An urgent task for Ogbonna Onovo
But gleanings from the media about the conduct of policemen may suggest that Waziri, an ex-cop may be speaking from experience and directing their advise to the wrong group. It would appear that policemen could do with her candid advice. Not too long ago, a man and a police sergeant in mufti were killed in […]
But gleanings from the media about the conduct of policemen may suggest that Waziri, an ex-cop may be speaking from experience and directing their advise to the wrong group. It would appear that policemen could do with her candid advice. Not too long ago, a man and a police sergeant in mufti were killed in Mararaba a suburb of Abuja. Their offence was that they parked at the entrance to a policeman’s house. It took all the diplomacy of Haruna John, the FCT commissioner to prevent a total breakdown of law and order as aggrieved relatives and other protesters barricaded the streets.
A few weeks ago, another irate policeman whose daughter died at a children’s ward in Ibadan caused mayhem by releasing all the teargas canisters in his arsenal in a ward catering for children with respiratory problems. When the smoke cleared, three other children were left dead. The irate cop was said to have chewed his own finger in regret that he had no rifle. Heaven knows what could have happened if he was really armed. He was a psycho writ large.
On December 3, Daily Trust reported that a police sergeant in Maiduguri shot his wife before turning the gun on himself. The late wife allegedly stood between him and his attempt to kill his wayward son accused of stealing and doing drugs. The law officer obviously did not believe in the long process of prosecution and resorted to taking the law into his own hands. He was metaphorically a physician who did not believe in the efficacy of his own herbs.
These are just few examples of the extent to which some men in uniform would go in their quest to denigrate their own uniform and oath of office and smudge the notion of the justice they swore to uphold and the people they ought to protect. These incidences coming from different parts of the country and should be a cause of concern to people but especially to any police high command called to serve the people, keep public order and maintain peace. It also explains the spate of killings and the trigger-happy disposition of policemen via accidental discharges than their state of mental imbalance. It is a failure of the Police High Command to ensure that their officers and the rank and file are in a state of mental stability that would enable them to mingle with the public and elicit understanding and cooperation and fear for the criminal minded.
In my mind, psychiatric examinations must be a pre-requisite for entry into the police force, but it should also not end there. It must be a continuous process for continued stay in the force and a pre-requisite for promotions and transfers. Those who handle arms must be in a stable mental state because, truly, the Nigerian public, like any other is a mixed grill of crazy and good people. But they certainly deserve a better deal from the hands of their police.
The inspector-general of the police and its high command must ensure that only psychologically balanced members of the force head units and that such heads of units must be involved and interested in the day-to-day lives and welfare of the officers and men under their command. Senior officers should not just be interested in parades and drills, they must evolve a mechanism that enables them to monitor the lives of their men and know when to withdraw any officer in a temporary state of anxiety, maybe due to pressing family or other issues. Drunkenness is a common problem among the rank and file. Drunken officers are often seen at checkpoints with arms ever ready to shoot at the slightest provocation. As I was rounding this up, one such officer shot a commercial motorcycle rider for failing to drop the mandatory N20.
Personal involvement of senior officers in the lives of their men and officers would ensure that those who directly interact with members of the public are in their correct state of mental alertness and pose no danger to the people they are there to protect. Divisional police officers must be held vicariously liable for the conduct of men under their jurisdiction. Those who fail and are found either complicit or negligent should be investigated quickly and shown the way out. This should trickle down to the commissioner and further to the divisions. When people know that the misdemeanour of their officers consequent upon their own negligence would affect their records and their jobs, there is the possibility of a change of attitude. Nigerians are mostly in a perpetual state of trauma in need of the services of an empathic police.