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Tag: policing

  • Towards an effective policing

    Towards an effective policing

    • By Opeyemi Bamidele

    Effective policing is always a function of understanding the security environment. This evidently requires all operatives to understand the peculiarities of the security context without ambiguity. It also means they understand the culture, history, language and values of the people they are engaged to protect. It entails that they have built, even maintained a network of social capital that can help them function effectively. This suggests that they are familiar with their areas of responsibility, mainly the socio-economic dynamics that often breed internal challenges within the security environment.

    As currently constituted, the Nigeria Police does not possess any of these attributes, which I strongly believe, is central to crafting an alternative national security architecture that will guarantee the protection of lives and property. In other words, the dysfunctionality of the current police system directly correlates to the prevalence of criminal incidents in virtually all states of the federation. This further justifies the public demand for an alternative police system that can deepen internal stability and incentivise diverse investors from within and without.

    However, the progressives do not in any way share the conviction of the conservatives. Rather, in absolute terms, they propose the need to recraft Sections 214-216 of the 1999 Constitution to introduce local, state or regional police into the country’s security architecture. This also suggests the exigency of devolving policing powers to other federating units – local and state governments. It is not entirely new to Nigeria’s political system.

     Until the promulgation of Decree No. 34 that birthed the unification of Nigeria in 1966, we had practised the decentralised police system under the First Republic. In this dispensation, as established in Section 105(7-8) of the 1963 Constitution, each regional, provincial and district government was statutorily vested with the power to create and operate its own police. But the 1966 coup heralded the military rule that dismantled the decentralised police structure we embraced at independence. 

    Rather than allow our fissures to determine our collective future, it is important to reassess the interplay of forces – cultural, economic, political, social or technological – that now shape security dynamics globally. As well, it is salient to look at the rationality of our choice, perhaps whether we should continue with a centralised police model as it is now or adopt a truly decentralised police model in the similitude of what we had in the First Republic.

    As a federation, however, Nigeria cannot be left out in the matrix of new thinking that glaringly defines the world. In real terms, rationalism should, as a custom, shape the choice of police model we adopt and not what we are or what we are not. Put differently, our current socio-political realities or security dynamics ought to define our collective response. For me, the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution obviously avails us another opportunity to redefine our governance structure and recalibrate our security architecture as a people of collective purpose. But we must go about it with a clear sense of self-realisation.

    We must, first and foremost, realise that the present police system is ailing and dysfunctional. We must also admit that the system can no longer guarantee the dignity of human lives and the security of collective assets considering our security dynamics in the Fourth Republic. With this admission, it is evident that the option of adopting State Police is no doubt inevitable as an antidote to diverse security challenges that threaten us as a federation. Its inevitability is connected to diverse emerging threats, which according to policy analysts and strategists, are not just the outcome of our national faultlines. Rather, it is designed to respond to the inherently perverse socio-economic realities of the federating units that jolt millions into poverty.

    Besides, the deficit of the Nigeria Police has influenced extra-constitutional responses to guarantee the security of assets, investments and lives. One of such responses is the undue deployment of armed forces to manage our internal security crises. It is ostensibly an outright deviation from Section 217 of the 1999 Constitution, which constricts the armed forces to defending our fatherland from external aggression; maintaining its territorial integrity and securing its borders from violation. Due to the dysfunctionality of the Nigeria Police to ensure internal stability, the armed forces have deviated from their constitutionally assigned mandates. This is not in an attempt to usurp the powers of  the Nigeria Police. Rather, it is in the spirit of joining forces with the Nigeria Police in the task of ensuring public order within our border. Although this military support is highly critical to our internal stability, its intervention is an absolute deviation from its original mission, and we must embrace State Police to significantly reduce the engagement of the armed forces in internal security operations.

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    This is just one side of the argument. Another side is the regular sight of our military officers on the streets of state capitals, commercial cities and major towns. What does their regular sight tell foreign investors, development partners or donor institutions visiting our fatherland? What does it portend to us as a people? This does not portray us as one of the world’s fastest evolving democracies with the records of seven successive elections since 1999. It does not suggest that Nigeria, in its 25 years of democracy, can guarantee security of its critical assets. It does not suggest that the Nigeria Police can ensure internal stability that these global actors always look forward to as a condition to bringing in or injecting their capitals into our economy.

    This argument does not end with the critical perception of Nigeria by visiting donors, investors and partners. It also dovetails into the economy of security itself. In principle, political economists, especially those that share Karl Marx’s philosophy of economic determinism, always argue that the economy is the substructure of every society. And in essence, the economy forms the foundation on which socio-political structures are built. As empirical as this time-tested postulation might be, I strongly believe, the working of every society distinctly reflects the symbiosis of all its units – be it culture, economy, law, politics, science or technology. This implies that each of these units mutually functions for the workability of our society. It further suggests that all the units co-exist independently within their spaces to interdependently deliver desired outcomes. This thus depicts the functionality of an economy  depends upon how efficient and effective our national security system is.

     The downward spiral of foreign direct investments (FDIs) into this federation further corroborates the politico-economic perspective to State Police. The best approach is to correlate the flow of FDIs with our security trends year by year. From $8.84 billion in 2011 to $3.06 billion, the flow of FDIs contracted by 65.38%. By 2020, our FDIs further shrunk to $2.39 billion, thus representing a 72.9% contraction from what we recorded in 2011. In 2022, our FDIs snowballed into negativity. In 2023, the flow of FDIs resurged to $377 million with diverse initiatives the incumbent government introduced to restore internal stability. Within this timeframe, the steady contraction of FDI correlated directly with the frequency of armed attacks, to which the Nigeria Police could not decisively respond. And this trend incentivised strategic investors from bringing in their capitals; crippled real production nationwide and exposed our economy unduly to diverse global economic shocks.

