Why we can’t talk amnesty with Boko Haram – Police Affairs Minister

In developed countries, the Inspector General of Police, the Director of the State Security Service and other top security chiefs would have resigned after the post-election violence. Here, they didn’t. Why didn’t government send them packing? Post-election violence was not the fault of the Inspector-General of Police. It was not the lack of planning on […]

In developed countries, the Inspector General of Police, the Director of the State Security Service and other top security chiefs would have resigned after the post-election violence. Here, they didn’t. Why didn’t government send them packing?

Post-election violence was not the fault of the Inspector-General of Police. It was not the lack of planning on the part of the police, neither was it as a result of the lack of capacity on the part of the police to contain post-election violence. The violence was the pre-meditated action of some miscreants in our society; some people who didn’t wish government well. Entirely, it was not the fault of the system. It was a given mischief that arose within society and that’s not limited to Nigeria. If you look at it worldwide, you have such eruption of crises now and then, even in the most advanced security set ups. The IG of police has done excellently well; he has brought to bear, his vast experience in policing over the years and that has shown in the conduct of the just-concluded elections. I said the violence was premeditated, though I don’t want to prejudice the outcome of ongoing investigations. I want to say we have arrested many people who participated in the violence and our preliminary report shows that these were premeditated acts. As you’re aware, those acts erupted on a Sunday while we were still collating results from the states. So, what would have been the reason(s) for the crisis to erupt? Nothing, if it were not premeditated. The crisis, unfortunately, happened in areas where a particular presidential candidate even won! It was his supporters who went on the streets to cause mayhem, burn houses, attack people who have sympathy towards another political party. This is very barbaric and archaic. I think what we should begin to emphasise is that Nigeria has gone past that milestone where people would want to take us back to the 1950s and 1960s electoral behavioural patterns. Nigerians have moved on.

You used the word ‘premeditated’ several times here. If it was so, why didn’t your undercover policemen, the police intelligence expose the plot, or rather, why didn’t the police deploy the force to potentially volatile areas to tackle the ‘premeditated’ violence? It’s either that the police intelligence is not in existence, or that it is very weak and could be outwitted by miscreants?

The intelligence arm of the police is in existence; it’s not weak. For your information, we had the whole intelligence community that collaborated in the elections. Our expectations and preparations were done towards post-announcement. That’s why I say the premeditation was based on wickedness and callousness, not given to reason. That was why it came on a Sunday when we were still expecting the results to come in. If I may ask, what if the result had gone differently? What would have been the reason for burning the houses of members of some other political parties, who were taken to be supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan? Why didn’t they wait for the result to be fully announced?  They were like the plots of people living in the 1950s and 1960s Nigeria who were used to inconclusive election results. Today, election results must be concluded. The rioters’ plan was that election results should never be announced so that we can continue to live in chaos and insecurity. We’re happy that everybody rose up in condemnation of the barbaric act.

General Muhammadu Buhari distanced himself from the violence. Have you found any link between him and the violence, and are you planning to arrest him, if you discover that he had a role in it?

I have said that this matter is under investigation and without prejudicing our investigative processes,  I would not want to talk about any particular candidate as being responsible for the violence, but I do know that a party sponsored the violence and at the niche of time, the evidence that we have will expose them. Until we do that, I would not want to talk about any presidential candidate. But I will like to say that nobody is above the law. Anybody who commits offence against the laws of the land, the security agencies are capable and in a position to arrest him. If anybody does anything contrary to the provisions of our laws, we’ll arrest the person, no matter who he is, except you have immunity that prevents you from arrest.

How will you assess the role of the police in the elections?

