The report that the Police Service Commission (PSC) sanctioned 31 senior officers of the Nigeria Police Force, including a Commissioner of Police (CP) and a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) for various offences, warrants commendation. Misconduct of any kind in any place is condemnable; even more so, as proven acts of police misconduct undermine the integrity of every police officer in the country. Nigerians are exasperated by the catalogue of malfeasance degrading the Nigerian police; to which much has been entrusted and from which much is expected. The PSC was courageous to expose criminals in its fold, and it should serve to deter others. More importantly though, the PSC should put in place a more rigorous structure of recruiting policemen, both to ensure that the right caliber of people are recruited; and to protect the public image of the police institution from unscrupulous officers.
PSC chairman, retired Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mike Okiro, said the commission would be unrelenting in punishing those who behave in a manner not expected of law officers. However, Okiro’s admonition raises the issue of police respect for the rule of law. This is not about the illegality of bans on peaceful assembly, or the incongruity of the oft-demanded police permit for political rallies. It is, more about how the police allows itself to be manipulated by politicians for selfish ends. Too many instances could be cited but the most recent is the Rivers State saga where the most ignominious level of impunity saw police commissioner Mbu Joseph backed, by known loyalists to the President brazenly square up to Governor Rotimi Amaechi. Nigeria’s political system ought to have outgrown such obvious desecration of professional values. It is indeed a paradox of sorts that the PSC did not consider the aberrant actions of Mbu worthy of reprimand and sanctions. It is the responsibility of PSC to ensure professionalism of police officers. Therefore, the failure to publicly reprimand Mbu is a poor reflection of the PSC’s own quality assurance mechanism. This is a shame!
The case for uprightness in the Nigerian police has been long made and continues to be made because as a “civilian force” the police are the first line of defence in protecting lives and property. But like every other institution, the police have allowed its ranks to be infiltrated by undesirable elements, to the extent that a former IGP Sunday Ehindero once declared that there were armed robbers in the Police. In July 2011, a sergeant attached to the Mobile Police Unit 20, Ikeja, conspired with four others, including an employee to rob a Lagos bank he was to secure of about N10m after strangling the security guard to death. Years before, the then IGP, Mike Okiro, ordered the arrest of a Commissioner of Police and his team for gross abuse of office, fraud, conspiracy, forgery and abuse of public trust. Abuse of public trust and erosion of public confidence are factors aggravating the image and credibility crisis of the police.
Using the police uniform to rob is a bad signal because it erodes public confidence to the extent that people see police checkpoints as armed robbers’ locations. It is unacceptable that policemen entrusted with securing life and property, work at cross purposes to their calling. Even as it must also be stated that no institution can be immune to the ravages of the society in which it exists; at least not forever, the Nigerian police must search and continually cleanse itself. Yet, the police are only partly culpable. They are merely servants of the government and are inadequately motivated or equipped, compared with their counterparts in other countries. The prospect of a proud law enforcement career remains a mirage to most policemen amidst daunting corruption, which makes it difficult for the force to advance. To bring hope to the police will necessitate improved and adequate funding of the force and improved welfare package for policemen.
The need for occupational restructuring of the police from a force to a service should be addressed seriously, to free the institution from being used merely as a social engineering device to serve politicians, as well as the rich and privileged in society. The police should be people-oriented in line with the modern concept of policing in civilized countries. It should expunge itself of the ego-bloating idea that it is not part of the people, and forge fruitful community relations’ initiative that would make security of lives and property its primary purpose.
To this end, proper attention should be given to the recruitment procedure, whereby qualified candidates with sound moral consciousness and public spiritedness are recruited; and staff records augmented by reliable database. This is necessary to guard against situations where police personnel dismissed from one state rush to other states to be hired. Apart from the routine training at the Police College, the police rank and file should be made, as a matter of duty, to undertake effective training periodically. This will enable them internalize the tenets of civility, the necessity for servant-leadership in the police, and the importance of creating the right public image for positive effect.
The Nigerian police has its challenges, including badly-behaved officers. In consonance with public criticism for the poor state of law enforcement in the country, it is high time government considers the difficult terrain and the demoralizing condition under which the police work. It is scandalous that the respected Mobile Police Unit, colloquially dubbed the punching arm of the police, has abandoned its crime-fighting function to the ignominious pecuniary-laden duty of orderlies of privileged individuals in society. The authorities must be mindful of the use to which they put policemen so as to stem the abuse of their primary and official duties. As politicians step up activities towards the 2015 elections, so much depends on the police to make a significant difference. The police must lead in matters of security by providing a level-playing field for all candidates. The police remain the law enforcers and should under no circumstance cede that authority to any individual or group. No one is above the law, so the police must not wear down its own authority by pandering to the dictates of any interests.
As the struggle for power in 2015 reaches fever pitch, the usual blackmail, intimidation and sundry arm-twisting, using state apparatus, will put the police on the frontlines. But the police must remember that its functions are clearly stated in the Constitution and the Police Act. Nowhere does the paraphernalia of ensuring peace and security of lives and property and its mode of engagement admit arbitrariness or whims and caprices in its engagement. It is, therefore, no profound clairvoyance in saying that no one, not even the President as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, including the police, has the authority to use the police as a tool of political vindictiveness. Politicians will do well to leave the police out of their squabbles and let the officers be used only for their statutory responsibilities. Nigeria needs a police force in its pristine form. The Nigerian police must, therefore, reinvent itself as a purely professional outfit and servant of the nation.
