into a full fledged tribunal, and should be made open to
all other Nigerians who have, in one way or another, been victims of
police brutality, as the outcome will be very revealing. Our real
practice of democracy will commence when Nigerians can walk tall on
the streets at any time of the day or night in celebration of their
freedom, without fear of running into a police checkpoint, or being
arrested at 6:00pm in large numbers and charged for wandering. If a
man cannot wander about in his own country, where else in the world
can he wander? [back
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