The police performed excellently well and this is why. In the past, we didn’t have much exposure to training. I have said it time and again, that because of the military interregnum we had in 1966, the police were relegated to the background and it disrupted its traditional duties. You find that people were more used to other forces taking charge of our security. But with the return to civil rule in 1999, there’s been a gradual re-awakening for the police to carry out its traditional duties in Nigeria. I would want to appreciate President Jonathan for what he has done for the police in recent times. Under his regime, we have the Police Reform Fund. In that dispensation put together and allowed the re-equipping, the re-kitting and retraining of policemen.  From 1966 up till last year, the police had been abandoned. There’ve been no growth or training processes; just lip service to the welfare of policemen, but this is receiving government’s attention today. Preceding the elections, we had massive training of the policeman. What gives the private sector an edge is constant training. If you don’t train a man you can never get the best out of him; you can’t get him to be on the cutting edge. You don’t expect the person who attended the Police College in 1970 to perform well today, because what he was taught in 1970 is still the knowledge he has even in 2011! No refresher courses; no special training. You just post him to guard duties and you expect him to be abreast with 21st century policing! How will that be achieved? But when the president initiated the reform fund, we had the resources to train a lot of policemen. We’ve not finished training; it’s ongoing. It’s in its first phase and it’s supposed to last five years. We do believe that in five years, a lot of training processes would have been achieved. We’re also expecting that the Police Academy in Wudil, Kano State, would have been properly set up. It started last year and we’re expecting that its faculties would have been properly established so that our policemen and cadets will go through formal education and taught about modern policing and the expectations of the civil society. For instance, we are installing mobile communication networks for the police, the first of its type and it will be well above what you currently have in the mobile communication set up in Nigeria… Trainings enhanced the performance of the police in the just-concluded elections. We want to continue in this fashion and build the capacity of the police, and we will want to call on all our governors to partner with the federal government, because states and local governments are the beneficiaries of the improved police force.

But some governors are clamouring for state police?

I will not support a situation where you fragment the police and have the Native Authority kind of policing all over. You come to State A, and some persons will say ‘your face is not so good, so our state police is holding you hostage.’ You’ll begin to have all sorts of complaints.

But we have the classical confusion in Plateau State where Governor Jonah Jang is not in control of the security apparatus; hence he became helpless when there was crisis?

I don’t agree with that position. There’re channels of communication. If there’s synergy and interrelationships in our actions there wouldn’t be problems. If, for instance, a governor spoke to a commissioner of police and he’s not getting results, he can call the Inspector-General of Police who is open to all. These things are not as difficult as we would want to present them. The IG is just a phone call away! Believe me, the day you begin to have State Police is the day anarchy will be unleashed on  our country. State police will promote unbridled anarchy within our system. Right now, the police remains impartial; they act in the interest of all. When you begin to have state police, allegiance will be to the governors. Can you imagine when you have 37 commands of different loyalties; that’s anarchy! Can’t you imagine what some traffic enforcement institutions in some states do? Don’t you know the kind of uproar that has greeted the traffic units in some states? If you transfer that to the police force, there’ll be confusion and the courts will be weighed down by claims and counter-claims…

The Boko Haram elements, few weeks ago, came out to denounce the Nigerian constitution, and vowed more attacks. What are you doing about them?

First and foremost, I will appeal to both our electronic and print media to de-emphasise giving these people undeserved publicity. The more we give them publicity, the more they are visible. They’ll soon fizzle out. I assure you that from our end, they’re not the kind of threats that you present them to be today. We’re working on their trails; we’re containing them. Boko Haram is no longer a threat to any of our society, that I can say. They exist in some parts of the country, but the capacity for them to spread has been largely contained, but I think when they begin to get publicity cover , it helps to further their cause.

These guys started from Borno and they’re spreading fast: Bauchi, Gombe, Niger, Kano, Kaduna, Yobe… There are bombings in all these states?

You’ll recall that their area of operation has been in the North-East zone. All the states you’ve mentioned are in the North-East. In the whole of that zone, they had cells. By the grace of God, their operations in Kaduna will have come to an end by now.There was an explosion in their midst there. Allow us to do the work we’re doing on them and I’m sure they’ll soon fizzle out. It’s not the first time that we’ve had religious sects trying to impose themselves on this country. This is about the third sect that will come up like this in this country. Each time we’ve shown capacity to overwhelm them.

There’s this school of thought that says, you granted amnesty to Niger Delta militants; you’re taking them for training all over the world, so that’s what you should do to tackle Boko Haram?

Let’s not begin to accept criminality as the means of gaining attention. The day we do that, we’ll be setting the country ablaze. Criminality can never be a platform for national recognition. The issue of the Niger Delta didn’t start today. It started in the 1960s, over environmental degradation. In some location, the crude oil overflows and covers the water ways and nobody is cleaning it. There is gas flaring that degrades the environment. High sea fish is no longer in the Niger Delta, but it’s no longer there because the water has been polluted. The Niger Delta issue is that where the oil resources in Nigeria are coming from deserves attention. Don’t just export two million barrels of oil from there every day, also maintain a clean environment. That’s all. But what’s Boko Haram saying? People shouldn’t go to school! How do you compare criminality with a legitimate aspiration?

There has been criminality in the Niger Delta, too. There have been bombings, kidnapping, violence, etc?

