For the avoidance of doubt, I don’t like the Nigerian Police, least of
\nall, the now disbanded Special Anti Robbery unit of the force. My hatred
\nfor the police stems from the way they do their jobs; mistaking the guns
\nthey were issued to protect Nigerians as instrument of terror,
\nextortion, intimidation and harrassment. The Nigerian police conducts
\nitself in such annoying brash, crude, uncultured, dumb manner that galls
\nthe mind. I am.sure the police is the most hated institution in Nigeria
\ntoday despite its claim to be our friend.<\/p>\n
The men of the Nigerian police have massively de-marketed the force that
\nonly bad and negative imprimature has come to represent the public image
\nof the police. Worse still, the police which should be a prinicipally
\nintelligence agency has leased the intelligence aspect of its duties to
\nthe guns they are given to guard the people.<\/p>\n
Worse still is this penchant of the police to advertise itself as
\nunaccountable, irreformable and doomed to perfidy. Perhaps, this has
\nbeen the reason many Nigerians doubt that the police could ever be
\nreformed. It is certain that most Nigerians have sincerely given up on
\nthe Nigerian police and its notorious ways.<\/p>\n
But, even with all these badges of shame, the police is still the
\nnecessary evil we all agree we need. No matter how high pitched our
\ndistaste for the police and its vile ways are, we still need the police
\nif we are not to degenerate into a state of nature. E notven with all
\nour negative perception of the police, Nigerians still need the police
\nso the pursuit of its reform to make it better continues.<\/p>\n
Lest we run the risk of hasty generalization, there are still many good
\nmen and women in the Nigerian Police. There are still policemen who do
\ntheir legitimate duties with high degree of ethiquete and zeal. There
\nare still legions of policemen ruled by high moral standards. There are
\nstill many policemen in Nigeria that have sacrificed their lives and
\ncomfort for the good of Nigeria and Nigerians. But the sad reality is
\nthat because these good seeds are in the minority, the bad seeds in the
\nNigerian police have overwhelmed their and sown dirty images and
\nimpressions of the Nigerian police.<\/p>\n
Take the SARS issue for instance. SARS has greatly contributed in taming
\ncrime and has sacrificed unquntified number of men in a bid to rid the
\ncountry of crime and its perpetrators. But it had over reached itself in
\nterms of the conduct of its operatives. It has bluffed all previous
\ndemands for reform.and cleansing and had carried on in an annoyingly
\nlawless manner that has drawn widespread opprobrium among Nigerians.<\/p>\n
Make no mistake about it, I don’t buy most of the outlandish stories
\nNigerians tell in recent times about SARS but the truth is that the body
\nclearly deviated from its core mandate and minimum.best practices that
\ncan only breed the kind of resentment that led to its scrapping by the
\nInspector General of Police.<\/p>\n
Some points need to be made clear. It is in line with police duties
\neverywhere to suspect, arrest, interrogate and prosecute, especially in
\ncrime issues. But such is no license for intimidation, detention,
\nextortion and brutalization. Not every suspicion or arrest leads to
\ndetention. In some cases, the police can have ressonable grounds for
\nsuspicion or arrest. Where such arrests are proven to be groundless, the
\npolice releases immediately, with apology. Where it establishes grounds
\nto take it further, it moves on in line with universal best practices
\nwhich doesn’t allow the excessive use of force or commercialization of
\nbail as well as forceful illegal monetary extortion which SARS had been
\nmassively accused of<\/p>\n
There is nothing wrong with the police taking in anybody for questioning
\nbased on suspicion generated by appearance, as many Nigerians wrongly
\nprotest. There is nothing wrong in doing sting searches, as many
\ncomplain. These however have to follow civil, transparent processes that
\nmust not necessarily lead to detention, extortion and all manners of
\natrocious conducts that SARS have been charged with. No one will
\nquestion civil, open and mature interrogation that ensures all citizens
\nstay within the confines of legality. What is wrong is when such is done
\nwith brazen force and impunity where the subject has not violated the
\nrules of engagement and going further to criminalize suspicion by
\nautomatically detaining victims and extorting them and forcing stringent
\nbail conditions on them where no offences have been proved against them<\/p>\n
All said, my honest take is that scrapping SARS was wrong. Fact is that
\nthe rainbow coalition that massed under the #EndSARS banner gathered
\nfrom.diverse interests. Many were criminals that see the end of SARS as
\na borderless license to advance their seedy businesses unimpeded. Many
