Why police must be reformed

The behaviour of our policemen is nothing to write home about.  It  is  an understatement  to  say  they  are  a disgrace,  because  they  are  more  than  that. They have  a  very  repulsive  reputation  home and  abroad  and  so  many  people, bodies  and  organisations,  are  complaining  bitterly  of  their  nefarious  activities. What baffles my  mind  is,  despite  all  outcries  about  this  sorry situation,  they  have never  thought  of  turning  a  new  leaf,  rather  they  are  getting worse.  

It  is  in  Nigeria  you  will  hear  of  accidental  discharge.  They  see  nothing  good  in treating  people  with  respect.  They  behave  as  if  the  only  thing  they  are  trained to  do  is   to  maltreat  and  extort  the  citizens  whose  taxes  are  used  to  train  and maintain  them.  They behave and treat people like  animals.  This is the reason why  I  will  be  surprised  to  see  Nigerians  feel  bad  when  Nigerians  are  being  treated  like animals  abroad because our policemen treat  us  like  animals too.

At least we  know  what  operates  abroad  and  how    police officers there  treat  the citizens. The only thing you hear in Nigeria are incidences of  police  harassing,  maiming and  even  killing  innocent  and  harmless  Nigerians.  One of such cases is what happened recently to the brother of the Ekiti State  governor.

Is this how we will  continue  to  watch  police officers  lead  our  nation  into destruction?  Personally I feel now is the time to rise against this uncivilised act on the part  of  our  policemen. I am also using  this  medium  to  call  on  President  Yar’Adua to speed  up  his  police  reform  programs  by giving  it maximum  attention.  

I  hope  and  pray we  will  have  a  good  story  to  tell of  the  police  under  him.  The present  state  of  the  police  should  be  blamed  on  the  former  president,  Olusegun Obasanjo,  he  left the  force  worse  than  he  met  it.  The only agendum  he  had  for the  police  throughout  his  eight  years  of  ruin,  was  to  use  the police  arrogate maximum  despotic  power  to  himself,  I  believe  sooner  or  later  history  will  tell  on him.  

Abiola Habeeb,
Department of Soil Science,
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.

Open letter to Minister of Information and Communication

ON March 28, 2001, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) shut down our station (Here and There Cable Television, Ibadan).

Between then and now, several efforts have been made to secure the lifting of the sanction. These included series of appeal letters written to successive ministers for information and similar ones to successive Directors-General (DG) of the commission.

And twice we have also written to you Sir, without a reply.

The major reason for the shut-down was the non-installation of encoding equipment. In compliance with the NBC order, we acquired the encoding equipment in December 2006 and duly informed the commission in January 2007, and requested for necessary inspection of the equipment. The commission, in its reply, withdrew our licence due to long period of non-transmission. We followed that up with appeal letters both to the commission and to you Sir.

As we approach the sad 7th anniversary of the closure and having patiently waited for the lifting of the ban by the commission, we have, as a last resort, decided to reach you, Sir, through this medium hoping that your attention will be drawn to our plight.

Please help save our investments of many years from going to ruins.

Abayomi A. Davies,
226, Obafemi Awolowo Way, Oke-Ado, Ibadan.