Is the police our friend?

The Nigerian police service as the law enforcement agency is primarily established to protect the lives and properties of the citizenries. Therefore, a citizen is constitutionally entitled to this right as guaranteed by the highest law of the land. However, the same law clearly underscores conditions that may deny a citizen this right. The Nigerian […]

The Nigerian police service as the law enforcement agency is primarily established to protect the lives and properties of the citizenries. Therefore, a citizen is constitutionally entitled to this right as guaranteed by the highest law of the land. However, the same law clearly underscores conditions that may deny a citizen this right. The Nigerian police in their blatant disregard for the rule of law often deny citizens of their rights, even the right to a free bail bond from their custody. The establishment had long ago turned the police station to bank where the Divisional Police Officer serves as the Manager. The glee with which the men and officers celebrate mass raid and indiscriminate arrests attest to the monetary value attached to the financial gains accruing from the oppressive arrest of mostly innocent citizens who lack legal representations.
There are found wanting whenever it comes to the real business they are trained, equipped and paid to do. We do acknowledge the poor remuneration and working environment, especially in terms of modern facilities and capacity building, yet we fault their gross indiscipline and dereliction to their core responsibilities. An entire new curriculum for police cadet and training schools must be developed to encompass psychology, sociology and civic education. This will open their minds to understand the human nature, society and the rule of law for social justice and human rights.     
In the context of Nigeria, the police brazenly encroach and abuse the rights of the people with impunity while the rule of law is thrown to the dogs. The maxim that says; a society begets the kind of journalists it deserves cannot be far from the kind of police it gets too. We see police mesn who act on orders from above to unleash injustice on innocent poor and law abiding citizens of this country without resistance.
The police have in the true sense of capitalist bourgeois state system used its authority as part of the coercive apparatus of the state to intimidate instead of protecting the people. It has since abandoned its constitutional responsibilities to the people, but instead resorts to indiscriminate harassment and unlawful detention of law abiding citizens. This arbitrary use of force is common in poor neighborhoods where people barely elk a living to survive. That is sheer anti-constitutional deprivations of the personal freedom guaranteed by the civil rights of this state are the order of the day. 
The police in view of concerted efforts by concerned non state actors and civil societies blatantly refused or rather reluctant to reform its establishment. It was created to suit the colonial interest of the British masters who were running the colony. Since then, independence has come and we had self-rule for more than fifty years running, yet the Nigerian police remain with the mindset of the colonial hangover. The men and officers of the police service are notorious for anti-people, oppressive and intimidating tendencies to coerce the people. 
The Nigerian police was rated among the most corrupt government agencies not just because of its anachronistic method of policing but its entrenched tradition of exploiting the very people it was meant to protect. From all corners of the country, the story is the same as innocent law abiding citizens are often made to bear the brunt of the law unjustly. Stories abound of people indiscriminately arrested after an alleged crime incidence, while the criminals might have fled the scene to safety. In their shameless ineptitude, the men of the police service carry on in this air of impunity to cover up their incompetence.
What they know best is how to use their uniform and the station to obtain the people while the government own media mouth the cliché of ‘the police is your friend”. The despicable abyss of indiscipline exhibited by the officers and men goes to show the very low level of training devoid of sociology and psychology as basic knowledge for modern policing in a fast changing society. Here, the service of the officers and men are up for purchase as the bourgeoisies pick the very best for their private use while the masses are under police. This is true as one roams through the vast rural communities of this large country to see the disproportionate ratio of police men to numbers of people. This disproportionate resonates in virtually every other essential service areas like health care deliveries, education and feeder roads. While this lack of essential social provisions is a constant feature of our government at all tiers, the officials carry on in the air of superior citizens as civil servants or officers in uniforms. The ignorant shameless arrogant detachment they exhibit towards the very tax payers they are hired to serve shows the latent vestiges of colonial heritage within government establishment in Nigeria.
The entire criminal justice system reeks of obsolete laws and statutes preserved from our colonial heritage until this dotcom age. This anachronism suits the state and its actor’s status quo as they manipulate the system and people through such. The law and its social agencies are designed and preserved to be punitive rather than reformative. Legal services are beyond the reach of the average and poor Nigerian as many innocent people languish in prison and unlawful detention by the police. It is a common knowledge how the men and officers of the Nigeria police deliberately haul innocent citizens into detention in the name of ; late hour as early as 10 pm in the town and cities , while as early as 7 pm in rural areas even when there is no a curfew imposed.
Other state officials in the name of oppressive arranged edicts like; vehicle particulars, street hawking, road side trading and many other contrivances constitute abuse of the people’s rights. The government   is always culpable through its corrupt officials who subvert the system for their selfish gains, thereby making it difficult for a balance in the principle of rights and obligations. This principle as the extension of the so called; “social contract” is veritable for accountability in government responsibilities to the people, therefore it should be renegotiated.
Successive attempts to renegotiate the social contract between the people and the Nigerian government have failed. This is so, because the promoters of ethnic and religious agenda never wanted a change in the status quo as they stand to benefit from crises emanating from a defective social structure. As this shenanigan continues, the supposedly giant of the African continent stands nude and weak before the very eyes of the world as a laughing stock.   
Comrade Ameh writes from Akatekwe Kingdom in Ogbadibo at [email protected]