    The flow of FDIs is not the metric to measure Nigeria’s economic haemorrhage to security challenges we are facing as a federation. A 2015 report by Mercy Corps, a reputable international non-governmental organisation, also quantifies the economic value of peace in the Middle Belt alone. In its findings, Mercy Corps concluded that Nigeria could gain as much as $13.7 billion annually in total macro-economic progress in a scenario of peaceful coexistence between herdsmen and farmers. This value perhaps might include the cost of the food crisis and its consequent escalation of food inflation that rose to 40.53% in April 2024. This finding reinforces our deduction that the interplay of socio-economic and political forces is pivotal to delivering a more efficient and functional police system. 

     Under the subsisting police order, it has been a herculean task to establish a stable security context. This x-rays the dysfunctionality of the Nigeria Police and failure to respond to its core mandates. For instance, what influenced the creation of EFCC, ICPC and NFIU? The answer is evident in the malfunctioning of the Nigeria Police. The statutory mandates of EFCC, ICPC and NFIU constitute the core constitutional obligations of the Nigeria Police. But its inherent dysfunctioning triggered the resolve of the National Assembly to enact legislation that would fill the vacuums that necessitated their establishment. With this scenario, I believe, the time to embrace the decentralised police model is now. It is dangerous for us to further delay our collective resolve to remodel our police system in accordance with the true characters of our federation.  

    As it is in other climes, the adoption of State Police will in reality bring the people to the core of security operations. And the global trend in security practice supports this proposition, especially in emerging democracies like India, Mexico and even South Africa, where policing powers have been significantly devolved to sub-national governments. In advanced democracies too, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, among others, have long embraced the decentralised police model. The rationale behind their choice is not far-fetched. It relates to the principle of mutuality in policing. This principle assumes that the police need public support to effectively function within its core area of responsibility. Likewise, the people need the police to secure their lives and assets. This mutual dependence will unfailingly breed organic synergy between the people and police that will eventually create an environment where aggressors, criminals and outlaws can never thrive.

    But can we just adopt state police without addressing the concerns of its critics? I truly share the fear of the critics that the Governors can use the state police purely for private ends or such a police establishment may be too partisan in the discharge of its core mission. But the legislators, who are the truly elected representatives of the people, are conscious of public concerns about adopting State Police and are under obligation to address public trepidation with the spirit of nonpartisanism. We will convincingly deploy the instrumentality of ‘checks and balances’ to reduce, even completely discourage the use of State Police for private ends when eventually adopted.

    At the state level, the proliferation of vigilante groups is gradually metamorphosing into a similitude of anarchy. Different sub-national governments are now establishing vigilante groups under the guise of criminal elements that threaten life and property. They are also procuring arms and ammunition for the protection of lives and assets within their spaces. In Kano, for instance, Hisbah, a replica of local police that enforce Sharia, was established to tackle some perennial security concerns. In the South-east, the Governors created Ebubeagu in response to pervasive security crises. In the South-west too, Amotekun came into being amid grievous security concerns. These groups are indirectly exercising the powers of State Police outside the purview of the 1999 Constitution. However, the sub-national governments have justified their resolve to create vigilante groups on Section 4(7), which empowers the State House of Assembly “to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the State or any part thereof…”                    

    At best, the multiplicity of these security outfits with highly limited operational powers and without definite constitutional obligation obviously portrays an anarchic security context. And this context reinforces the proposal for the devolution of policing powers to sub-national governments. Devolving policing powers from its subsisting centralised structure to the proposed decentralised model is not just an alternative we must all embrace just to reflect the true character of our federation. Rather, it is a sine qua non for bringing our fatherland out of the woods or precarious conditions that have for decades eclipsed our public image before the comity of nations and caused our economy internal economic haemorrhage. It is also a globally recognised approach that gains profound acceptability among federal democracies.

    With this emerging anarchic context, we must embrace an alternative police system, explicitly defined and technically designed in response to our socio-economic and political realities. As the debate for a more efficient police model subsists, the National Assembly is under obligation to provide a legal framework that provides clearly defined preconditions, to which sub-national governments must conform before they can establish their own police formation. The role of all 36 State Houses of Assembly is equally indispensable in the quest to adopt the decentralised police system. At least, the two-third of the state parliaments must approve the proposal before it can become effective.

    In essence, the legal framework must be actionable and definite, evident and transparent, to allay public concern about State Police. It must convincingly address thorny issues that can, in the future, encourage the arbitrary use of State Police by Governors. It must clearly set out globally acceptable standards for unambiguous definition of the investigative, operational and prosecutorial powers of State Police; well-structured welfare packages that will discourage unethical practices, minimum security equipment that will encourage efficiency, mainstreaming accountability and transparency mechanisms into the state police operations as well as promoting professionalism across all strata of police operatives, among others.

    Providing a legal framework for the establishment of State Police should not be confused with its actual implementation when eventually adopted. Each sub-national government is at liberty to set its own timeline for the operationalisation of State Police within its jurisdiction. By implication, sub-national governments can choose to operationalise its own police formation at their own pace. Every state, already prepared for its operationalisation, can go ahead with it without further delay. The development of the legal framework will prevent sub-national governments from hiding under vigilante groups to arm people unconstitutionally. But we must comprehensively set out the legal framework for establishing State Police so that all sub-national governments can follow laid-down principles and procedures in bid to protect people’s lives and secure collective assets.

