Police and its N944.9bn spending needs
The Nigeria Police Force has said it needs a total sum of N944.856 billion to be efficient and effective in the fight against rising insecurity in the country. The Inspector Generalof Police, Mohammed Adamu, represented by the Deputy Inspector General (Operations),Abdulmajid Ali, announced this last Tuesday at a public hearing organised by the House of […]
The Nigeria Police Force has said it needs a total sum of N944.856 billion to be efficient and effective in the fight against rising insecurity in the country.
The Inspector Generalof Police, Mohammed Adamu, represented by the Deputy Inspector General (Operations),Abdulmajid Ali, announced this last Tuesday at a public hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs, themed ‘Repositioning the Nigeria Police for an Enhanced Service Delivery.’
According to the IG, this close to a trillion naira is needed to recruit more personnel, to purchase 1,000 Armored Personnel Carriers, 250,000 assault rifles and ammunitions, 2,000,000 tear gas canisters and smoke grenades, 200,000 riot gunners and smoke pistols, 1,000 tracking devices, and 774 drones, helicopters,gunboats, armoured gunboats, patrol vehicles and six aircraft among scores ofother materials.
The biggest chunk (N696.8 billion) will go for operational vehicles, 1,819 APCs at N150meach; 1,819 water cannons at N170m each; 1,915 patrol pick-up vans at N28.5m each; and vans with cameras at N29.750m each.
This staggering amount is about the size of the annual budget of the security agencies combined. Yet it is not difficult to figure out where the IG drew his inspiration to draw up a spending proposal that minutely details every need of the police force and go public with it.
This maybe in anticipation of coming into effect of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund(Establishment) Act 2019 which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on 24 June 2019. It is billed to operate for a period of six years.
The fund will provide every pressing need of the police force – personnel, training, barracks and equipment among others.
Section4(1) (b) of the Act provides for various sources of funding for the Trust Fund,including 0.5% of the total revenue accruing to the Federation Account, a levy of 0.005% of the net profit of companies operating in Nigeria, take-off grants and special intervention funds as may be provided by the Federal, State andLocal Governments of the Federation, aids, grants and assistance from international bilateral and multilateral agencies, non-governmental organizations and the private sector and money derived from investment made by the Trust Fund.
However, we will like to sound a fair warning that the current effort should never be allowed to go the way of similar initiative launched by former PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo. On March 15 2006, Obasanjo set up a 45-man committee on Police Equipment Fund to raise the sum of N100 billion as an interventionist equipment fund for the Nigeria police headed by Police Minister, Broderick Bozimo.
All the 774 of them were made to contribute a total of N7.7billion and the money was deducted at source from the Federation Account. The Federal government paid N10b through the Federal Ministry of Finance just before Obasanjo left power; $500 was raised in loans and donations from the Chinese government and elsewhere. Each of the 25 banks paid between N50million to N100million to the fund. About N50 billion was raised before Obasanjo left power.
Curiously, the fund was renamed from Police Equipment Fund to Police Equipment Foundation and private people, including Obasanjo’s brother in law, Kenny Martins took hold of the money. They also sacked the appointed auditors.
The foundation not only derailed from its original mission but soon embarked on wasteful spending. For instance,about N13billion was used to buy luxury cars such as Mercedes Benz, BMW, jeeps and Toyota Camry and donated to government and security agencies including the military, the DSS, and the EFCC.
As the government embarks on another initiative to find alternative funding for the police force we will like to stress that it should take proper steps to avoid the ugly experience that ruined the previous programme.
The police force has not lacked support from the states and healthy individuals in terms of the provision of equipment and vehicles. But many of them break down soon after or disappear in suspicious circumstances. Force Headquarters should do a lot to institute maintenance culture, probity and accountability for all police property all over the country. It should also strive to improve the poor image of policemen and officers alike in the eyes of the public.