NIGERIA POLICE: BETWEEN REFORMATION AND DEFORMATION There is no doubt that right now the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has become notoriously incompetent, professionally inefficient and the ranks and file have almost successfully turned the nation’s policing institution into another failed national asset due largely to large scale and widespread cases of corruption among the top hierarchy and gross indiscipline among most operatives who interface on daily basis with the citizenry. There is also no gainsaying the fact that in a situation of the total collapse of the nation’s policing institution, the ordinary members of the public are the people who bear the brunt of this spectacular inefficiency and crass incompetence. It was therefore in a bid to prevent this calamity that has now befallen the nation’s police that the framers of the 1999 constitution (as amended) clearly provides for the establishment of a police force as enshrined in section 214(1). The police Act, which is an Act to make provisions for the organization, discipline, powers and duties of the police, the special constabulary and the traffic wardens of April 1st 1943, some basic duties and powers were assigned to the Nigeria police force. In part two of the police Act which specifically provides that the police shall be employed for among others, the prevention and detection of crime. Article 10 of the police Act stated clearly that operational control of the police is with the President. A careful analysis of the aforementioned duties, functions and powers of the Nigeria police Force shows that operatives of the policing institution ought to be at the forefront of providing efficient and effective internal security of lives and property of the citizenry. But since 1999 when democracy was restored after nearly many decades of military interregnum, the performance of the Nigerian Police Force has been anything but effective or efficient and this professional incompetence and the near-infinite incapacity of operatives and officers of the Nigerian Police Force to effectively detect, prevent and deter crime and criminality has resulted in the unprecedented growth of organized crimes and other deadly manifestations of violence like terrorism leading to the unfortunate high rate of killings of innocent Nigerians by various armed non-state actors; gangsters; kidnappers and other cult groups. The near-collapse of the Nigeria police Force and the total failure of the operatives and officers to discharge their most fundamental constitutional role of internal security has resulted in the unnecessary and widespread deployment of armed soldiers and other security operatives like the State Security Services (SSS) to feel in the void created by policing inefficiency of officers and operatives of the Nigerian police force. Apart from widespread cases of violent crimes such as terrorism in the Northern Nigerian States of Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Plateau, and Bauchi states, armed kidnappers have continuously unleashed mayhem in Southern Nigeria resulting in the abduction for ransom of some high profile Nigerians such as the Lagos-based Senior Advocate of Nigeria Chief Mike Ozekhome and the second most senior clergy in the Nigerian Anglican Communion; Reverend Ignatius Kattey among several other Nigerians. Both of these influential and peace loving Nigerians were picked up by kidnappers and detained in unknown places in Edo and Rivers states and were left off the hook by these armed kidnappers after nearly two weeks of abduction. In the case of Chief Ozekhome, he was only freed when undetermined huge amount of money was paid by his family members to these dare-devil kidnappers. The Anglican Clergyman said he was freed unconditionally. In both of these high profile cases among many others, the Nigerian Police Force failed to discharge its statutory function of crime prevention and enforcement of law and order. As soon as Reverend Kattey was freed in Rivers State by his captors, the police command spokesperson in Port Harcourt falsely claimed that the police played a role in freeing the kidnapped religious leader but this blatant falsehood was debunked by the reverend gentleman. Before returning to the fundamental cause of the gross inefficiency of the Nigeria Police Force and to advocate for the consolidation of the necessary legal framework to give Nigeria a professional policing institution, let us examine the basic reason why impunity has created an atmosphere of lawlessness in most parts of Nigeria. Scholars say that the devaluation of the once traditional and cultural value system attached to the sacredness of human life in Nigeria and the blind pursuit for inordinate wealth at all cost are the underlying reasons for the high crime rate. In his book; _“Nigeria yesterday Today”_ Professor Godwin Sogolo rightly affirmed that; “human life has a special value which other living beings do not have. It is all tied to the belief in the sanctity of human life partly rooted in the religious doctrine that man is a divine creation”. Professor Sogolo affirmed that; “Just as a person’s attitude to the killing of a human being is a good measure of his intellectual and moral development, so does attitude serve as a yardstick for assessing the degree of civility of a society”. The Nigerian constitution recognizes life as sacred when the framers wrote in section 33(1) thus; “Every person has a right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save in the execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he/she has been found guilty in Nigeria.” Apart from the sad reminder that high crime rate has made life so cheap in Nigeria, the most unfortunate scenario is that even the operatives of the Nigeria police Force have come under considerable focus from human rights monitors around the globe for being notorious violators of this constitutional right to life of the citizens. Unlawful arrests [by the police], torture and extra-legal executions are acts said to be violative of the constitutional rights to personal liberty, human dignity and life guaranteed under sections 35, 34 and 33 of the 1999 constitution, in the words of Professor Muhammad Tawfiq Ladan of the law faculty of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna state. Few years back during the civilian government of President Olusegun Obasanjo, a special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary General on extra-legal executions Mr. Manfred Nowak visited Nigeria and after touring several police detention centers returned a damaging verdict that operatives of the Nigeria Police Force are guilty of routinely committing widespread extra-judicial killings of detainees even before any court of law makes any determination on the charges against them. Recall that Section 36 (5) of the constitution provides that “Every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty.” Few months back, the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria made a thought provoking revelation that yearly nearly 5000 persons are killed by operatives of the nation’s police through extra-legal means. He had a rough brush with the Inspector General of police Mohammed Dikko Abubakar who never liked the way this human rights Chief exposed the Nigerian Police. Indiscipline has reached an all time high among members of the police Force to a point that operatives now bribe their way to choice places of posting just as those in a poor financial position to bribe are posted to violent flash points whereby the joint military task force are engaged in warfare with armed Islamic terrorists in the North East. This high level of indiscipline coupled with professional incompetence and corruption especially among the top hierarchy has necessitated widespread advocacy for a comprehensive reforms of this currently deformed and inefficient Nigerian police force. During the just concluded nation-wide public hearing by the National Assembly’s constitution amendment committee, most vocal Nigerians called for the introduction of state police so that only those persons with vast knowledge of their local terrain are recruited into the police force to be able to combat crimes peculiar to their environment. The call for creation of state police which was rejected by reactionary forces in the national Assembly and the federal executive is the international best practice since even civilized societies like the United Kingdom and the United States of America do have effective and efficient state and local policing institutions. Those opposed to the creation of state police expressed pessimism of the danger of allowing a partisan state governor unleashing the might of the state police against perceived political opponents but with the scenario of total breach to constituted political authority of the Rivers State government by the state police commissioner Mr. Mbu Mbu who is said to be doing the bidding of the Rivers state born wife of President Jonathan [Mrs. Patience Jonathan] against governor Rotimi Amaechi, the necessity for creating state police has become inevitable if Nigeria is to have strong, effective and professionally competent policing institution. Premium must be paid to recruiting well educated and crime free Nigerians into the Nigerian police force.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 15:13:07 +0000
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