    The legal framework, no doubt, entails setting a globally acceptable policing standard, an assignment the National Assembly must carry out in outright demonstration of our spirit of nationalism, non-partisanism and utter allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As a people of collective purpose, therefore, we are also under obligation to deviate from the shadow of our horrible past and embrace innovative approaches to our collective challenges. And one of such approaches is the establishment of the state police, which in truth should be objectively designed to avoid cases of misuse for political ends. Like other models, it may have its inherent deficiencies. But its benefits, no doubt, far outweigh its costs in all ramifications. And now is the time for us as a people of collective purpose to do the needful in the national interest.

    • Bamidele is Senator Leader
  • Imperative of state, community policing

    Imperative of state, community policing

    The need for the establishment of state policing is long overdue. Therefore, the meeting convened by President Tinubu last week to initiate a process to set up state policing is a welcome development. However, I have some concerns about how the structure and setup of the state and community policing will be, so that we ensure that we have a state and community policing that will succeed.

     PROCESS AND MODALITIES

    I am of the opinion that some of the key next steps include; the setup of think tanks for state and community police at national and state levels; undertaking gap analyses at national and state levels and follow-up comparison of notes to ensure that common issues and also peculiarities are identified ab initio, so that the state legislations will address those common issues and also peculiarities to ensure the formulation of coherent policies and operational protocols that will handshake the federal policy framework for efficiencies, effectiveness and positive impacts; there should also be robust stakeholder engagements to get the buy-in of all stakeholders.

      I am aware that there are some papers and term sheets on community policing that have been done by some stakeholders. There are/were also existing community policing models in Nigeria that have been operational, for example, the Hisbah in Kano State, the Amotekoun in Ondo State, and the Ebube Agu in Ebonyi State. Therefore, Committees and national and state levels of people of proven experience, expertise, track record, and integrity, could be mandated as think tanks to come up with some concepts that would be reviewed at state and national levels as part of the process of achieving robust, practical, achievable and effective community policing models.

     The next crucial step is the legislative process, to enable the enactment of State and community policing at local government, state, and national levels. I recognize the fact that the 10th National Assembly and some states have already initiated processes of constitutional review and legislation to that effect. However, an important question for us to immediately address includes: what are the roles of the state and community police? What could be the interplays or interplaying roles between the local government, and the state and federal police? What will be the state of play? What would be the protocols and/ or standard operating procedures (SOPs)? What would be the escalation points, and what would be the boundaries of authority and accountability? What will be the safeguards to ensure that the state Governors do not abuse the powers of controlling the state and/ or local government police? etc.

     It is worthy of note that the role of community policing is largely information and intelligence gathering, fostering peaceful co-existence, ensuring some level of law enforcement, and taking pre-emptive and preventive measures/steps, to curtail or contain threats (kinetic and non-kinetic) while relating and keying-into the federal policy when and if necessary. There is the notion the state police could also be armed, and that is why the legislative process is very important. Readers may recall that in February last year, Justice Riman Fatun of the Federal High Court, Abakalaki, disbanded the Ebubeagu as a result of illegal arrests, extortions, possession of illegal firearms, human rights abuses, etc. This is a reminder of how important the process of setting up the state and community police will be in ensuring that it will not be abused.

     In addition, because it will be a new instrument of power and coercion at the subnational since its existence and abolishment in Nigeria over 60 years ago, we should expect and plan to deal with the teething problems of how such immense power of the state should be managed and if necessary contained especially given the fact that even the Nigerian Police Force is facing multiple cases of abuse of power, human rights abuses, etc. Therefore, the fundamentals of community policing have to be right strong, and the pillars have to be firm and enduring. I advocate for thorough legislation, I urge us not to “rush” the legislation and in the process enact weak laws to support our community policing which in the end could backfire on the good citizens and residents of Nigeria. We must be careful with the timeline of legislation before enactment into law, then the setup of the forces, the recruitment process, the tooling and kitting, doctrine and training, etc. before fully operationalizing the community police forces, and then we start feeling impacts. In my opinion, an expedited process could take up to 1 year or more before we start seeing and feeling the overall impact of Community policing depending on how seriously it is taken and how well it is set up and activated at the subnational level.

    THE BIGGER PICTURE OBJECTIVE- THE NIGERIA ARMED FORCES

     While the euphoria of the need for setting up community policing is overtaking us, we should not lose sight of the bigger objective. The Nigerian Armed Forces are seriously undermanned and under-served. There are currently about 370,000 policemen and women in the Nigeria Police Force with a ratio of 1 police officer to 600 Nigerians. Recently the IGP made a public declaration that the Nigeria Police force requires an additional 190,000 personnel which in my opinion is not even enough, we have less than 300,000 military personnel, and less than 30,000 Nigeria Immigration officers manning our land, marine, and air borders, with over 1,400 unmanned and illegal land borders. Secure borders are a critical success factor in securing the nation.  There are also less than 10,000 Nigerian Civil Defense Corps officers in the entire Country. The aforementioned law enforcement agencies have their statutory roles in maintaining law and order and also ensuring Nigeria’s internal security. The shortfall of boots on the ground of these agencies is reflecting the increasing state of insecurity in Nigeria.  Therefore, while we are addressing the issue of state and community policing, I urge President Tinubu and the National Assembly to as a matter of national priority increase the capacity of our military, police, immigration, civil defense corps, and other law enforcement agencies so that we don’t lose focus on the bigger picture and come back later to react to multi-dimensional challenges that we may not be able to contain.

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     FUNDING IMPERATIVES

    While we are all excited about State and community policing, let us also note that for the past 5 years about 20 States of the Federation have not been paying the minimum wages of N30,000.00 agreed to between the Government and organized labor since 2019. Some states regularly owe the state employees monthly salaries sometimes for months. Now we have a very crucial national priority of tackling insecurity. The Community Policing project will test the resolve of the governors because state police have to be funded by the State Governments. The man and material resources requirement to set up and operate state police in terms of Capital Expenditure and operations expenses and recurring expenses must be properly planned and catered for. I believe that we should have robust, fully functional, efficient, and effective community policing and not a ragtag arrangement of some people who will not be able to deliver the mandate. 

