This is good, but better if complemented with good roads and functional street lights
Although 120 (5KVA) power generating sets donated to the Lagos State Police command by a state government, particularly a big spender like Lagos, may look insignificant if we look at it from the monetary value, but it is a lot when the totality of the value they will add to policing in the state is considered. And when I talk about policing, I am also talking about the comfort the generators would give to the officers and men at the police formations that they would be distributed to. Indeed, the state commissioner of police, Imohimi Edgal, said it all when receiving the generating sets from the Chairman of Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF), Mr Oye Hassan-Odukale, who represented Governor Akinwunmi Ambode at the presentation of the sets to the police: “You can imagine the confidence the public will have if divisional headquarters and area commands are lit with the confidence that their matters would be earnestly addressed,” he said adding: “Power is essential. Our communication gadgets, especially phones need to be charged. You cannot function anywhere, you can’t take complaints, you can’t give directives to field officers when there is no power. These generating sets are valuable to us.”
Although this piece is all about the Lagos State gesture, the state of the police is not better in any other part of the country, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). If things could be this bad for the police in Lagos (the state government has done more than a Yeoman’s job for them such that it is possible to see the state police command as an extension of the state government), the situation in other places can only be imagined. One wonders what the state police command would have been like if the state government had not been as supportive as it has been through the LSSTF. Yet, it is supposed to be the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), a federal police.
That a state government is incurring this cost on a simple tool as generators is an indictment on those who should supply electricity to Nigerians as well as the Federal Government that controls the police. But then, given that even the Presidency makes provision for generators (and diesel) every year says a lot about the government’s pessimism on the possibility or attainability of uninterrupted electricity supply in the country. One would have made a case for dedicated power supply lines to the police formations but this might be impossible now because they were not so conceived initially. Even then, many Nigerians would not be happy with this preferential treatment. All Nigerians are power-hungry; it is not the police stations/formations alone that need electricity. So, why single them out for special preference?
One can only appeal to the police to use the generators well and for the purpose they were procured. It would be sad if we start hearing reports of some of the items being taken to power the homes of senior police personnel in the divisions or diverted to their wives’ shops for private business. If possible, one can even suggest that the state government finds a way of ensuring regular servicing of the generating sets if it wants them to last. And this has to be handled directly by it because it is not certain that if the state government provides money for regular maintenance of the sets, the money would not be diverted. This is not necessarily a police problem; it is a Nigerian malady.
This admonition is necessary when one looks at the state of vehicles the police are using for patrols and other purposes. Most of them have suddenly become scraps on the road due to poor handling. Indeed, only the ones recently procured and handed over to them by the Lagos State Government appear to be in good condition. In those days, many of those vehicles that the police still put on the road would have been marked ‘Off the road’ due to their decrepit state. It is true that most of our roads which the vehicles ply are bad, but that alone cannot explain why those vehicles are the way they are. Some of them break down frequently and one wonders what the police in the state would have been using if the Lagos State government had not come to their rescue with those vehicles. A few bold Nigerians arrested by the police for driving poorly maintained vehicles have had cause to challenge the policemen that their vehicles that the police are complaining about are still far better than the ones used by the police who arrested them – no headlamps, no trafficators, the tyres are weather-beaten and obviously expired, broken windshields, among others are the hallmarks of many of those police patrol vans.
Anyway, it is also important to stress that one of the things that can make the generating sets last is if they are made to serve as back-up. But if they become the main source of power supply to the police formations with public power supply as back-up, then, in no time, they would start developing faults due to over-flogging. In the long run, fixing electricity supply is key to most things we do as Nigerians. One can only imagine what would be spent on fuel to power the generators. These are unnecessary costs that could have been diverted to better uses. Lest I forget, I hope the Lagos State Government also made provision for fuelling; otherwise, it is Nigerians with issues at the police formations that would bear such cost.
The state of the state government’s Light Up Lagos Project becomes relevant here again because the Executive Secretary of LSSTF, Abdulrazak Balogun, said during the handing over of the generating sets to the state police commissioner that the items were donated to the police in furtherance of the state’s Light Up Lagos Project. In a little over two years, the Ambode administration has left indelible footprints on certain aspects of life in Lagos that have greatly transformed the state. The snag, however, is that much as new projects are being initiated and assiduously pursued, old ones appear to be dying. One is the much-talked-about inner roads in Lagos most of which are now in terrible state. The state government has promised to address these as soon as the rains are over. Some progress seems to be ongoing in this respect; one hopes this would continue because if the vehicles donated by the state government are driven on bad roads, it is only a matter of time for them to become junks..
Another area of concern is the street lights that have been out of order, in some cases for months. Here, I would mention the ones on Fatai Atere Way in the heart of the state that have not worked for about five months now. I did a campaign on this darkness on Fatai Atere Way for over two consecutive months but abandoned it when it appeared those who should be concerned were not. Not even an explanation about why this had to be so. The point must be made though, that the work of the police would be made much easier if the streets they are supposed to police are also well lit. If they have lights in their formations and the streets are in darkness, even the police are not safe because the idea of having street lights is to deny criminals the darkness under which they hide to perpetrate their nefarious activities. One understands the cost implications of some of these things. But it is better for the state government to slow down on new projects in order to sustain old ones that are crying for attention. The beauty of street lights where they are already provided is that they work. The pervasive darkness on Fatai Atere Way all through Ojekunle Street at night is reminiscent of those days of the Nigerian Civil War when lights were deliberately put off to prevent the enemy from bombing targets in Lagos.
All said, one can only hope the commissioner of police would live to his promise that the generators will be put to optimal and judicial use. One can also hope too that Governor Ambode would live to his promise to keep Lagos safe and secure; but this cannot be achieved if we still have dark spots for criminals to operate from. Lagos is too important a business hub to be left in darkness.
Happy 57th independence anniversary.
