IT was an instructive but revealing coincidence that both the news of the Federal Government setting up a committee to reform the Nigeria Police and a confirmed report of a dismissed policeman killing a car driver over a bribe of N300 in Igboora, Oyo State, were published by some Nigerian newspapers on the same day.  Somehow, it seemed to underscore the desperate need for a comprehensive reform for an organisation that had gone completely astray to become the very antithesis of its own essence. Earlier, we had once wondered whether the Nigeria Police was not a fiend instead of a friend as its corporate cliché claims.

APART from the shameful and endemic corruption that had engulfed the Nigeria Police, the eminently successful campaign of terror embarked upon by the dreaded Boko Haram sect and the sloppiness with which a prime suspect had been handled spoke eloquently of the extent to which the institution had gone to repudiate its own essence. Even the sacking of its Inspector General was, to use a feeble but tragic metaphor, like scratching the itchy surface of a cancerous skin. Each passing day had only offered an opportunity for the Police to prove how completely pervasive their rottenness had become in the face of unhindered and progressive decay. All the Inspector Generals since 1999 had left office in less than salutary circumstances, thrown, as it were, out of the window for various errors of omission or commission.

RATHER than sack the entire force, as if that were possible, a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity recently disclosed that the President had established a special Commission to oversee the urgent reorganisation of the Nigeria Police. The Committee, to be chaired by the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Mr Parry Osayande, a retired DIG, has as members Mr Casmir T. Akagbosu, AIG(retd), Mr Bashir A Albasu AIG (retd)  Major-General S.N Chikwe (retd) Professor S.D Mukoro, Dr Fabian Ajogwu, Aisha Larai Tukur, the Solicitor General of the Federation, and the Permanent Secretary, SSO, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation(SGF) will serve as the secretary to the committee.

ACCORDING to the statement, the committee’s terms of reference are as follows; 1) To identify the challenges and factors militating against the effective performance in the Nigeria Police and make recommendations for addressing the challenges; 2) To examine the scope and standard of training and other personnel development activities in the police to determine their adequacy or otherwise; 3)To determine the general and specific causes of the collapse of public confidence in the police and to recommend ways of restoring public trust in the institution; 4)To examine record of performance of officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force with a view to identifying those that can no longer fit into the system due to declining productivity, age, indiscipline, corruption and/or disloyalty; 5)To make any other recommendations for the improvement of the Nigeria Police.

IT is a relief that the statement recognised that there had been recommendations made by previous committees set up by the government with similar terms of reference but which had been left to, as they say, gather dust in the government’s office unimplemented. Specifically, the committee which was set up by the Obasanjo administration headed by retired DIG Chris Omeben had done a lot of work in the direction of the current terms of reference and it is regrettable that its recommendations were eventually ignored.

IN an interview on a radio programme recently, Dr Omeben had been so forthcoming as to share a few of the recommendations of the reform panel which he headed and this included the restoration of the Nigeria police to their former glory, the implication of the military in the wrecking of the police and the training and retraining of their personnel to alter their orientation positively and make them relevant in modern techniques in combating crime. It would therefore not be the setting up of a panel to reform the police that should excite the people, but exacting the political will from the government to implement such recommendations as may be made by the panels.

THE reformation of the Police is so central to the Nigeria project that it should be handled with all the seriousness which the project deserves, especially in view of the pressing need to engender public confidence. As of now, the confidence and trust of the public have waned to an all time low and nothing can be as futile as policing a people whose trust and confidence cannot be taken for granted. We believe that the organisation that will come out of the reformation exercise should be able to make positive progress from its colonial antecedents as an organisation of oppression. It should be an outfit meant to secure a liberated people. Its personnel should be meticulously sifted to include a crop of the best human resources in terms of intelligence and character.

WE also expect that the reformed police will be a self-cleansing organisation from which deviants and criminals will be regularly flushed out as opposed to one in which they are routinely ‘recycled’ like materials. A society is as good as its police and the very fact that certain execrable characters have wormed their way into the top echelon of the Nigeria Police only shows the level of putrefaction in the Nigerian society.

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written by abiamone, February 02, 2012

Should Abubakar waste another precious time in setting up a committee to look into the problems of the Nigerian police force of which he is a member?

Nigerians have no faith in their police because of the corruption of the force. It is this corruption that makes it irresistible for a policeman to hands off on land matters, which the government reserved for customary and magistrates courts.

It is this corruption which makes the police harass innocent motorists with roadblocks rather than catching any criminal for which road blocks are mounted.

It is this corruption which makes the police befriend and socialise with criminals. The police know where any criminal resides in Nigeria. Some are on the pay roll of some of these criminals.

Abubakar should tell his boss Mr President to improve the salaries and conditions of work of the police. It may sound incredible that an accused is made to pay for the foolscap ruled paper on which he gives his Statement to the police. But this is true of Nigeria.

Once the salary is good, men and women of impeccable character will be attracted to join the police force.

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