Miffed by a high spate of crimes and killings in different parts of the country, which has defied solutions, a group of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) has insisted that the federal government should reform the Nigerian Police Force to make it more efficient.
In an interactive with the media and rights groups on the renewed debate on ‘State Police and the way to go,’ organized by Human Rights Law Service (HURILAWS) and One Voice with the support of National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which took place at the Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG).
Ilupeju Lagos, the National Coordinator, Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) Foundation Mr Okechukwu Nwanguma contended that this has become necessary because of the incapability of the Nigerian police force to effectively respond to increasing crime wave and insecurity in the country.
Nwanguma who was represented at the event by the Chairman, One Voice media committee Pastor Adedeji Adeleye noted that the debate on State Police in Nigeria was usually sparked off by certain situations which included some state governors desiring greater control of the police in their states, especially with the approach of the 2019 general elections.
He noted that a policeman graduates from Nigerian police college and was given just one uniform. “The rest he buys with his salary,” he added, saying Nigerian policemen are poorly kitted.
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They don’t have the best form of communication gadgets and modern social media devices that you find in the Western world, which enable them to communicate with the signal office while on the field.”
According to him. “There is no rapid response. The military deliberately destroyed the Nigerian police. Besides the Nigerian police is a product of the colonial mentality.
It is an established force to the extent that it is not people friendly. But to protect the ruled over the governed. What Nigerian policemen are doing presently is that they are standing only to the leaders in government and the very important persons (VIPs),” he said.
He disclosed that statistics of policemen in Nigeria showed that the country has 350,000 police officers, adding, “if you look at the population of Nigeria, which is put at 200m, it gives us one policeman to 571 persons. But the real statistics is that over 200 policemen are serving a VIP out of the figure.
So, when you look at some of these anomalies, you’ll perceive that even if we say that state police is desirable, It is still going to be a replication of what takes place at federal, at the state levels.”
On the way out, Nwanguma said, “We should try to devise ways to restructure the present police force to make it more effective and people friendly.
The present police force protects and guides only those who have accumulated wealth allegedly from public coffers, and instead of going the whole hug – because a lot of people in government are benefiting from the present structure and would always kill the idea of state police – civil society practitioners and the media can partner to pursue an agenda of reforming what we have at hand.”
He called on the government to look at the present structure and ensure that some of the policemen were indigenized. He said, “Those who are of Delta state origin should be sent back to Delta state and be made to police their different communities, ditto to those from Ondo state.
This should be done at a certain cadre of the police structure; perhaps from recruits to Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP).”
He buttressed his argument citing for instance “a situation where a Hausa man comes to Lagos and engages in arm robbery with nobody who knows him. He cannot do that in his own town. And because they know him there, he will think twice before he participates in it,” he remarked.
He opined that the reason some people say ‘end Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS)’, was because they were not friendly to the communities they were posted. “How many of us know them.
They are not from Lagos. They were just posted to Lagos. So, they commit any crime and get away with it,” he said, adding, “We must as much as possible try to reform the present structure.”
He wondered what it will take the presidency to concede to the state executives the control of the Commissioner of Police in their stateS. He asked, “What is it going to minus from the locus power at the centre.
Is it going to diminish the authority of the presidency? Why is the president grabbing all the powers? After all, he conceded to the different states to create State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs), which is being controlled by the governors.
“So why can’t they control the States Commissioners for Police so that the issue of inadequate funding, not having good equipment and properly kitted policemen can be addressed by the states.
If the CP and the command structure in the states are answerable to the state executives, we would be able to restructure and reform. The police force we have today is inefficient because the police structure wants it that way,” he stated.
He observed that It was because the monies allegedly stolen by the leadership of the force were not allowed to trickle down to the different local commands SARS and others in the police rank and file had to mount roadblocks to extort money from ordinary Nigerians to run their commands.
“The structure is faulty from the beginning and we need to address them instead of skipping them to begin to call for state police. It is after exploring all the various options of reforms, and they have not achieved the desired results, we can begin to think state police,” he summed up.
