Port Harcourt — Usman Baba, the 21st Nigerian Inspector General of Police (IGP) has a lot on his plate, trying to secure 200 million plus Nigerians with a little more than 371,000 police officers. Nigeria is grossly under-policed if we take the United Nations recommendation of 100,000 people per one police officer. Obviously, IGP Baba, who will spend his first year in office in April this year, must have his eyes firmly fixed on our security, but when he permits himself to lift his gaze beyond the stars, we must take him seriously. Speaking while visiting the Federal capital territory police command, the IGP warned police officers against “converting checkpoints, stop and search, patrols into avenues for extorting, fleecing of Nigerians.” Deploying a terminology that is familiar to us in the Niger Delta, Mr. Baba said his officers should not turn “check points to oil blocks.” His words: “You must ensure that, checkpoint, stop and search operations and patrols, are not used to intimidate, extort or fleece members of the public. Don’t raid because you have ulterior motives. Don’t be on stop and search because you want to extort.” But this is what really caught my attention in the IGP’s remarks: “This is a job that can give or take you to heaven but also hell. It is a national service; it is a social service. We are just the paid agents, but the job of policing belongs to everybody.”
Haba! Heaven or hell? When did police officers begin to elevate their thoughts and considerations to celestial realms? Was he speaking literally or figuratively? Whichever, the potential significance of these remarks should not be lost on us. What the IGP is saying is that police officers should always bear in mind the eternal consequences of their actions on ordinary Nigerians. They (police officers) should remember that the matter doesn’t end here. They’ll pay. I take this to mean that the Nigeria Police badly needs help – from government and me and you – if this drive for accountability will succeed.
As much as we dislike admitting it, our police force is a feature of its environment. A society deserves the police force (and in fact, the government) they get. Therefore, the Nigeria Police Force is a true reflection of the values, choices and priorities of the Nigerian society. As the IGP said, the police have converted checkpoints to oil blocks. I call them begging points! The average clerk has also converted his seat to a checkpoint where no file moves until you “do something.” I know teachers and civil servants who have retired and died without taking their gratuity and sometimes, pension, because the colleagues they left behind wanted them to part with money before their files could be treated.
Consider the actions of a filling station attendant in the current fuel scarcity in Nigerian cities. I encountered one the other day in Port Harcourt. She was a goddess, the kind Rider Haggard created in “She who must be obeyed.” She manned the gate as the station dispensed in jerry cans, and this only in the evening because they had jacked up the cost of a litre of petrol from N165 to N200. The lady announced in a take-it-or-leave manner that jerry can was “the art of the deal” and all transactions had to be in cash. This is profiting from misery, and it is painfully cyclical. The transporter buys the same fuel, increases his fares which the market woman pays and reflects in the cost of her items which the almighty filling station attendant will in turn end up paying for, thereby parting with the quick gain she made at the station.
Unfortunately for our police officer, he has nothing to sell. He depends on his uniform to extort. He is poorly paid, eternally broke and hungry and yet he is required to faithfully investigate fraud cases involving millions of naira. He is poorly housed. According to reports, 90% of police officers in Nigeria don’t “have befitting barracks.” Visit the average Nigeria police barracks and you’ll shake your head on its gory condition. His morale is low; in some cases, the robbers he confronts are better armed than him. How, on earth, can such a poorly trained, equipped, remunerated and motivated police officer think of heaven and hell in his dealings with the public when he senses an opportunity to change his level? You will argue that the scenario I have just conjured removes any shred of responsibility on the part of the police officer in the cancer of corruption ravaging the force. This is where our institutions come in. For police officers who, as the IGP has warned, abuse their powers and extort monies from their crime fighting duties, the relevant laws should kick in immediately. The Police Service Commission is the supervising authority for the Nigerian Police Force and it is up to them to support in the establishment of an effective crime-fighting organisation. The current recruitment into the police is expected to increase the count of police officers in Nigeria and boost their capacity to combat crime. We hope it does. Efforts to improve the lot of the police should go parri passu with weeding out the bad apples who are trying to spoil the entire bunch. As I was writing this piece, I saw a video of a police orderly attached to Nigeria’s former Ambassador to The Netherlands, Nimota Akanbi, who was discharging less than police duties at a turbaning ceremony in Kwara State. In the video which has since gone viral and caused anger and outrage in the land, the police officer is seen in a well-starched uniform carrying the plate of food and respectfully following a well-dressed madam. The average Nigerian police officer has dropped his gun for a plate of food, and that’s the heart of the matter.
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