Sir: The Nigeria Police has had a rugged past and the picture we see in the present does not give us a hope for the future.
Between 1999 and today, the police strength has grown from 112,000 to a little above half a million men.Despite this increase, crime has equally increased more, because the government in its fast motion to nowhere has not been able to discern the simple fact that even if you recruit 10 million men into the police and still have almost 100 million Nigerians hungry, unemployed and frustrated, crime would still be high.
Right from the days of Anini the great robber, the police rather than combat crime, has been partners in progress to armed robbers, robberies and all manners of social vices.
In today’s Nigeria, I need not sound alarmist or too critical but the bitter truth is that hoodlums, armed robbers are better equipped than the police in terms of arms, ammunition and resources. In terms of logistics, the robbers have gone a step higher in their modus operandi. Night robberies have been sent into the archives, now it is broad day robberies of banks, traders, houses etc.
In Abuja alone, the police needs billions to contain crime. A 36 state nation, how many APCs do we have, what’s the ratio of cop to population, how many policemen are guiding just one politician?
Talking about billions…the way these billions are mentioned tells you how far we have come as a nation. Nigerians were not known to be thieves, apart from the exceptional and well-celebrated cases of the likes of Anini, IsholaOyenusi, Shina Rambo etc. However, today the unbecoming has become becoming (whatever that means). From Zamfara to Kaduna, Plateau to the Southwest, East and all over, the military has taken over the theatre of crime.
Most police barracks are not different from rehabilitation homes for juveniles. The police have been reduced to an agency of ridicule and hatred amongst the populace. The only robbers they shoot are ordinary citizens who refuse to give them the N20 toll. When they conclude an investigation successfully, it must have been that of a landlord and tenant or two- fighting at a bus stop.
Somebody should tell President Buhari that we do not have a police anymore. A security outfit without equipment, funding, without logistics no communication facilities resort to the very crimes they are supposed to protect us from. Divisional Police Offices are now banks; the Divisional Police Officers’ are branch managers waiting daily for ‘returns’ (bribe) from marketing Execu-thiefs (junior ranks).
When robbers and assassins attack with assault rifles and police come with Dane guns, it is obvious that there is a lot that is wrong.
In a particular armed robbery incident in a Lagos Bank, the robbers expended over 1000 rounds of ammunition. Another incident in Benin saw over 2000 pellets expended. The police vehicle was like a painting of bullet holes. In these robberies lives are lost, the police, the banks, customers, passers-by are targets and all the government does is sit and talk of a now concluded elections.
The edifice called the police is a case of epilepsy, from the change of uniform, to increased recruitment of illiterates that can barely spell their names. The problem is not necessarily just that of the Nigerian Police but that of a nation whose leaders have thrown their responsibilities to the gutters.
- Prince Charles Dickson, PhD;
pcdbooks@gmail.com
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