V.I.P. protection, the civilised way

Police authorities constantly defend their poor performance by claiming a shortage of personnel, equipment and operational funds. While undoubtedly true, it’s also true that their mobile force is not being utilised to its maximum. There appears to be an over concentration on escorting, protecting and guarding “big men,” especially those who hold political office. The […]

Police authorities constantly defend their poor performance by claiming a shortage of personnel, equipment and operational funds. While undoubtedly true, it’s also true that their mobile force is not being utilised to its maximum. There appears to be an over concentration on escorting, protecting and guarding “big men,” especially those who hold political office. The issue has once more been brought to the fore by the removal of police protection for the Speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal.  Although seasoned political observers have condemned the police action, they aren’t getting carried away by this defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as it is more than likely that this is only the latest in a series of movements. Tambuwal has changed party several times in the past, originally elected under the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), he defected to the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), then back to the ANPP and, later, to the PDP from which he has decamped yet again!  Under normal circumstances there are only three circumstances under which the Speaker of the House of Representatives’ police protection should be removed. Either he resigns, removed through due process of the House,  or by a competent Court. Since none of these has happened, one can only conclude that the police action is totally unjustifiable.   Although the majority of Nigerians question police impartiality and their inconsistent interference in political matters, the real problem is that we choose where to stand on national issues based on who is involved, instead of the issues involved. The real issue is why political leaders feel they deserve this disproportionate police protection in the first place? It’s increasingly evident that those who are responsible for ensuring public safety are primarily concerned with their personal security. Their unabated treasury looting and ineffective administration; adherence to suspect economic theories; and placing party and self above the nation created a corrupt, murderous, and uncaring society in which it’s become everyone for himself. Political office holders appropriate both the national wealth and the national security apparatus for their personal ends because the State which they manage is incapable of securing the welfare or lives of ordinary citizens. Aminu Tambuwal, without his police protection, now joins ordinary citizens in bearing the brunt of an ill-disciplined force. He may be stopped on the highway in the middle of nowhere by casually dressed, gun toting, inebriated “officers” demanding particulars.  He may be asked to report to a police station only to be forced to pay for “free bail”.

He could even join the hundreds of Nigerians thrown into the cell over the weekend and released on Monday without charge after having “settled”. He now runs the risk of being slapped, assaulted, run over, or becoming the victim of “accidental discharge” by an uniformed policeman with no recourse to justice. Considering that almost all high profile assassination victims had security details, the removal of his police escorts has less to do with personal security, and more to do with vanity and visual intimidation. Ordinary Nigerians are too docile, too used to suffering, too used to the “big man syndrome” to do what is necessary to take their fate into their own hands. Nigerian politicians are never harmed by members of the public in the public interest, the only people they have to fear is themselves as they are always victims of their own struggles for power. The entire hullabaloo could so easy have been avoided. In saner climes, only the leader of the government and his deputy merit special visible protection. Other political leaders are entitled to just one or at most two specially trained “invisible” protection officers. In saner climes security agencies concentrate their efforts on making society equally safe for everyone, not just safe for a selected few. There are many who believe that political leaders should be the first, not the last, to suffer the insecurities of the society they have created.

All the unnecessary multiple escorts, siren-blowing razzmatazz prevalent in Nigeria are indicative of unrestrained self-importance. Carried away with all this paraphernalia and self-aggrandisement, the trappings of office have become the essence of political power in Nigeria.  Police escorts sporadically kill innocent bystanders with their maniacal driving and routinely damage both private and public vehicles. They drive on the wrong side of the road, fail to obey traffic signals, and do everything possible to prove that whoever they are escorting is above the law. Mobile police are renowned for randomly discharging their weapons at social functions to announce the arrival of a political big-wig. One of the cogent reasons forwarded for the formation of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) was the idea that all police personnel employed to guard political leaders, their homes, and families would be replaced with Civil Defence Corps.
This has not happened, instead, unauthorised uniformed mobile police make brisk business posing as official escorts. The general public is fed up with this indiscipline, and the Nigeria Police Force loses a lot of goodwill by their virtual lawlessness. It is time our security agencies adopted a more professional, less visible, less publicly offensive, and more civilised method of VIP protection.