A few successful operations that tend to diminish the activities of organized crime groups in Nigeria, and everyone is agitated about the achievement of the Nigeria Police Force, the same force we have hitherto considered to be so ineff ective. So, what has changed? Nigerians always see the Nigeria police as an institution which is failing in its statutory duty to provide adequate security to the country.
Th e contempt and disdain with which most Nigerians hold the police constantly refl ect in their daily commentaries which seem to be a function of historical frustration. Police, they often argue, is uninterruptedly enmeshed in corruption at all levels of its operations. One often hears Nigerians bitterly complaining against what they see as illegal road blocks mounted by the police and the money therein collected. To some, the enormity of an off ence notwithstanding, the police in Nigeria will ever be ready to allow the criminals off the hook so long as they are willing to part with some money.
Another complaint against the police is that the weapons in their possession for the sole purpose of protecting the public are in most instances surrendered to the undesirable elements to terrorize the same members of the public the weapons are meant to protect. To this extent, they are of the opinion that the police actions or inactions have not only created soil for an unencumbered germination of crimes in our society, but also watered it to grow through the protection of criminals. Th is mindset is so dominant among Nigerians that eff orts by the force to improve its operations have been met with skepticism.
To this segment of Nigerians, noting worth praising can come from the police. What is however amazing as well as disturbing is how this holistic condemnations are often engaged in without due attempt to analyze or even situate the evitable historical factors responsible for these crises and the contemporary value system that sustains them. Whoever is patriotic enough to dispassionately look beyond the surface in the modus operandi of the Nigeria Police will no doubt come to terms with the multiple odds that had historically encapsulated the police and its acts of policing. He will also no doubt discover certain factors which till date are cancerous in the smooth body of the Nigeria police. One will also be disturbed to realize that a signifi cant percentage of the problems confronting the Nigeria police are externally determined.
While it is true that there exist bad eggs in the police institution like every other organization, the greater factors responsible for the crisis in the Nigeria police stem from insensitivity and lack of care, negative attention from the state, the system and the people. Taking into consideration what an average member of the Nigeria Police goes through in his eff orts to provide security to Nigerians, the unavoidable conclusion is that the system has been decidedly unfair to the police. We have refused to remind ourselves of the fact that the geese that lays the golden eggs needs to be well kept in order to lay more eggs.
It is hypocritical on the part of larger Nigerians, especially the wealthy and those in the corridors of power, to expect adequate security of their lives and property and sleep in the night without embarrassment from criminals when the police man who makes that possible hardly feeds well with his family. It is also a mark of brutal dishonesty to expect miracle from men and women who have historically been ill-equipped, ill motivated, underfed and not motivated. It will no doubt be foolhardy for us all to anticipate miracle from an institution that has suff ered historical neglect and contemporary poor attention. It is disturbing to note that when statutory responsibilities are shared, the Nigeria Police occupies an unequivocal frontline.
Th is is expectedly the case because of the inevitable pivotal role the police is expected to play in the holistic well being of the citizens. Suffi ce to state that the comfort of political leaders to make laws for good governance, the freedom of the captain of industry to oil the engines of the nation’s economy without molestation from criminals and the enabling environment required for good life for an ordinary man is an indispensible faction of eff ective policing. Yet, when it comes to remunerations, adequate funding, advantages, social and corporate recognitions, the same police on whom everyone depends is relegated to the remotest background. Th is avoidable abnormality notwithstanding, most Nigerians allow the delusion of juxtaposing the Nigeria Police and its acts of policing with that of its US counterpart in assessment of performance. What an irony.
We seem to be oblivious to the saying that ‘to whom much is expected, much must be given’. It is disturbing to note how the subject matter of police funding has been given far less signifi cant attention even by the legislative arm of the Nigerian government.
For instance, years after a bill for Police Trust Fund was presented to the National Assembly, no positive action has been taken to pass it into law. Treating the Police Trust Fund Bill with clear act of ambivalence in disguise by members of the National Assembly is insensitivity to the yearnings and aspirations of ordinary Nigerians. Th is is so because the effi ciency of policing by any police institution is anchored on adequate funding which passing this bill is capable of engendering. And this refusal to pass the bill is no doubt worsening the security situation in the country. To say this has signifi cantly lowered the value of lives of the ordinary men and women who elected the members of National Assembly is an understatement. It is diffi cult to justify this delay in passing this very important bill which can rightly be described as condition precedent for police eff ective performance. Since the hallmark of social, economic and political well being of the people is a function of adequate security of lives and property of the people, refusing to sign this bill by the bicameral legislature is an unfortunate development. If truth must be told, our representatives should urgently do the needful by signing the bill without delay. To this extent, stakeholders must speak out and unequivocally call on members of National Assembly to do something quickly about the bill.
Th e Police Trust Fund bill which, according to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, will, if passed into law, be fi nanced as a fi rst line charge, urgently needs to be passed if the Nigeria Police must enjoy adequate funding. Th e IGP recently briefed the press about his willingness and readiness to transform the Nigeria Police. He said, “Th e greatest challenge to the police is inadequate funding. Th e passing of the bill will enable all the three tiers of government in Nigeria to contribute the funding of Nigeria police” If truth must be told about the abysmal level of police fi nancing, any realistic plan to bail the police out of this quagmire must include corporate organizations, both national and multinational, in the tentacle of police funding.
If certain percentage of annual earnings of these big time companies and banks operating in Nigeria is paid to the Police Trust Fund in addition to what three tiers of government will contribute, the fi nancial crisis of the police would become a thing of the past. Besides, members of the community should also be made to contribute their quota to the Fund. Doing this would be in line with the practice in diff erent parts of the world. Th is is the practice in countries that are even more endowed than Nigeria in most areas of human endeavor. In the United States, for instance, it is the responsibility of the stakeholders in the system to fund the police.
Professor Brain Jackson, a policy and security expert, in his argument in favor of adequate police funding said “given the ranges of the society expectation from police department, answering every call fast and eff ectively, actively engaging in the reduction of community crimes, preparing for security threats like terrorism, responding to social problems as varied as drug abuses, youth violence, human traffi cking, having discretionary resources to allow leaders fl exibilities in their eff orts to do all those task could be real benefi t”. Th is statement is apt in discussing the Nigeria Police fi nancial crises. Kabriu wrote from Kano.
