How military under-developed the Police

By Mike Ebonugwo & Bose Adelaja

It is not exactly known when fortunes of the Nigeria Police as a crime-fighting force nosedived, but there is palpable agreement that things took a turn for the worse in the Force following termination of the Second Republic, and summary retirement of then Inspector-General, Chief Sunday Adewusi. Adewusi was succeeded by Adamu Suleiman, who in turn was succeeded by Etim Inyang.

Armed robbery was rife, and a notorious robber, Lawrence Anini, a.k.a. Ovigbo The Law, ruled the underworld, terrorizing Nigerians in daredevil banditry and escapades. As Inspector-General, Inyang was embarrassed by former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, when, at the end of a meeting of the Armed Forces Ruling Council, the president turned around as he led other officers out of the meeting venue at Dodan Barracks and asked Inyang: “My friend, where is Anini?”

By then, morale in the force had plummeted to an all-time low, in the aftermath of the travails of former Force PRO, Alozie Ogugbuaja, whose experience became iconic of the Police’s travails. However, a Divisional Traffic Officer, DTO, who pleaded anonymity lamented poor treatment of the Nigeria Police which has persisted over the years.

According to her: ‘’I was happy to join the Police in the early 1980s. But I became sad from the 1990s over the predicament policemen were continually exposed to in the course of their job. It was then I swore and prayed that no member of my family, if I can help it, will ever go through such a bastardised system. In those years, we were kitted up quarterly at    government’s expense but because of corruption in the system, many policemen today cannot help but appear dirty and unkempt as government no longer meets its responsibilities as regards our uniform. Many policemen cannot afford to own two or more uniforms at a time”.

As regards working tools, some of the policemen who spoke with Vanguard said in spite of the fact that some philanthropists donate regularly to support the police, the unfortunate irony of it is that the government does not provide fund to fuel or maintain the vehicles donated to the police. ‘’How do we combat crime in this regard? Do we fund investigations with our personal money”?

Indeed, it has been argued in several quarters that the NPF is a product of the flawed Nigerian system and a victim of the processes that gave birth to it. The Force was established to ensure internal security, especially the protection of lives and properties of the citizens. This, it succeeded to some extent in doing until 1983 when it seemingly lost its relevance following the military coup d’etat that overthrew the Second Republic civilian government of President Shehu Shagari.

The military authorities who were visibly irked by the overbearing presence of the MOPOL unit of the police simply went out of their way to cut the Force down to size, relegating it in the process to the servile role of only enforcing the law in the breach. This demeaning of the Force continued in successive military regimes such that the police was eventually forced to evolve a process of its own survival in the face of institutionalised neglect.

For instance, former Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Coomassie, in April 1998 berated the military because “men and women of the (police) force have been serving under a harsh political environment, torn between military authoritarianism and civil society so much so that they have lost their civil traditions”.

Civil taditions

In the same vein Benjamin Okereke Brownson, quoting Clement Nwankwo et al in his research report, “The Role of Nigeria Police Force in the Administration of Justice: Issues and Challenges”, averred thus: “Under the military, the police gradually deteriorated. It became possible to cite them for the most heinous to the most trivial acts that violate the rights of the very citizens whose friend they purported to be”.

And thus was born the process which led to the police becoming a highly corrupt institution with its officers not only commercialising the process of law enforcement but also taking pride in doing so, and in fact often defiantly making a public show of extorting money from those perceived as having fallen foul of the law.

It soon emerged that the Police which was supposed to enforce the law began increasingly to operate outside the confines of the law, thus building and promoting legacies of inefficiency, illegality and decadence.

Police barracks

Another pointer to how poorly the police as a key security institution is treated is the usually run-down state of where most policemen and their families live: the Police Barracks. A visit round to some police barracks in Lagos revealed that they are nothing short of ghettos or slums. Indeed, life inside the barracks approximates the Hobbesian description as being nasty, brutish and short. In summary, the average police barracks is not a place worthy of human habitation. But because they have little or no choice, policemen are virtually compelled to live in such degrading places.

A visit to a Police barrack behind the Customs office, Ikeja, revealed how wastes from the septic tank find their way into living homes. The reporter noticed some of the structures were dilapidated, coupled with the filthy environment.

Humiliating situation

Some of the officers who spoke with Vanguardsaid their welfare is nothing to write home about. For example, as soon as an officer is posted to a new station, his belongings are thrown out within two weeks in order to create space for the one taking over from him. This humiliating situation is said to be responsible for the younger policemen desperately seeking money through all means to be able to afford befitting accommodation.

Vanguard also visited some Police barracks at Ajeromi Ifelodun, Keffi, Obalende, including Queen’s Barracks Apapa. Findings revealed that the accommodation for the men varies from executive to low-cost, and this depends on rank and to some extent, godfatherism.

An average policeman prays never to fall ill or sustain injuries as existing medical centres in the barracks leave much to be desired because they are poorly run and maintained. ‘’Anyone rushed to the police hospital stand little or no chance of survival because the health centre is nothing but a white elephant project,” said some of the policemen. Indeed many observers are of the view that the prevailing plight of the police, especially the dearth of their operational equipment and poor welfare can be traced to their poor performance or inability to discharge their duties creditably.

Education and literacy in the Force: Another important factor is the educational status of members of the Force presently believed to be embarrassingly poor. Investigations reveal that many police men are barely literate, a reason why they have limited grasp of what their duties entail.

According to the leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety): “The Nigeria Police Force (peopled by over 370,000 officers), going by modern policing technology, is no longer haunted by lack of manpower but lack of machine power and its competent handlers.

For instance, it is an indisputable fact that up to 95% of the Force personnel, particularly from constables to Inspectors, are not computer literate. Also, most of the so-called Investigating Police Officers in over 6,500 field formations in the country including state CID operatives fear computers and their hardware and software methodologies.

The Nigeria Police Force as the country’s general overseer of internal security must be re-focused, socially re-engineered and reconstructed to enable her face competently the mounting internal security challenges such as internal terrorism; violent, cyber and administrative crimes.”