What manner of community policing?

By Emmanuel Oladesu

The move by President Muhammadu Buhari to set in motion the machinery for the take off of community policing is commendable.

But, the president will receive more applause, if the community police of his dream falls within the framework of the federal principle, or true federalism, as it is now being called.

If the operation and control of the proposed community police are centralised, despite the fact that the security structure is domiciled in the grassroots, there will be a question mark on its practicability.

If governors or council chairmen, who are chief security officers in their domains,  lack the power of recruitment, funding, control and evaluation, community police will not be different from the centralised police controlled by the distant Federal Government.

The timing of the community policing proposal has coincided with the mass recruitment into the police across states. In the past, security experts have pointed out that policemen were inadequate, apart from the fact that they also lacked adequate tools, remuneration and motivation to secure the country.

The picture of the community policing brand mooted by the Federal Government is not yet clear beyond the presidential approval of N13 billion cash for its take off. It is confusing to the extent that it seeks to absorb the pre-existing Southwest security architecture, the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN).

What is clear is that the Federal Government has acknowledged the gravity of security situation in the country. Killings, kidnappings, banditry and insurgency are on the increase. The abnormalities stare the nation in the face. Apart from their implications for the economy, they have continued to dent the image of the country abroad. Domestic and foreign investors, like ordinary citizens, are gripped with fear. The environment is not conducive.

But, unable to do away with the subsisting unitarism, the Federal Government cannot see any merit in decentralisation, although it is the appropriate solution to the its centralised security apparatus. It is curious that devolution cannot be explored as a credible alternative by the power-loaded central government that has failed woefully to adequately protect lives and property.

It is therefore, unpardonable, in the opinion of the Federal Government, for states in the Southwest to lay bare the futility of an unworkable and inefficient octopus anchored by the Inspector General of Police and his representatives at the state level, who hardly understand the environment they are policing.

The agitation for state police has been misunderstood by the Federal Government for too long. Thus, when Southwest governors took the bull by the horn through their innovative security outfit, Operation Amotekun, it was wrongly perceived as a regional police by federal authorities.

A crisis of confidence broke out between the Federal Government and the six Southwest governors who wanted to draw the curtains on banditry in their region. The conflict was only resolved when the regional outlook of the security outfit was destroyed and each of the six Houses of Assembly passed laws setting  up Amotekun in their respective states.

It appears community policing has become the middle-of-the-road approach to tackling insecurity, particularly when state police is still a no-go area. But, there are more grey areas.

Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule, who announced the decision on community policing after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, complained that state governments have been overwhelmed by security expenditures. He emphasised the need by the Federal Government to inject more funds to augment security expenses by states.

Reactions by other regions to community policing outlined by the Federal Government are a little sketchy. But, it appears crisis is brewing between the Federal Government  and Southwest over the modalities.

What is worrisome to Southwest governors is the plan by the Federal Government to integrate Amotekun into the new community policing, thereby abolishing the regional effort.

Giving the hints on the proposed centralised community policing, President Muhammadu Buhari’s media aide Garba Shehu said the community police, which will operate across the states, will be under the Inspector General of Police.

He said:”Whatever name they go by, Amotekun or whatever, they will be streamlined and they will be run in accordance with the structure as defined by the Inspector-General of Police.”

The implication is that the idea of multi-level policy is stalled. If Amotekun is repudiated, what is the prospect of the centralised community policing, which is being proposed to take root at the local governments?

It is evident that the Federal Government has not given effective recognition to Amotekun, which is an act of the Houses of Assembly and a novel security model for resolving a measure of security issues in the Southwest.

Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and his Oyo State counterpart, Seyi Makinde, have cried foul over the new integrative policing arrangement, which they feared, could wipe out the gains of Amotekun. Rejecting the Federal Government’s proposal, Akeredolu said:”We will not collapse Amotekun into community policing. It will stand on it’s own. We are not people that can be intimidated, that the Inspector General will give orders to. Amotekun is different. Community policing in different.”

Makinde’s objections are also logical. He explained that states and local governments should play increasing roles in security because they are more closer to the people.

The Federal Government’s proposed community policing may pale into an expansion of the existing”police force,” characterised by mass recruitment of able bodied young men and women of diverse tribes who will be posted to states where they may be handicapped by language barriers and knowledge of geography and sociology of the people and localities they are expected to police.

In a federal nation-state, there can be no uniformity of community policing across 36 states. The local policing structure should be dictated by peculiarities, identities, needs, and specific circumstances that distinguish the diverse regions, states and local governments.

Community policing should imply that the local environment is the focal point. Hence, this factor should reflect in recruitment, composition and control. Its envisaged success is hinged on the emotional attachment of community policemen to the community, which they know perfectly, thereby making intelligence gathering much easier.

To resolve the brewing crisis of confidence, federal and state governments should brainstorm and agree on the terms, composition, size, ammunition, funding, control and what will be the relationship and areas of collaboration among the multi-level policing authorities- the national police, other state-based institutionalised security outfits and community police, when it is established.