For the avoidance of doubt, I don’t like the Nigerian Police, least of
all, the now disbanded Special Anti Robbery unit of the force. My hatred
for the police stems from the way they do their jobs; mistaking the guns
they were issued to protect Nigerians as instrument of terror,
extortion, intimidation and harrassment. The Nigerian police conducts
itself in such annoying brash, crude, uncultured, dumb manner that galls
the mind. I am.sure the police is the most hated institution in Nigeria
today despite its claim to be our friend.
The men of the Nigerian police have massively de-marketed the force that
only bad and negative imprimature has come to represent the public image
of the police. Worse still, the police which should be a prinicipally
intelligence agency has leased the intelligence aspect of its duties to
the guns they are given to guard the people.
Worse still is this penchant of the police to advertise itself as
unaccountable, irreformable and doomed to perfidy. Perhaps, this has
been the reason many Nigerians doubt that the police could ever be
reformed. It is certain that most Nigerians have sincerely given up on
the Nigerian police and its notorious ways.
But, even with all these badges of shame, the police is still the
necessary evil we all agree we need. No matter how high pitched our
distaste for the police and its vile ways are, we still need the police
if we are not to degenerate into a state of nature. E notven with all
our negative perception of the police, Nigerians still need the police
so the pursuit of its reform to make it better continues.
Lest we run the risk of hasty generalization, there are still many good
men and women in the Nigerian Police. There are still policemen who do
their legitimate duties with high degree of ethiquete and zeal. There
are still legions of policemen ruled by high moral standards. There are
still many policemen in Nigeria that have sacrificed their lives and
comfort for the good of Nigeria and Nigerians. But the sad reality is
that because these good seeds are in the minority, the bad seeds in the
Nigerian police have overwhelmed their and sown dirty images and
impressions of the Nigerian police.
Take the SARS issue for instance. SARS has greatly contributed in taming
crime and has sacrificed unquntified number of men in a bid to rid the
country of crime and its perpetrators. But it had over reached itself in
terms of the conduct of its operatives. It has bluffed all previous
demands for reform.and cleansing and had carried on in an annoyingly
lawless manner that has drawn widespread opprobrium among Nigerians.
Make no mistake about it, I don’t buy most of the outlandish stories
Nigerians tell in recent times about SARS but the truth is that the body
clearly deviated from its core mandate and minimum.best practices that
can only breed the kind of resentment that led to its scrapping by the
Inspector General of Police.
Some points need to be made clear. It is in line with police duties
everywhere to suspect, arrest, interrogate and prosecute, especially in
crime issues. But such is no license for intimidation, detention,
extortion and brutalization. Not every suspicion or arrest leads to
detention. In some cases, the police can have ressonable grounds for
suspicion or arrest. Where such arrests are proven to be groundless, the
police releases immediately, with apology. Where it establishes grounds
to take it further, it moves on in line with universal best practices
which doesn’t allow the excessive use of force or commercialization of
bail as well as forceful illegal monetary extortion which SARS had been
massively accused of
There is nothing wrong with the police taking in anybody for questioning
based on suspicion generated by appearance, as many Nigerians wrongly
protest. There is nothing wrong in doing sting searches, as many
complain. These however have to follow civil, transparent processes that
must not necessarily lead to detention, extortion and all manners of
atrocious conducts that SARS have been charged with. No one will
question civil, open and mature interrogation that ensures all citizens
stay within the confines of legality. What is wrong is when such is done
with brazen force and impunity where the subject has not violated the
rules of engagement and going further to criminalize suspicion by
automatically detaining victims and extorting them and forcing stringent
bail conditions on them where no offences have been proved against them
All said, my honest take is that scrapping SARS was wrong. Fact is that
the rainbow coalition that massed under the #EndSARS banner gathered
from.diverse interests. Many were criminals that see the end of SARS as
a borderless license to advance their seedy businesses unimpeded. Many
were distressed political wayfarers that see the protest as viable
grounds to advance their worsening political interests. Many were from
the limelight-hugging and attention-seeking potentates, the wannabe
celebrities that saw it as another golden chance to advertise
themselves. Such riotous make up is the reason why no credible
alternative was fangled to #EndSARS. Because there was no deep thinking
binding the campaign, nothing was suggested to replace SARS after it is
ended.
Many good heads however believed that reform is the way to go to redeem
not only SARS but the entire Nigerian police. While the #EndSARS
protagonists fiercely fought off this in their orgiastic demand to end
SARS as the cure-all medicine for the excesses of SARS, they have seen
the open chasm and the deep holes in their demand, after the police high
command acceded to their demand and ended SARS. They have therefore come
to embrace the reform demand which they repudiated at the peak of their
demand.
The IG has promised to empanel a new body that will replace SARS, which
is what it should be despite the naivety of some of the #EndSARS
protesters that SARS would be the last of such anti-robbery units of the
police. Of course the new body will be drawn from the same pool SARS
operatives are drawn, which is the Nigerian Police Force. Of course many
of them will still come from the disbanded SARS. Where they don’t end up
in the new unit, the same SARS operatives will jump into their uniforms
and continue their nefarious acts in the notorious checkpoints on the
nation’s highways or at the various police stations.
So the entire police force needs reforms that will target an upward
review of their conditions of service, scale up their equipment, close
monitoring of their activities, retraining and reorientation, strict
internal discipline, among other reform imperatives. The Nigerian police
must curb the notorious penchant of the police to constitute annoying
nuisance on the nation’s highways through all manners of roadblocks,
where they use guns and all manners of weapons to extort and rob
Nigerians. Police have no business searching vehicle particulars on the
highways and employing same to rob Nigerians and constitute serious
impediments to movement as well as business in Nigeria.
We need the police on our roads but purely for security. Police on the
highways shouldn’t be blocking roads at every 100 meters and frisking
vehicle papers. They should rather be stationed on the sides of the
road, watching for any security glitch or doing motorized patrolling on
the roads and not the sordid roadblocks they excessively mount on
Nigerian roads.
Then the police high command must take serious the task of monitoring
and enforcing actions among the rank and file of the police force. This
is an area that had systematically been ignored in police administration
and which is key to reform the police. The police high command could
have effectively dealt with the bad eggs of SARS if it wished to do by
carrying out constant raids on the operatives and severely punishing
errant operatives when caught perpetratng these vices or when reported.
But in actual.fact, the police high command has treated complaints with
levity and even encouraged these bad eggs because they share in the
corrupt proceeds from these rogue SARS operatives.
Take the issue of highway roadblocks for instance. We have, over the
years, heard different Inspectors General issue orders for their
disbandment but each time such orders were issued, they were often
followed by increment in such notorious roadblocks and a worsening of
their nefarious activities. If the police wants to stop these
roadblocks, it will immediately empanel an enforcement team that will
target errant officers and sack them while others learn from it. If the
IG unleashes a crack team to monitor and enforce roadblock dismantling
on all our roads today, with a view to arrest and dismiss offenders
instantly, the menace will automatically stop. But it is widely believed
that roadblocks still exist and indeed worsening because the profit from
roadblocks runs through the entire police high command, even up to the
Inspector General of Police
All said, much needs to be done to reclaim the police. While the
government needs to reform, restructure and reposition the police, the
police high command must start enforcing simple rules and directives,
enforce discipline and start working to cleanse its image. The task of
reforming the police is very difficult and enormous but let the police
start by tracking bad eggs in the force, enforce and instill discipline
among its ranks and file and start enforcing orders directives that
target the many notorious acts the force is known for.
Peter Claver Oparah
Ikeja, Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com