     CONCERNS ABOUT THE POTENTIAL ABUSE OF THE POWER OF COERCION BY THE GOVERNORS

    I share the concern of many Nigerians about the possible abuse of the State Police if and when enacted into law by some State Governors, to the detriment of democracy, and the fundamental human rights of the people. There are concerns that some Governors could abuse this instrument of coercion and power to their undue advantage while they use the same instrument to anybody or people that they consider adversaries. I have given an instance with the abolishment of Ebubeagu by the Federal High Court in Ebonyi. We have a political system that has given so much power to the Governors and to that extent, such powers are misused by some Governors.  Therefore, the concern is how these organizations will be properly and adequately used for the purpose and objectives that will be set and not for political and/ or parochial interests.

     Accordingly, it is important that the National Assembly make adequate provisions of safeguards during the amendment of the Constitution to ensure that there can be interventions by the 4 arms of the Federal Government (Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary) to save any state that will be unfortunate to have Governor who will use the State Police structure and machinery for monstrous purposes or any reason(s) other than to protect and serve the peoples. If this is not done then the State police will become a problem that will be worse than our mounting socio-economic and security challenges because we would have given constitutional backing to anarchy.

  • Policing: Beyond uniform

    Policing: Beyond uniform

    When the Police Service Commission (PSC), headed by Solomon Arase, recently proposed a change of uniform for members of the Special Police Constabulary to make them easily distinguishable from regular officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), it looked like a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

    The commission, in a statement by its spokesperson, Ikechukwu Ani, painted the special constabulary black, saying there was a “need to overhaul the organisation and operations of the outfit.” According to the PSC, “There have been several reports of unprofessional conduct by officers of the outfit, a quasi-police formation created to assist in community policing. Reports of their unprofessional conduct range from highhandedness in dealing with citizens and bare-faced extortion on our roads and communities.”

    This is bad for the image of the regular police, the commission observed. That is true. But interestingly, the same negatives can be observed regarding regular police officers. The NPF introduced the Special Police Constabulary in 2019. There were plans for the unit to recruit 20,000 personnel within five years. The first set of constables in the outfit were deployed to local governments in 2020, after training.

    There is no doubt that the NPF had an image problem, which has not disappeared, well before it introduced the Special Police Constabulary. Indeed, the negatives highlighted by the PSC in its demand for an “overhaul” of the outfit sounded like the long-term, familiar public criticism of the regular police.   

    The commission proposed a solution to the image problem allegedly caused by the special constables, and called for “an entirely different set of uniforms for officers of the outfit that should be easily differentiated from that of the regular police officers.”  It argued that this “will help to track appropriately the conduct of men of the outfit and that of the regular police officers and free the Nigeria Police Force from blame associated with the misconduct of men of the outfit.”

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    The PSC is hypocritical. The regular police also have been accused of such misconduct allegedly associated with the special constabulary, and they need not only self-redemption but also reinvention.

    The PSC’s position is possibly connected with the recent dismissal of two police constables in Oyo State following a viral video that showed their involvement in extortion of a foreign tourist. The Police Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said the men were not regular police officers but special constabulary personnel.

    How personnel are recruited into the special constabulary may well be part of the problem. In October 2023, for instance, 50 so-called repentant thugs became members of the special constabulary in Kano State. At a ceremony, the state Commissioner of Police (CP), Usaini Gumel, announced their recruitment, saying it was “a happy day for the good people of Kano State and the Police Command.”  The move towards enhancing security in the state was a worrying indication of the scale of security challenges facing the authorities, and their desperation to find solutions.

    The new recruits, the CP explained, had “volunteered to work with the police and to contribute to the security and development of the state.” After a two-month training, they were kitted as “members of the Special Constabulary.”  Members of the outfit are used for community policing under the police in the state.  

    Their recruitment was the culmination of a rehabilitation process that started about three months earlier when the police sought dialogue with some identified notorious individuals believed to be responsible for the escalation of crimes in the state. The outcome of the move was the cooperation of 222 “repentant thugs.” The CP said their details were sent to the state governor, “for them to be supported by way of engaging them in some life-changing programmes.”

    According to the police chief, “All the 222 influential youths that surrendered themselves were properly profiled. The state governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, who already gave them amnesty, directed us to profile them and find out where they can fit in for skills acquisition and human empowerment.”  That was how the new recruits who had volunteered to join the special constabulary emerged.

     Governor Yusuf, obviously pleased with the arrangement, was reported saying “Kano is setting the pace as the first state in the federation to use a non-kinetic approach in bringing down the wave of crime.” It remains to be seen whether the new recruits will improve security in the state. They are from Dala, Fagge, Ungogo, Municipal and Gwale Local Government Areas of the state. They were expected to be posted to their communities to boost the state government’s security efforts.  

    The police in the state defended the idea of recruiting “repentant thugs” for law enforcement, rejecting the description of the recruits in some quarters as “hardened criminals.”  But security is a serious issue, and law enforcement is too serious for experimentation with strange ideas involving so-called repentant volunteers with a history of lawless behaviour.  

    The PSC’s reaction to the development, at the time, reflected its position that special constables and regular officers should not wear the same uniform.  The commission stated “categorically” that the special constabulary were not police men and not recognised as such by the commission and the government. It noted, however, that the constabulary operations were covered and recognised by the Police Act, and were useful and needed, particularly in the context of rising criminal activities across the country.

