Towards A Useful Police Force In Nigeria

Madaki O. Ameh

That Nigerians have suffered untold hardships at the hands of the Police is to state the obvious. Setting out from their houses in the morning, most Nigerians pray against an encounter with the police or armed robbers, and there does not appear to be much difference between the two. The sight of a policeman in Nigeria elicits immediate feelings of hatred and anger, and the colour of their uniforms does not help matters either. Even the smallest child in Nigeria knows, when growing up, that the policeman is your enemy, as you are more likely to encounter them negatively than an armed robber.

But of all the acts of brazen evil perpetrated by the police in Nigeria, none has captured the public attention in recent times, like the events leading to the recent murder, in cold blood, of five innocent young men and a woman by the police in Abuja, the seat of Nigeria’s ‘democratic’ governance. In their now familiar efforts at covering up their misdeeds, the Police High Command quickly put a team together, headed by DIG Mike Okiro, to investigate the murders and come up with a report, the contents of which were clearly predictable. But in a wise move by the President, this team was disbanded and replaced by a judicial commission of inquiry, and the nature of the evidence has immediately changed and the revelations are telling indeed.

Witnesses who had earlier been cajoled into lying through their teeth at the earlier investigation by the Okiro panel, have come out to change their story in a manner reminiscent of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up by the South African government shortly after the demise of the apartheid era, an exercise which we so inelegantly tried to ape with the Oputa panel. In spite of all the hard work put in by the selfless members of that panel and the enthusiastic response from Nigerians, the outcome is yet to be made public. But that is a matter for another day.

In the past couple of days, Nigerians have been told of how these innocent victims of police brutality were hunted down like antelopes in their own country and mowed down in their prime, for no apparent reason than the fact that those who did it have become used to taking human life in similar circumstances, such that it no longer matters to them whether their victim is a human or a beast. And therein lies the fundamental problem we face as Nigerians, because, what happened to those young people has happened many times before to countless other Nigerians whose plight could not attract the current attention, and will continue to happen, if we don’t all collectively say that enough is enough, with the government firmly on the side of the people, at least for once!

And to further rob salt into an already very sore injury, the Acting Inspector General of Police, Sunday Ehindero, in an apparent show of insensitivity, recently at an event in Ilorin, tendered an ‘apology’ on behalf of the Police, calling what happened a ‘mistake’. But for God’s sake, if what happened to those young people in Abuja was a mistake, that has been one mistake too many, for which the usual Nigerian tendency of saying sorry, and expecting that it will heal all wounds and forgive all sins, should not be allowed to happen this time around. And we all know that this ‘apology’ by the IGP is coming because this matter has apparently become too hot to handle, and he has seen that it can no longer be swept under the carpet like all the other ones before it, which has become routine in police circles, as the President himself appears to be personally interested in the outcome of this one, and many big heads could roll as a result.

In a sane country where people are accountable for their actions, what the IGP should have done is not to tender a lame apology that means nothing to the victims, who obviously cannot feel anything anymore, or their families and other frightened Nigerians, who see the real probability of their meeting similar fates at the hands of the many policemen scattered all over the country, but to honourably resign his appointment. Some may wonder what concerns a whole IGP with a seemingly insignificant malfeasance of a DPO and his overzealous policemen in one obscure corner of Abuja, but the fact still remains that he presides over a Police Force that could do such mean things to people in a supposedly democratic Nigeria of the 21^st century. He should therefore be ashamed of himself and if for nothing else, demonstrate his feeling of genuine remorse, and at least for once, let us see a highly placed Nigerian who took up the gauntlet and quit office honourably on a point of principle. But such actions will definitely be very hard to come by in a country where people find any reason, no matter how ridiculous, to cling to whatever is left of a dishonourable office, until they are either disgraced or forced out, when all honour and dignity is gone.

And true to type, at the same forum where the IGP was supposed to have tendered an apology on behalf of the Police Force for this horrific and shameful incident, he was quick to add that he would soon roll out the drums to celebrate his stewardship for the past six months of being at the helm of affairs in the Force, apparently to show that things have greatly improved since he came into office to save Nigerians from Tafa Balogun. That again is not unusual in Nigeria, as to do otherwise would be contrary to the norm of public office holders who celebrate just about anything, even where there is apparently nothing to celebrate. And this is the same IGP who has not done anything to address the 3 months ultimatum handed down to him by President Obasanjo to rid the highways and luxury buses of daring armed robbers who kill and maim at will. He also said that it was God that brought him into office at the time he did, to correct the ills of the police. Again, the usual tradition of calling on God’s name, even if done for vain reasons. I am really at a loss about what he will write in celebration of his six months in office. But we are waiting.

In a period when Nigerians are still smarting from the rude shock and embarrassment of an IGP who is currently facing uncountable number of charges for allegedly stealing over N17.7 billion of police funds which passed through his hands in his barely three years of being the helmsman in the Police Force, as if he was possessed by a demon, one would have thought that his successor should be sober and not too eager to roll out the drums, in line with tradition. But in Nigeria, anything is possible. Indeed, Nigerians have gotten used, over time to absorbing such obscene celebrations, to see nothing wrong with it, even when done with public funds.

