Missed opportunities (II)—Policing
Last week, a young British-Nigerian explained that while visiting home, her phone was stolen in a crowded shopping mall. Exasperated as most people would be under the circumstance, she approached a policeman across the street and recounted her ordeal. Expecting action from the law officer, she shocked when the policeman looked at her as if […]
Last week, a young British-Nigerian explained that while visiting home, her phone was stolen in a crowded shopping mall. Exasperated as most people would be under the circumstance, she approached a policeman across the street and recounted her ordeal. Expecting action from the law officer, she shocked when the policeman looked at her as if she just dropped from Saturn before ordering her to ‘get out of my face’.
The story reminded me of events years ago in a French language lab when a classmate faked the story of reporting to a Nigerian police station that her dog was stolen. We all laughed because our classmate did not grow up in Nigeria; she believed that the Nigeria police would take a statement and patrol the neighbourhood for a lost dog.
On a personal level, nearly every adult knows someone who has had an encounter with our friends in uniform that has left a sour taste in the mouth. Sometime in 2006 after being traumatized by armed robbers, my co-tenants and I reported at the Karu Police Station where we were asked to contribute money to buy pen and paper to take down our statements. Shocked and disappointed, I asked that we get up and leave. Subsequently, the same officer who claimed there was no pen and paper opened a drawer and tossed us paper and pen. He also told us rather flippantly not to expect our stolen laptops back because ‘they’ll probably sell them in Kaduna or elsewhere’.
In most parts of the world, the police are not just friendly in slogan, they are by and large truly friendly, by which I mean caring. As the first contact for people seeking justice, African police officers have a long way to go. The fact that most people would take laws into their own hands rather than report a crime is proof that things need an overhaul.
Our police force is in dire need of reform. The beggarly behaviour exhibited by officers demonstrates something inherently wrong with the psyche of uniformed people. Their swiftness to unleash terror has robbed them of the cooperation needed to fight crime. Criminals are often hands in gloves with police formations within their domain with robberies taking place mostly meters or minutes away from police checkpoints. Except where police officers or their friends are victims, solvable crimes have become cold cases due to insouciance.
The police are the first point of contact for exasperated people seeking justice. If they have no confidence in that first step, then anarchy and injustice pervades the society. Nigeria has no reason to work with one layer of policing with its land mass and its cultural and traditional disparity. Attempts at constitutional amendments tend to avoid the discussion about state policing. We fear what politicians might do to their opponents. I dare say that there’s not much that a governor would do with state police that they are not doing with assassination squads or their well-fed orderlies.
Depending on a federal police force to police Nigeria is a farce. Every state with the means find the funds to buy vehicles and equipment that they donate to the Nigeria Police. Senator Isah Hamman Misau has exposed what most Nigerians already know – that multinationals pay for the policing that delivers a semblance of security for them and their corporate social responsibility cash goes to Louis Edet House where it is misappropriated.
Canada’s provinces have provincial as well as city police formations running parallel law enforcement. The City of Ottawa has its own police force separate from the Ontario Provincial Police, OPP with the RCMP, playing the role of federal police. American states and cities have similar formations with the FBI taking on the role of federal police. In England, there is the London Metropolitan Police, separate from Scotland Yard. With strong constitutional delineations stating what is exclusive to the federal, state or region, Nigeria could effectively copy from established democracies and adapt accordingly. Projects fail until they’re tried but effectively utilized, state or provincial policing would help reduce crime and provide ample employment for our teeming youths.
Effective policing is important to peacekeeping and peace enforcement of any society. The so-called security votes that governors use or loot would help pay for these formations. There are several vigilante groups that can work with these formations to keep our country safer because they know the terrain and are closer to the people. They would be able to identify crime spots, monitor criminality and nab offenders quicker than the federal police for the simple reason that the bulk of their membership would come from the community they serve. The good ones among them would have advanced careers in the federal police.
In a computerized age, policing has advanced beyond the level of pen, paper and files. Police formation at any level would require modernized equipment and facilities to fight crime and criminality. States that are too insolvent would team up for a regional force. If Nigeria is to advance, it would need to deal with crime; a crucial step towards achieving that would be the establishment of state and regional police. Foreign missions would be willing to help if contacted as this is the essence of diplomacy.
…to be continued.