Nigeria: National Police Force or ‘Peace Keeping Force’?

By

Habu Fika

Hdfika@aol.com

 The last few years were marked by widespread riots, civil disorder, increasingly violent crimes, assassination of public officials and national figures, and other manifestations of a troubled society. Although the unrest centered in densely populated urban areas and some college campuses, few areas of the nation escaped it effects. The police - who were used to decades of military control and its swift and disparate justice – were suddenly forced to consider the subject of crime control and public protection. We now know that our police force is not equal to the task. As a result of the agonizing experience of these years, some fundamental changes need to be made now. Waiting will only prolong the agony. Our problems are numerous thus the following will only focus on the crime problem and the Police role in our society.

The progress of mankind over the past few millennia must be regarded as grounds for optimism in many respects. In most parts of the world, quality of life has improved significantly in terms of increased life expectancy; broadened distribution of wealth has built power in the hands of the so-called middle class, improved social welfare is evident in most cultures – especially for the very young and the very old, and technological advancement in machinery, tools, and appliances has allowed greater productivity. “People live longer, and the hazards and problems of primitive life - such as disease, tribal combat, exposure to the extremes of climate, scarcity of food, and the need to expend enormous amounts of energy just to contend with these difficulties from day to day - have largely disappeared” from most cultures[1], except those in Africa.

Ours in Nigeria is a ‘lot and life’ that has remained largely unchanged through most of the last millennia. We have failed to master the basics, and that which we have mastered, we have either refused to apply fully to our advantage, or have misapplied such for reasons that are not geared towards the improvement of our collective welfare.

Whenever crime is discussed, the role of the Police is conspicuously identified as inadequate, nonetheless it is fair to say that the police have been assigned a disproportionate amount of responsibility for both the present level of crime and the efforts to cope with it in the future. Let us agree that “the primary purposes of a police department are the protection of life and property against crime, the preservation of peace and order, the safe movement of traffic, and the provision of emergency services.” The police today is also faced with the additional difficulty of overcoming public opposition to police authority even while the public demands greater protection from crime.

Therefore, the primary question to be asked is this, who is better suited to police us? Is it the current system of our comatose National police force, or should it be a localized police force that is staffed by our own kin and neighbors who face the same daily consequences of crime and lawlessness in our midst? There should be no doubt in any ones mind that the present system has failed, and that it is time to move on. We should ask for and support the creation of local police forces for our communities. Every municipality that currently manages a local government body should also have a police department with statutory control vested within its local charter or ordinance. Call it a State Police or a Local government Police. It does not matter the Name, but we do need a local police force in our communities – answerable to the powers vested in that that community. This writer believes that any other structure will be derisory and ultimately result in failure 

“The ultimate goal of law enforcement in society should be to reach a level of maximum citizen compliance with the law through voluntary means with minimal enforcement”. Let me just say that our constitution of today is fatally flawed in one important aspect; it imposes upon us the concept of ‘participatory management’ in public service – including the police. Participatory management or democratic leadership is not suited for the police force, just as it is not for the military.

Consider this,

1.       Democracy and leadership tend to be contradictory in principle.

2.       Mostly individuals or individually dominated organizations achieve great advances in any field, and not a group whose members have equal status.

3.       The natural instinct to avoid friction and competition can lead to complacency.

The capacity to police our own communities should not be vested with some “IGP” thousands of miles removed from the reality of our own environment, but rather it should be the duty of local officials to ensure equity in our “liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. The old system of Native Authorities that had a fully staffed constabulary should be modeled and implemented with emphasis on the principle that any community can and will police itself better, than by outsiders who have no interest in the survival of such community.

Here again, we have to look at democracy and leadership. In a democracy, the leadership cannot decide for us, the citizens as a group will decide for itself. Unfortunately in matters relating to power, i.e. police power; the best approach is to have a dominant individual in charge. This is because a police force cannot operate as a democratic unit or even within one. It has to be allowed to operate independent of all political implications. Of course the chief of police must be accountable to local authority, preferably a single individual such as a mayor, a manager, or a chairman elected by the community.

The most important structure that must be removed from our system of today is the fact that our police today are not answerable to local authority. How can any police force respect the community that it polices if it does not depend on, or require any form of sustenance from the said community? What we have in Nigeria today is a system likened to a ‘Peace keeping force’ in our midst. The brutality and corruption that is associated with peacekeeping forces of the world is what we are condemned to live with in Nigeria. Ask the people of Sierra Leone, or Sarajevo in old Yugoslavia about the atrocities associated with the so-called peacekeepers. Our national police force should be disbanded, and in its place a purely investigative federal unit formed. Local community police should handle the day-to-day activities of enforcement and public protection.

We have to reform our police force of today. Abubakar Tsav, a retired commissioner of police in Kano wrote this,
 

“The situation in the Police as it is, calls for very drastic and decisive action. It should be salvaged. It is a great pity that while other police forces in the world have gone scientific in the investigation of criminal cases, we in Nigeria still apply manual method of investigation. Investigators handbooks and many other Force directives bequeathed to us by the British have been abandoned. Investigators are not even keen on investigating cases to their logical conclusion but rather to hurriedly arrest suspects, release then on bail and dump the case file. We have a long way to go indeed. I urge the Minister of Police Affairs, the IGP and Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria (ARPON) to join hands together and take steps to redeem the image of the Nigeria Police. Presently Policemen go cap in land begging for money to fuel and service their patrol vehicles. This situation provides fertile grounds for corruption. This is not good enough. In some cases money provided by Local Government Chairmen for fueling and services of patrol cars are misappropriated by DPOs. This may sound strange, but it is true. Welfare of the junior rank of the Police Force and creation of incentive should be paramount in the minds of Senior Officers.

Certainly, corruption involving large numbers of officers is more common now than it was a few decades ago. Institutionalized corruption is still with us and still insidious. Many well meaning police commissioners have been unable to master the uses of power, unable to control a large bureaucracy in ways that can achieve sufficient control of corruption. Needless to say, the smaller the bureaucracy, the more strictly the top management is held accountable by means of powerful sanctions, the lesser the corruption. The corruption of an individual officer is occasionally a possibility, even in the best of police forces, but the worst kind of corruption involves many police officers, all of whom know that it is going on.

Although many other occupations are susceptible to corruption throughout the world, police corruption is more dangerous to our society for several reasons. First, the police have a unique position with respect to the use of force and the capacity to deprive people of their freedom. Second, people who benefit from police corruption are in a position to do greater damage to the community than the police itself.

The elimination of corruption will require courageous actions in several directions by a number of people, with emphasis on the leadership of the police. First, the police chief must make plain to all police rank and file and the public at large that corruption will not be tolerated. Second, proper police selection standards (especially those relating to character and education) must be established and followed. Third, the force must be organized so that public oversight and internal investigations can be carried out effectively. Fourth, command officers must be held accountable for the corrupt acts of the police under their command. Finally, public resistance to corruption must be developed through education and information, so that there is no tolerance. And most importantly, the chief of police must solicit and secure the support of elected local officials, prosecutors, and the news media in their fight against corruption.

The current federal police force is a failure and a disgrace to Nigeria. The power is too centralized and therefore not placed where it can be most effective - the local level. The whole concept of federalism is predicated on the idea that absolute power must never be centralized. What is best for Nigeria is not what is currently in place as a police force. We should decentralize the force and allow local control of the police force. How much chaos and bloodshed are we prepared to endure before we act? This writer thinks we have had enough.