The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Leo Irabor, was dead serious as he declared at a conference on security during the past week that armed forces personnel are being overstretched as they are deployed in many states of the federation to perform roles that are constitutionally outside their purview. We are all witnesses to the deployment of the officers and men of the armed forces for joint patrol or even to man road blocks in the 36 states of the federation.
These are basic police functions, including prevention, detention and prosecution of crimes. The armed forces are only invited to intervene when states are confronted with internal security breaches such as the insurgency as witnessed in the Northeast in recent years, especially because of the international dimension it has taken. It could be conceded, too, that what has come to be regarded as banditry in the North West has escalated beyond the capacity of the police force.
However, drafting the military to combat armed robbery and even kidnapping in all parts of the country is an indication that the police are extremely weak. It was weakened by failure to recruit over the years. During the Obasanjo administration, there was an attempt to react to visible depletion of the numbers over the years; thus a decision was taken that 10,000 personnel should be recruited annually. The presidential order was disregarded by those who ought to have given it effect. Since then, the police hierarchy and the Police Service Commission have regularly been at loggerheads over who should handle recruitment. It is simply sad that in a country that has a Commander-in-Chief who is not new to the responsibilities of the office as a retired general and former military Head of State such wrangling could be allowed to stand in the way of smooth operations of the police force.
It is obvious that the police need and deserve much more than they got in the past and are still getting today. They need more men and material resources. The last time that the force was well equipped was in the Second Republic, but the military intervened in the political process and cut down funding. Training too has been in short supply. Both locally and internationally, the officers need to be retooled for modern policing. But, whenever there is paucity of funds, the police budget is one of the first to be slashed. The whole country and its leadership must come to the firm resolution that we need a better police force than we have, with all the branches such as intelligence, special branch, anti-fraud, among others. Only then would the force be respected by all.
The curriculum at the police colleges has to be reviewed to keep pace with new methods of investigation devoid of torture of suspects, speedy investigation and arraignment and promotion of human rights of others, especially the youth. This must be done urgently to free the armed forces personnel for their primary duty of securing the country’s territorial integrity. Otherwise, the fate that befell the police would soon become their lot as they could be spread too thin. It is shameful that more policemen are deployed to guard duties with “big men and women” than general security. Many of them are seen carrying bags and making purchases for wives of public officers and even chieftains of industry. They are usually made to clear the way for the officials and when that is done, hapless citizens are harassed and cleared off the streets for easy passage for the “big men. Many Inspectors-General of Police have made attempts to reduce such needless deployments without success.
The professionalisation and restructuring of the security forces would not be complete until the government ensures scrupulous implementation of relevant laws. The Nigerian Armed Forces Act and the Police Act as amended recently make provision not only with regards to their duties and responsibilities, they also lay out the structure that have, in most cases, been abandoned. The Police Council, for example, that should comprise all the state governors with the President at the head has hardly ever been summoned to deliberate on the way forward. The Act mandates the Council to be consulted whenever an Inspector-General is to be appointed, this is not the case. This must change.
It is even unfortunate that one of the casualties of the on-going review and amendment of the 1999 Constitution is the loud clamour for state police as a means of ensuring federalism in its true sense. The intractable security challenges confronting the country have proven beyond reasonable doubts that one centralised police force, controlled from Abuja, cannot comprehend and appropriately respond to the complex security and other challenges.
Nigeria is a plural society; hence the decision of the founding fathers to opt for a federal system of government. If the country is to know peace and experience unimpeded development, the police should be decentralised. The armed forces that are established to ward off external aggression would therefore be in position to concentrate on the arduous task at hand.