The fact is that police extortion and brutality has become so institutionalised in various forms in Nigeria that most of them are now taken for granted by Nigerians as part of the drudgery that their daily lives have become over time. Apart from the regular menace of roadblocks and their never ending demand for sums ranging from N20.00 upwards, depending on the gravity of the ‘offence’, one form of police extortion which personally offended my sense of justice was their demand, about two years ago, that all vehicle owners in Nigeria must add another ‘particular’ to the already long list, called ‘ECMR’. For the lucky ones who may not know what ECMR stands for, that was the ingenious invention by the now disgraced IGP Tafa Balogun, which was meant to be used to provide an electronic database for all vehicles plying Nigerian roads, to facilitate their recovery in the event of a robbery. And this was to cost N300.00 per vehicle. I did a quick estimate at the time, and using a figure of at least one million vehicles in various shapes and states plying Nigerian roads, this would amount to at least N300,000,000.00 realised in one fell swoop, for practically no effort beyond the printing of the cards, and for something we all know will never be done, and which was also clearly illegal. I am sure the actual loot realised from this exercise was a lot more. I decided never to pay for the ECMR for my car, and never did, even at the risk of all the inconvenience associated with the many stoppages on the roads as a result. I understand that because the police have become used to this source of ‘revenue’, this new addition, which was supposed to be a one off imposition for a specific purpose has become an annual requirement, and the amount has been revised upwards, apparently due to inflation, to N1,500.00 per car!

Of course, many similar stories abound in Nigeria, and every adult Nigerian must have a tale of woe or two of a personal horrifying experience with the police. Most Nigerians must also be agonising daily on what can be done to sanitise this Force, which is so effective in other places, but so abysmally useless in Nigeria today, and will remain so for the foreseeable future, if something is not done urgently about it. I have also agonised on the same subject myself, and come up with the following suggestions, which I hope will help show some light in this quagmire that we have all found ourselves.

Firstly, one of the many problems of the Police Force appears to arise from poor leadership, basically due to the manner the leadership is chosen. As a result of the command and control structure in the Force, which usually throws up one of the most senior officers as the next IGP after the retirement or removal of the incumbent, people who get to the top are those who have seen it all, and know all the tricks that have been played at the lower levels and their skins have become toughened by years of meanness. It is hardly possible therefore to expect such people to effect any meaningful changes in a system with which they can see nothing fundamentally wrong. My take on this score therefore, is that the Nigerian Police Force needs to be led, at the National, Zonal and State levels, by people who are not career policemen. Managing any process just requires superior intelligence, and that is why ministers are appointed to head ministries which have no bearing with their core disciplines. The task of managing crime is no different, and it would take forthright people, who are a number of steps ahead of criminals in intellect, to effectively put them in check, and such people are not necessarily career policemen. The Minister of Police Affairs in the current dispensation cannot effectively play this role because he has no command responsibilities in the Force, and cannot remove or discipline an erring Police IG or Commissioner. A number of successful multinational companies use high calibre managers from different backgrounds to manage their security apparatus, and they do so successfully and effectively. The Nigerian Police Force may well borrow a leaf from this practice, as it is now obvious that the time worn process we have adopted since colonial times has not served us well and delivered the Police Force of our collective dreams.

In making this suggestion, one is not saying that the entire Police Force should be completely written off, as there are obviously some really fine officers and gentlemen, who are apparently embarrassed at the happenings in the Force. When such people, such as Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu of the EFCC are identified, they should be quickly isolated and promoted out of turn to handle visible responsibilities in combating crime in a specialised manner, and fully empowered to do their jobs. Such elevation and recognition will also provide the much-needed impetus to other officers, who will begin to see role models in the Force, in the knowledge that their hard work and forthrightness would also be noticed someday and rewarded.

Secondly, the much talked about motivation and remuneration of police officers should be looked at from areas other than money. It is a fact that most Nigerians do not earn living wages, as the remuneration is hardly enough to meet the most basic needs, not to talk of saving for the rainy day or meeting family commitments of school fees, healthcare, etc. After years of passing through the gruesome Nigerian University system, a graduate who has roamed the streets in search of a job for a long time usually thanks his stars if he finds a job which pays him N15,000.00 in a month of 30 days. And he is expected to pay rent, transport, feed himself and meet other basic needs from this salary, and also save some money, and we all know that this is impossible. Meanwhile, the most menial job you can find in the UK for example, pays about £5.00 an hour, which at current exchange rates, translates to about N1,325.00 per hour. So, computing on the basis of 8 working hours a day, what the Nigerian graduate in the above example earns in one month, is what the cleaner on the streets of London earns in 11 hours which is just over one day of work. The additional difference, again to the disadvantage of the Nigerian graduate, is that the cost of food, transport, housing, etc, relative to income in Nigeria is a lot higher than in the UK because of the subsidy which the government provides to cushion the cost of living, the idea being to ensure that the lowest income earner is still able to maintain a relatively decent lifestyle with what he earns. But this is not so in Nigeria, because everyone is on his own, and the annual budgets, which now run into trillions of Naira, only makes meaning to those in government circles. I have always wondered that, were it not for the collective sustenance of each other by the Nigerian society where we are all our brothers’ keepers, and people can always rely on handouts that come from time to time, no matter how meagre, from relations who are doing better than others, the society would have long degenerated to anarchy.