No. They were trying to call attention to their plight. There were bombings in order to call attention to the fact that government had refused to listen to them.  The Niger Delta people were in a very difficult condition, and they were saying, ‘we’re dying here! Come and save us.’ That was the reason for the explosions. So, you can’t compare it with Boko Haram and say, ‘it’s criminality against criminality.’ It’s an unfair comparison. When some people are thinking of settling in the moon, some people are saying people should not go to school. Can you support that? Even Islamic education is as old as civilization!

As you make plans to contain Boko Haram the stark reality is that the Nigerian who lives in the North East doesn’t feel secure. What are you doing about insecurity in that region?

It used to be so, but it’s no longer so. I can assure you that as we speak, we have our patrol men in virtually every nook and cranny in the North East. In the last three months, we have deployed close to 300 patrol vehicles. What we have there is excellently well.

But there was bombing in Maiduguri two weeks ago?

Let me clarify the issue of bombs. When we say bombs, it’s like referring to the conventional bombs we know of. You and I know that even when you put an empty canister together or put petrol in a glass bottle, it will blow up. These are combustible materials that people are using to cause distractions. That’s where I want to solicit the understanding of the press. When we have explosions, we should not call all of them bombs. A bomb has a high technical definition of sophisticated weaponry that has gone through a process and that has capacity to cause a given impact on explosion. When you have petty criminals put together locally assembled explosive materials and then you classify it as bomb, you’re doing a disservice to the word ‘bomb’. Air freshner canister can explode!

We’re taking Boko Haram seriously, because we hear they have links with Algeria, Chad, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc, where Al Qaeda has bases?

They’re not coordinated as you want to present them. We can contain these people. They may have those links but they’re phantom links, as far as we’re concerned. The security agencies are containing them. Until we’ve reached our final results, we don’t want to celebrate and say ‘Eureka!’ But the security agencies are containing them. They’re not as sophisticated and coordinated as they want Nigerians to take them. They’re not and cannot be, another Al Qaeda. Let me tell you: they’re almost out of steam. We have superior capacity to contain them. We’ve got support from President Jonathan and a lot is being done to demobilize these people. But I can’t tell you how we’re doing it.

You were a private lawyer, Minister of State for Commerce, Minister of State for Interior, and now Police Affairs Minister. What are some of your perspectives about that police that have changed since you took over this job?

Well, as a private lawyer, we were always seeing the police as not being efficient. The Nigerian public only knows the police to be in the negative; they have never been exposed to the difficult challenges facing the policemen. Our policemen, among all the forces, are the ones operating under the most risky atmosphere. They’re exposed to the harshest operational procedures. They’re the ones who have got the least of support: equipment, training and welfare. It’s the police that virtually have no barracks. It’s the police that you expect to trek from Wuse to Giri junction to go and stand at the duty post. The policeman will work and return to the office to clamour before his allowances can be paid. He’s not sure of what will happen to his family if he dies in active service. These were the challenges they’ve come through over the years. Nobody is seeing this. Nobody is seeing that he’s standing in the sun for 12 hours… The most important is training and retraining, which they never had over the years.

But all these things are self-inflicted? There’s so much corruption in the police that we hear the top officers help themselves with funds appropriated in the budgets annually, instead of using the money to do what they’re meant for?

When you look at budgets, for instance, in 2010 we got  30% You have provisions in the budgets, but when the money is not released to you, what’s the use of the budgetary provisions? There’s a difference between budgeting and actual release.

I’m talking about corruption; that even the funds released are embezzled?

I’ve not seen that; I’m not aware of it. I need correct data to agree with you, or respond. As a lawyer, I need facts to respond to your question.

What impact have you made as minister of police affairs in the last five months?

I’ve continued in the vision of the police reform which showed in the performance at the elections. The officers and men of the police force did marvelously well and I will always congratulate them. Also, we must thank President Jonathan who believes in reforms. He gave us the opportunity to pursue the new lines of doing these things. He did it at INEC, as well. We have doggedly pursued these new initiatives. The reform being implemented was based on works done by former senior police officers headed by M.D. Yusuf. We’re implementing the report one step after the other. If you talk about kitting, this administration has provided vehicles to move policemen to the voting centres. Also, because they had been properly trained ahead of the polls, they discharged their duties in line with the operational manual. We didn’t have cases of police scaring people, or didn’t allow anyone to vote, etc. All political parties saw the policemen as their friends. We’re pursuing a new line of policing.