    Another part of the problem, which the PSC highlighted in its recent call for a review of the special constabulary, is the failure of some states to address the welfare of special constables.  This is condemnable. The commission called for the disbandment of the outfit in states where they were “not salaried and taken care of,” adding that it was wrong for states to set up security outfits and not fund them. According to the PSC, “these set of men have descended on innocent Nigerians for their daily upkeep through forceful extortion and intimidation.”

    Indeed, in June 2023, the Oyo State special constabulary staged a protest to draw attention to their poor welfare conditions. General Number 1, Taofeek Akinpelu, also known as Awise, was reported saying, “Out of 36 states in Nigeria, only two states pay the Police Special Constabulary in the state, Akwa Ibom and Lagos states while the Police Constabulary in Abuja were given stipends too. We therefore appeal to the federal government to remember us because we as well have families we feed.”

     A change of uniform will not solve the problems of the special constabulary. The NPF changed the uniform of its personnel in the past, without solving its image problem, among others.

    It’s easy and convenient to accuse the special constabulary of “unprofessional conduct” and “misconduct,” and propose a change of uniform.  This is a narrow approach to policing in the country, which demands a holistic re-evaluation.

  • Politics of police and policing

    The matter of state police is, in every sense, political and should not be joined by the IG.

    Words that have been in circulation almost daily in the last one year include security, police as a system, and policing as methods of sustaining law enforcement and public order round the clock. For example, since June, state police and community policing have formed substantial part of public discourse. In June the governors went back and forth on the importance of state police and even met with President Buhari on this matter. At this meeting the governors demonstrated that not all the 36 governors have agreed on establishment of state police.

    Further, President Buhari himself set up a special Panel to investigate allegations of human rights abuse by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. The committee recommended among other things establishment of state and local government police to address security challenges in the country. Later, the federal government set up another committee on Strengthening of Internal Security and Community Policing in Nigeria. This committee submitted its report a few days ago, at a ceremony that included the Inspector General of Police (IGP), also a member of the committee.

    At the ceremony, the IGP doubled as police professional and policymaker when he stated: “Because the advantages of community policing outweigh the idea of state policing, the disadvantages of state policing are more than the perceived advantages. So, the way to go is by community policing, which will take care of all the demands and agitation for state police.”  This statement brings to a head several side comments by the IGP since his appointment to show opposition to multilevel policing or establishment of state police. Such statements by the IGP are likely seen to be needless meddling in political issues.

    Given that the country has had 20 years of post-military rule, it is not too soon for citizens to become sensitive to increasing to propensity of public servants to act as politicians or policymakers. In the last one year, the IG has done so much of that, and more so when he made the statement that community policing is better than state police or that the recommendation by the Committee on Strengthening of Internal Security and Community Policing to adopt community policing system in response to rising insecurity is an indication that such recommendation has put paid to the matter of state police.

    The tendency by public servants to appropriate the authority of elected politicians should be diminishing rather than growing in a post-military democratic dispensation. Inspector-General’s statement that commencing community policing automatically renders calls for state or local government police superfluous is an illustration of a public servant acting in the capacity of politician or source of public policies.

    In a democracy, politics, in respect of police systems or organisation of police, is concerned with functions and activities of elected officials involved determining best options for police systems for the country and its constituent groups. In The Politics of Policing: Between Force and Legitimacy, Mathieu Deflem argues in the introduction to the book, “The Perpetual Politics of Policing,” that political influence on police is a moving target and will always involve questions regarding the authority of police to rely on force and its legitimacy in terms of the support police enjoy from the citizenry. He further argues that police legitimacy can be enhanced by greater alignment of the police with citizens.

    With respect to the controversy over the need for multilevel policing and for state and local government police, it is premature for anybody to claim that community policing as currently conceived by the National Police is more efficient and effective than state police, as the IG has done recently. First, a nascent community police system could not have experienced the level of latitudinal and longitudinal research needed to make such claims. Second, what constitutes legitimacy in the organisation of a police system lies more with citizens than a single person or a group of persons engaged in policing or other paramilitary engagements. Logically, organisation of police system precedes policing, its operations, and personnel appointed by political figures to drive such operations.

    We may be at the risk of miseducating younger generations about the culture of democracy and good governance if our political leaders fail to refrain technocrats, at whatever level and in whatever agency, from appropriating the power of elected officials on matters that are constitutionally best determined by democratic debate. Nothing is impossible in democracy except things that citizens declare to be impossible. It is thus wrong of the IG to use recommendations from a committee of which he was a member to dismiss the importance of calls for state police by stating that a committee’s recommendations are enough to make demands for state police futile. Though the IG is free as a citizen to express his view on any public issue, modern statecraft and ethics demand that he be neutral on debates by citizens for new additional levels of policing. The boss of a police system created by political figures ought to refrain from comments that are likely to present him as partisan in a nation-wide search for the best form of policing.

    Operationally, the IG may have total control over the way the police act but as a professional he has no power to dictate on ideological matters, which the choice of police systems in a multicultural polity is. The basis of legitimacy for any form of policing does not and should not end with what the IG thinks about any debate about what types of police exist in a country; it is the degree of agreement among citizens or communities about the relevance of existing organisation of the police to citizens’ values. This is more important in a multicultural society where policing is also a part of the culture of those being policed.

    There is need for a clear dividing line between playing operational and political roles. Leaders of agencies deserve to be given all the autonomy they need to play the role of law enforcers and public order sustainers. But they should not be made to feel that they can make political statements about what concerns citizens, more so when such concerns address lack of capacity of the central police to protect citizens and their property.