The same complaints by the police of inadequate remuneration and motivation can be made by most salaried persons in Nigeria, and certainly by their counterparts in other uniformed Forces and government offices, but poverty should never been an excuse for crime. Most very poor people still live decent lives, bearing their burden of poverty with dignity, and so I cannot agree that the problem of the police lies with poor salaries. Rather, the problem lies with the manner in which our expenditure profile is structured, and the fact that incomes cannot afford the most basic things that are required to support life and the government does not appear to care. Poverty is a relative term, as there are many poor people in the developed world, who live on social security handouts on a weekly basis, which have been set at levels to ensure that they can support those basic needs on their own, but this is lacking in Nigeria and most other African countries.

What the government needs to do urgently therefore is to ensure that the basic cost of living is set at the level of the least earner in the country. For instance, that shop attendant who earns N3,000.00 a month should be able to feed, pay transport, house rent, school fees of her children, and meet other basic needs from that salary, and still have a little savings at the end of the month. Where this is impossible, as it is clearly so in our present day Nigeria, then the government must subsidise the cost, to ensure that people operate at that basic subsistence level, below which they will be reduced to the level of animals. And the lives of most Nigerians have been basically reduced to this level, with people sleeping under the bridges and feeding from dustbins in countless number all around the country. If the playing field were levelled in this manner, then the police would have no justification for asking for a special treatment, because whatever they face is being faced daily by millions of other Nigerians, the only difference being that those other millions do not legitimately carry guns. I have never been able to appreciate all the arguments against subsidy in Nigeria, because it is only through such subsidies that the positive impact of government revenue can be felt by the ordinary man on the streets. After all, all the developed countries, with all their resources and the relatively high income levels, still heavily subsidise key sectors of their economy, and Nigeria and other African countries should be no different. In fact, judging from the pervading poverty in Africa, it can be safely argued that these subsidies are even more relevant on the continent than elsewhere.

Thirdly, our policing efforts should begin to transcend the usual show of force through excessive manning, which results in the stop-and-search syndrome, with the resultant high contact with the citizenry and their consequent brutalisation. Policing world-wide has moved beyond these ancient levels to more sophisticated reliance on electronic measures through CCTVs, communication gadgets and high mobility, relying mostly on credible information from supportive citizens and an ability to respond within minutes. The surprise element is most effective in crime prevention and control, and it is highly arguable whether those regular checkpoints have been any real use in checking the ever rising incidence of crime in Nigeria, beyond being a source of perpetual annoyance and conflict with the citizens. And we can afford these modern policing measures, with the sort of budgets we make these days, and the fact that a single police chief can be accused of siphoning over N17 billion Naira in only a few years of being in office, without the entire police system collapsing under his weight. Or maybe it did.

Fourthly, the Nigerian Police Force should urgently embark on a vigorous recruitment drive to dilute its ranks with new people, with emphasis on the graduate entrant level, supported by others from the NCE/OND level upwards. This exercise should go hand in hand with an exit strategy which sees to the smooth transition of those who have outlived their usefulness in the Force to other less visible areas of the nation’s service delivery, with deserving exit packages and retirement benefits promptly paid. This should happen quickly to ensure that the new entrants do not imbibe the meanness of the existing ones, and that a fresh orientation is given to the new Police Force of our dreams, which will truly see itself as part of the society, and can be genuinely perceived as friends. The initiative at the beginning of President Obasanjo’s administration of recruiting 40,000 policemen annually has largely been a failure, because it saw the entry of a lot of criminals and dropouts into the Force, as a place could be purchased for sums ranging from N10,000.00. Even the Police High Command has admitted that the exercise was an abysmal failure.

Finally, our public office holders should temper down their grandiose lifestyles and realise that in the country where they maintain that level of affluence, millions of others are daily dying of mundane ailments and outright starvation, and they cannot claim ignorance of this fact. Such lifestyles bring out the devil in otherwise honest men, who begin to aspire to live like them, no matter how illegitimate their chosen approaches may be. The denigration of our collective psyches may well be responsible for the inhuman feeling of many policemen towards their fellow humans, resulting in such dehumanising incidents as the ones currently under judicial inquiry in Abuja.

To ensure that we never see such incidents again, the current commission of inquiry should be transformed into a full fledged tribunal, and should be made open to all other Nigerians who have, in one way or another, been victims of police brutality, as the outcome will be very revealing. Our real practice of democracy will commence when Nigerians can walk tall on the streets at any time of the day or night in celebration of their freedom, without fear of running into a police checkpoint, or being arrested at 6:00pm in large numbers and charged for wandering. If a man cannot wander about in his own country, where else in the world can he wander?

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**Madaki O. Ameh, a lawyer, is a Chevening Scholar in Energy Law and Policy at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, University of Dundee, Scotland, U.K.