There is a local saying that it’s a strange sight to behold a masquerade that should be seen only at night parading in broad daylight. A street protest by policemen is nothing short of that. Policemen essentially are maintainers of law and order, such that when others stage rowdy demonstrations against authority, it is policemen that are called upon to safeguard the peace. But when policemen go on demonstration, it is uncertain who could be called in to preserve the peace.
That was the unsightly dilemma recently when constables recruited for community policing in Kwara State went on a street protest over alleged non-payment of their salaries. They massed around the airport axis in Ilorin and trudged the highway rowdily, spewing invectives on authorities for allegedly shortchanging them and denying them their entitlements while exploiting their services. You could hear some of them cursing that they were even made to buy their own uniforms. The protest march, which left many residents of the state capital confounded, was a damning commentary on the state of policing in Nigeria.
The police high command, however, dismissed the constabularies’ protest as an unwarranted act of mischief aimed at embarrassing the institution. Force Public Relations Officer Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a statement last week, said the constables had no basis for their protest because they were volunteers who took the job knowing full well there was no remuneration attached. “The Nigeria Police Force…wishes to state unequivocally that the Community Policing Constabulary Scheme of the Force is a purely voluntary service commenced by the Federal Government to train and incorporate individuals with prior paid employment who desire to spend their spare time assisting the police in its simple police tasks within their various communities,” Adejobi said, adding: “It therefore came as a rude shock that members of the scheme were protesting non-payment of salaries in Kwara State recently when the ultimate purpose and rule of engagement of the scheme is to promote community partnership in crime control via the presence of respected members of the public, with a source of livelihood, partnering with the Force under the scheme to render voluntary service for better and improved policing within their communities.” According to him, the constables are not direct employees/personnel of the Police but of their respective communities at divisional and state levels.
But policing pro bono, with all the hazards?! That whole idea smacks of the levity with which relevant authorities take the concept of decentralizing and domesticating policing functions as entailed in the advocacy for state police. There’s no halfway house to getting security better fortified at the grassroots, and the constabularies’ strike in Kwara State just proved that.