International Alert, a global peacebuilding charity recently organised a peer review meeting to assess research report on the changes in the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) since the enactment of the 2020 Police Act.
Speaking at the event, the Country Director of International Alert, Dr Paul Nyulaku-Bemshima, confirmed that the NPF are very happy to engage in the conversations in many locations.
According to Nyulaku-Bemshima, the peer review meeting which was supported by the UK Integrated Security Fund, Nigeria Stability Programme, emanates from a research project carried out by International Alert in the last three months in 19 states including the FCT to assess the changes that have happened within the NPF since 2020.
He said it brought out very key points in terms of the internal changes that have happened as it relates to policy, the institution itself, as it relates to the practice and as it relates to the relationship between the police and the public.
“So here in the peer review meeting, we brought together a range of actors, experts, media,to present these reports from the different geopolitical zones and to sort of interrogate it to make sure that it speaks to the very issues within the context.
“It is to also track these changes and ensure that what we are presenting in these reports is policy relevant.
“So a lot of issues have come up in terms of how we take this forward, the formats for presentation, how we need to pull out the evidence for a range of audiences, including community leaders.”
Nyulaku-Bemshima said International Alert initiated a mutual accountability and community scorecard project where communities and the police rate the rights and wrongs and this emanated from data gotten from earlier research projects carried out.
“What that simply says is that public safety and security is about mutual accountability. The public have a responsibility as well as the police in the discharge of their responsibilities.”
He said it created a platform where both the public and the police sit together in troubled spots where the relationship is not perfect, to ensure that they lay out the reasons why service delivery is not actually being met, thereby bridging the relationship gap.
Also speaking, Prof. Magdalene Dura, Dean of Law, Faculty of Law, Bingham University, said the peer review meeting would also help in drafting training curriculum.
Dura said having interacted with police academies and colleges of training; their concern was on how to impart the Police Act knowledge to trainees for effective assimilation to translate into operational service.
Also, Director General of the National Institute of Police Studies,Prof. Olu Ogunsakin Abuja, said the Police Act 2020 has helped to standadise police operations in the country.
Ogunsakin said,“In Nigeria, for instance, in the past, we would say that we have 350,000 police officers, and we have 350,000 different ways of policing.
“But now, we are trying to standardise it. I think what the police act has introduced is to have a standard policing, taking into account the differences in different zones and different people and tribes within the country.
“This is because there are different value elements that we bring to fore. So, the strategy itself is to be able to police people according to their needs and values.”
Ogunsakin said that International Alert has been able to bring together experts to dialogue on the best ways to implement the various research works around the police Act.
The Lead Researcher, from Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan, Prof. Isaac Albert, said the research focused on public perception of the police, the police perception of themselves and assessing NPF’s response to the Act.
He said that existing studies focus largely on demonisation of the police; however, the police are playing more roles than the society is aware of.
He therefore, said that the research would gauge the extent to which the police are changing, using indicators of the positive changes, the gaps to be filled and how to fill those gaps.