\nwere distressed political wayfarers that see the protest as viable
\ngrounds to advance their worsening political interests. Many were from
\nthe limelight-hugging and attention-seeking potentates, the wannabe
\ncelebrities that saw it as another golden chance to advertise
\nthemselves. Such riotous make up is the reason why no credible
\nalternative was fangled to #EndSARS. Because there was no deep thinking
\nbinding the campaign, nothing was suggested to replace SARS after it is
\nended.<\/p>\n
Many good heads however believed that reform is the way to go to redeem
\nnot only SARS but the entire Nigerian police. While the #EndSARS
\nprotagonists fiercely fought off this in their orgiastic demand to end
\nSARS as the cure-all medicine for the excesses of SARS, they have seen
\nthe open chasm and the deep holes in their demand, after the police high
\ncommand acceded to their demand and ended SARS. They have therefore come
\nto embrace the reform demand which they repudiated at the peak of their
\ndemand.<\/p>\n
The IG has promised to empanel a new body that will replace SARS, which
\nis what it should be despite the naivety of some of the #EndSARS
\nprotesters that SARS would be the last of such anti-robbery units of the
\npolice. Of course the new body will be drawn from the same pool SARS
\noperatives are drawn, which is the Nigerian Police Force. Of course many
\nof them will still come from the disbanded SARS. Where they don’t end up
\nin the new unit, the same SARS operatives will jump into their uniforms
\nand continue their nefarious acts in the notorious checkpoints on the
\nnation’s highways or at the various police stations.<\/p>\n
So the entire police force needs reforms that will target an upward
\nreview of their conditions of service, scale up their equipment, close
\nmonitoring of their activities, retraining and reorientation, strict
\ninternal discipline, among other reform imperatives. The Nigerian police
\nmust curb the notorious penchant of the police to constitute annoying
\nnuisance on the nation’s highways through all manners of roadblocks,
\nwhere they use guns and all manners of weapons to extort and rob
\nNigerians. Police have no business searching vehicle particulars on the
\nhighways and employing same to rob Nigerians and constitute serious
\nimpediments to movement as well as business in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
We need the police on our roads but purely for security. Police on the
\nhighways shouldn’t be blocking roads at every 100 meters and frisking
\nvehicle papers. They should rather be stationed on the sides of the
\nroad, watching for any security glitch or doing motorized patrolling on
\nthe roads and not the sordid roadblocks they excessively mount on
\nNigerian roads.<\/p>\n
Then the police high command must take serious the task of monitoring
\nand enforcing actions among the rank and file of the police force. This
\nis an area that had systematically been ignored in police administration
\nand which is key to reform the police. The police high command could
\nhave\u00a0 effectively dealt with the bad eggs of SARS if it wished to do by
\ncarrying out constant raids on the operatives and severely punishing
\nerrant operatives when caught perpetratng these vices or when reported.
\nBut in actual.fact, the police high command has treated complaints with
\nlevity and even encouraged these bad eggs because they share in the
\ncorrupt proceeds from these rogue SARS operatives.<\/p>\n
Take the issue of highway roadblocks for instance. We have, over the
\nyears, heard different Inspectors General issue orders for their
\ndisbandment but each time such orders were issued, they were often
\nfollowed by increment in such notorious roadblocks and a worsening of
\ntheir nefarious activities. If the police wants to stop these
\nroadblocks, it will immediately empanel an enforcement team that will
\ntarget errant officers and sack them while others learn from it. If the
\nIG unleashes a crack team to monitor and enforce roadblock dismantling
\non all our roads today, with a view to arrest and dismiss offenders
\ninstantly, the menace will automatically stop. But it is widely believed
\nthat roadblocks still exist and indeed worsening because the profit from
\nroadblocks runs through the entire police high command, even up to the
\nInspector General of Police<\/p>\n
All said, much needs to be done to reclaim the police. While the
\ngovernment needs to reform, restructure and reposition the police, the
\npolice high command must start enforcing simple rules and directives,
\nenforce discipline and start working to cleanse its image. The task of
\nreforming the police is very difficult and enormous but let the police
\nstart by tracking bad eggs in the force, enforce and instill discipline
\namong its ranks and file and start enforcing orders directives that
\ntarget the many notorious acts the force is known for.<\/p>\n
Peter Claver Oparah<\/p>\n