    The IG ought to limit himself to operational matters where he is the boss, without meddling in political matters. A presidential committee on any aspect of public life in a democracy is political even though it may concern the matter of law enforcement. Joining in the debate about state or local government police is a political matter reserved for the presidency, Minister of Police, and the legislature and the citizenry. The matter of state police is, in every sense, political and should not be joined by the IG. The IG’s statement: “The disadvantages of the state police are more than the perceived advantages so the way to go is by community policing, which will take care of all the demands and the agitations of state police” is rather partisan in a country where even governors are calling for state police.

  • Policing the poor and the elite

    The attitude of the leadership of Nigeria and its security institutions to the safety of the poor and vulnerable is condemnable. In the same system, the social structure ensures the securitisation of the rich. While the tenets of the rule of law prescribes equality before the law, supremacy of the law and fundamental human rights, the practicality of these in Nigeria is gradated to one’s social position. The poor are worse off in security of lives and properties, food security, health security, education security, road security, human rights security among others. Impliedly, Nigeria is a country that is elite designed, structured, formed and governed. Nothing implicates a genuine concern to take care of the hoi polloi who are the majority. The masses occupy flip side of the pyramidal structure of the goodies fondly labelled democratic dividends. Unfortunately the masses’ support is sought during elections to enthrone the minority that mostly abandon them when they get into office. The elite minority mindlessly corner public patrimonies to themselves and their cronies.

    In Nigeria, it is not only poor to be criminal; it is also criminal to be poor. Undoubtedly, there are differential treatments in who gets policed as against who gets secured. In 2017 alone, about 549 lives were lost to Fulani herdsmen and farmers’ violence (Amnesty International). The year 2018 may surpass this figure as over 200 have been killed within two months across Benue, Zamfara, Adamawa, Ondo, Kaduna and Taraba. In all these, the poor gets killed while the care-less elite ‘condemns’ the killings. I draw on these to examine poor policing, policing the poor and the securitized elite in Nigeria. This is because within and outside government, the elite have secured their present and future. In government, they ensure they put structures in place that outlives them. These structures (in the police, judiciary, civil service etc) cover their tracks when out of office. Highly placed politicians allocate to themselves undeserved severance packages endorsed by the ‘ball-boys’ in the legislative chambers when leaving office. They use the structure they put in place to fight the system when being probed when out of office. Whenever their hegemonic control over the country is threatened, they form alliances to oust the incumbent to sustain their hold on the country not necessary to better the lots of the masses. In and out of office, they personalise public services. Imagine the lamentation of the chairman of Police Service Commission, Mike Okiro, a former Inspector General of Police that out of about 305, 597 policemen (2015 data), over 150,000 are attached to VIPs and unauthorised persons in the country. The people enjoying these security personnel included those who have left government in the last 10 years! Yet, over 180million individuals are to depend on less than 150,000 for the protection of their lives and properties. They use the limited number of police left for the rest of us to protect their children and parents. Even Abdulrasheed Maina claimed to have been secured by the DSS when he came in through the ‘door of influence’. When the rich get kidnapped, they get jet-speed reaction and the deployment of the IGP Intelligence Response Squad to rescue them. When they have case in court, they get soft-landing.

    The elite (most of them) are parasitic. They milk Nigeria; they hardly plough back and when they do it is temporary and these are mostly in months preceding an election year. They use the ideological state apparatuses to oppress the poor and make them perpetually subservient. To them it is the poor that is dangerous and must be policed. That is why only the rich enters plea bargaining. To hell with the poor in jail!

    Rather than focusing on poor policing, the leadership of President Buhari and other state governors are interested on policing the poor. Poor policing as against policing the poor is the inability of the police to check growing insecurity. Mis-governance is responsible for why herders are pampered and cow ‘constitutional’ rights are enthroned. While the courts are quick to sentence a boy who stole N10, 000 to 15 years imprisonment, the same court granted a corrupt pension fraudster who cornered billions of naira into private pocket an option of fine of N750, 000! The same system polices the opposition party and allows culpable inner caucus members (Babachir Lawal, Abdulrasheed Maina) of the ruling party and in the process rubbishing its policing of public funds. The institution that turned deaf ears to intelligence report supplied by governors of Benue and Zamfara alerting it of impending attacks mocks the victims by putting the blame on the law enacted to regulate people’s behaviours. Obviously, you are criminal if the state thinks you are criminal and saint at the pleasure of the state. The body language and the interest of the ‘oga the top’ apparently endorse inequality in the Nigeria policing system.

    Ideally, the nature of crime ought to determine how policing resources will be distributed. Nobody ought to tell the police that they need to strengthen divisional stations in rural areas. This is because, the police as an instrument of the state is urban-based. The media thus beams light on happenings in the urban areas where are they based while many people suffer violence and criminality in the rural areas. Since 2009 when Boko Haram became lethal in its campaign, it has operated more in rural areas with its ‘homeland’ located in remote spaces of northeast Nigeria. Kidnappers kidnap and take victims to forest using the waterways to get to their hideouts. Armed robbers return to the rural area after a major operation to keep low profile. Fulani herdsmen carnages had occurred in remote rural areas where poverty is endemic and policing is scarce.

    The have-nots are therefore at the mercy of the haves whose actions and inactions determine to a larger extent their life chances. The criminalisation of the have-nots on the one hand and the securitization of the elite and poor policing represent a contradiction. Apparently the fate of the Nigerian poor is that of proverbial hen than lays the golden egg but becomes forgotten, malnourished and ill-treated. The poor are secured by the ill-equipped police personnel while less than 100,000 elite take the properly kitted officers for personal use only to shed crocodile tears and call for python dance. The poor, as soft targets of violence, terrorism, rape, kidnapping and carnage deserves better security system that factors their peculiar location and vulnerability into the Nigeria police design. If President Buhari’s directive to the IGP to withdraw police officers attached to VIPs and unauthorised associates since 2015 is ineffective and no sanction has been meted out for flouting presidential orders, it shows lip-service to public security. Going forward, there is need for the establishment of rural police security divisions with capacity to quell deviance and criminality. The inequality in Nigeria’s security system needs to eliminate class influence in the protection of lives and properties. Otherwise, the poor who are in the majority should use their strength in 2019 to bargain for better protection.

     

    • Dr Tade, a sociologist sent in this piece via dotad2003@yahoo.com
  • Nigeria yet to have national policy on policing, says ex-IG Arase

    Nigeria yet to have national policy on policing, says ex-IG Arase

    Former Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, has said that 57 years after independence, the nation was yet to develop a national internal security policy that would recognise, strengthen and adopt community policing as an internal security model in the fight against crime and maintenance of law and order.

    Arase said such a policy should have defined the principles of policing and pathways to strengthening public trust and partnership between the police and the citizens.

    He stressed that one of the major factors that has sustained lack of trust between the police and the citizens has been the inability to introduce reforms needed for the reorientation of the police force inherited from the colonial masters.

    The former Inspector General of Police (IG) spoke at a think tank conference on policing the Nigerian federation, organised by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) with the theme “towards integrating community policing in Nigeria’s security architecture: models, policy options and strategies.”

    While he noted that community policing is historically the rock upon which policing and internal security management rests, he said there was the need to give sustainable effect to the model within the Nigeria security space.

    According to him, the needed national policy framework will define  pathways for the attainment of community policing initiatives, define specific roles of all strategic community actors as well as law enforcement community component and also clearly define the interrelationships and obligations of each of the actors.

    He said “police legitimacy draws from public consent and trust and lack of effective partnership between the police and the public can only sustain ineffective policing and insecurity among citizens,” adding that community policing which demands effective police public partnership and trust in crime prevention is the best form of policing.

    The former IG said further that “even among police personnel themselves, a research carried out in 14 states discovered that if community policing strategy is adopted, it could assist to eradicate most of the challenges attributed to the traditional reactive police culture.

    “There is no debate about the efficacy of community policing model of internal security management. Community policing has been in practice in local communities in Nigeria long before colonial period.”

  • Ahmed advocates community policing

    Ahmed advocates community policing

    Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has identified community policing as an effective and efficient way of tackling security challenges in the country.

    The governor spoke when he received the new Commissioner of Police, Lawan Ado, at the Government House in Ilorin, the state capital. He proffered community policing as a feasible option in the battle against insurgency, kidnapping and other security threats to the country’s existence.

    Ahmed urged the police to strengthen existing police/public relationship to resolve issues militating against peaceful coexistence between various groups.

    The governor, who praised the former police boss, Olusola Amore, for introducing community policing, advised Ado to adopt the style to strengthen the existing peace and harmony in the state. He promised to support the new commissioner to make the state safer.

    Ado promised to do his best to maintain peace, law and order in the state. “Kwara State is a state of harmony. I intend to work hard towards sustaining the harmonious environment,” Ado promised.

  • New AIG Zone One solicits community participation in policing

    The newly posted Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police, Zone 1, Kayode Aderanti, has urged residents of Kano, Jigawa and Katsina to collaborate with the police in order to ensure adequate protection of lives and properties in the zone.

    Aderanti, who resumed duty as the 19th AIG of Police in-charge of Zone 1, said that adequate support from the populace is required to provide effective policing.

    The Osun State-born police boss replaced AIG Adamu Ibrahim, who has been redeployed to Zone 2 Lagos.

    The Nation reports that Aderanti is a graduate of Sociology from the University of Ibadan.

    He joined the Nigeria Police Force as a Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police in 1984.

  • Communal policing

    •The Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps will make the state safer

    The official launch of the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC) is yet another demonstration of the determination of the Ambode administration to ensure that Lagos State is safe and secure for all of its inhabitants.

    The launch is the natural outcome of the signing into law of the Neighbourhood Safety Agency Bill for the Regulation and Control of the Safety Corps Activities by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in August, last year. The law updates the obsolete Neighbourhood Watch law enacted during the Buba Marwa administration, streamlines the operations of the various vigilante and community watch groups in the state, and offers new approaches to the vexed issue of security in an emerging megalopolis.

    As a form of community policing, it is easy to see the advantages of the corps. In a country where the security agencies are over-centralised and disconnected from the communities they are supposed to be protecting, the LNSC will be the eyes and ears of local residents, attentive to their needs, respectful of their dignity, and sensitive to their fears.

    In association with the Nigeria Police, the corps will serve to constitute a reassuring  physical security presence throughout the state, discouraging criminal activity by making it less easy to perpetrate and more difficult to get away with. The LNSC will also help gather the intelligence that is so vital to proactive security work, offer viable dispute-resolution alternatives to violence, identify and monitor career criminals, and be on a constant lookout for disruptions of the peace.

    Most significantly, the LNSC will help remove the rationale Lagosians often have for resorting to self-help, namely, the absence of law-enforcement officials when they are most needed. Recruited from the community, the corps will help to remake the image of law-enforcement as a necessary evil into a positive social benefit. Security will no longer be viewed as the preserve of grim-faced outsiders, but as the collective action of a community, symbolised by the familiar faces that will be found in the LNSC.

    Another advantage of the corps is that it is as much an investment in people as it is an anti-crime strategy. The LNSC plans to employ up to 7,000 members, many of whom will include the state’s vibrant youth demographic. By positively engaging so many young people, the Lagos State Government has simultaneously empowered them and largely neutralised any desire to engage in anti-social activity.

    It is vital that the momentum established by the launch of the LNSC is not allowed to die out. Comprehensive orientation and training programmes must be organised for the recruits; it is particularly important that they always remember that their role is meant to complement that of the police and not to compete with them. Clearly spelt-out rules of engagement must be drawn up to enable corps members to choose the proper procedures  in different circumstances. Those who fall foul of the LNSC’s code of ethics must be dealt with in accordance with the law.

    For their part, Lagosians must welcome the Neighbourhood Safety Corps as their own, which indeed they are. It would be counter-productive of the citizenry to view the LNSC as rivals to established vigilante groups in their districts, and thus refuse to co-operate with them on that basis.

    The police and other security agencies should see the corps as partners rather than competitors, and spare no effort to help build up their capacity to perform their duties effectively.

    If the LNSC does well, it could become a model for other states, and ultimately convince the Federal Government to finally begin the process of de-centralising Nigeria’s cumbersome and inflexible security apparatus. Like politics, true security is local.

  • Policing the police

    How many of those seeking positions in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) are driven by passion for policing, and how many of them are simply following their existential passion? This question, which may be difficult to answer categorically, is critical to the success of the ongoing effort to fill 10,000 vacancies in the country’s police force.

    It is thought-provoking that a statement by the Head of Press and Public Relations Unit of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Ikechukwu Ani, said: “The Police Service Commission as at 7.30am today, Tuesday, April 19th, received 705,352 applications from applicants who are seeking employment into the recently advertised 10,000 vacancies into the Nigeria Police Force. A breakdown of the applications showed that 202, 427 applicants have successfully applied for the position of Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), 169,446, for the position of Cadet Inspector and 333,479 for the position of Constable.”

    Given the number of applicants in relation to the number of vacancies, it remains to be seen how a police force battling integrity-related challenges will conduct itself in an exercise that requires zero-level misconduct. It is noteworthy that the PSC Chairman, Mike Okiro, according to a report, “warned its workers, who would be involved in the screening of candidates, to avoid any act that would compromise the integrity of the exercise”. The report added: “He said any worker involved in any misconduct during the exercise would be sanctioned in line with the public service rules and may be prosecuted for sabotage. The PSC chairman urged candidates to desist from indulging or inducing the commission’s workers as anyone caught would be arrested and prosecuted.” Correct talk; but easier said than done.

    Apart from the issue of ensuring the integrity of the recruitment process, there is the question of putting the centres where the recruits will be trained in good condition. It is striking that a report quoted the Commandant, Police Staff College, Jos, Plateau State, Mr. Joseph Mbu, as saying that the police colleges were in no shape for the kind of professional training the recruits would need.     Mbu, an Assistant Inspector General, said: “Our police colleges, both senior and junior are in very bad state. Most of the structures you see there are dilapidated and the issue of poor staffing is also there. Recruitment exercise into various cadres in the force has begun, but the major lacuna will be where to train the recruits. We need good facilities and atmosphere to make them better policemen. You cannot start exposing recruits by making them pay money indirectly for one thing or the other when, ideally, the government is supposed to provide everything for them. So, I appeal to the president to set up a special committee to examine our colleges with a view to putting them in good shape before the training for the new recruits commences.”

    The example of the Police College, Ikeja, Lagos, will suffice. Built to accommodate 700 students, the number of occupants it housed as at January 2013 was reportedly over 2,554. A police trainee in Lagos was quoted as saying:  ”The recruitment of new officers is a very welcome development as far as many of us are concerned but the fear we have is that the facilities here at Ikeja would not be able to accommodate even 100 people more because everywhere is filled already. In fact, many of us are just trying to cope with the situation because it is not conducive for us at all…Personally, I am worried because I know how much we would suffer if more people are posted here. It is a very big source of concern for many of us.”

    Also, a female trainee at the Police College, Ikeja, said: “We are not saying the police authorities should not recruit more people into the Force, our major concern is how this place would accommodate us if new intakes are posted here. If the authorities can use this opportunity to improve on the existing infrastructure, it would be very good. In fact, it will make many of us happy because we are passing through a lot of challenges at the moment.”

    Against this background, there is no doubt that those who are eventually recruited through the ongoing process will face infrastructural challenges as well as instructional challenges. It is clear that the Federal Government needs to act urgently.

    Police training is too important to be neglected or left to suffer the consequences of neglect. It goes without saying that the police cannot be properly trained when the facilities for their training are improper. The Inspector-General of Police (IG), Mr. Solomon Arase painted a picture that showed just how under-policed the country is. He said in an interview: “When you say the number of policemen we have is 370,000, you have to take into consideration that we have traffic wardens, civilian staff, medical doctors, engineers and drivers. If you put those ones together and minus it from the 370,000, it will come down greatly. So, it leaves us with few operational policemen who we can give firearms to.”  Considering that Nigeria’s population was estimated at 178.5 million in 2014, the extent of the existing policing gap is extensive.  There is perhaps a more fundamental issue that must be addressed to achieve reasonably adequate policing across the country. Arase tried to dance around what may indeed be the primary problem. He said: “On the recruitment of new 10,000 policemen that was ordered by the President, we want the recruitment to be state-based because we want to encourage community partnership. If we want to encourage community partnership, for instance, somebody from Kano who understands the language and culture, as a constable, he will be able to serve better and gather information in that area after training instead of taking somebody from Lagos who does not understand the culture to go and dump him in Kano and then take a young boy who has not passed through Kaduna before to be dumped in the South-East. So, we want to discourage those things and ensure that it is local government and state-based by the time we recruit.”

    The truth is that no matter how hard the authorities may try to invent a substitute, there may be no real substitute for state police properly so called. It would appear that the concept of state police goes with federalism properly so called, which makes Nigeria’s version of federalism an oddity. The recruitment of 10, 000 new police personnel and the associated circumstances will further highlight the need to think and rethink state police.