From
the tenor of media reportage of the opening ceremony of the ongoing National
Conference in Abuja, it is crystal clear that the President Goodluck Jonathan’s
administration has scored significant mileage by its convocation.
However,
beyond the mundane or rather the convivial significance of the National
dialogue, one thematic item in the agenda highlighted by President
Jonathan’s speech, a major concern for most Nigerians is the task assigned to
the conferees to debate the merits or demerits of the establishment of state
police.
There
is a universal unanimity of opinion that police as an institution is integral
and strategic to the security of any sovereign nation given that a central duty
of this body is to detect, prevent and protect the society from crime and the
consequences of disrespect to the time honoured principle of Rule of law.
In
contemporary Nigeria, even the infants in the lowest strata of the educational
institution must have been inundated by the visible threat to the security of
lives and property of Nigerians.
Citizens
of diverse status have therefore asked to know why government at all levels has
failed to keep faith with the tenet of the constitutional provision which
emphatically charged officials of the Nigerian state to see the security of
lives and property of Nigerians as the most primary purpose of government.
The
Nigerian constitution in section 14 (2) (b) provides thus; “the security and
welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”.
The
constitution also recognizes the Nigeria police as the most primary enforcers
of the laws of Nigeria which are strategically tailored towards providing
efficient, effective and water tight security to the lives and property of the
citizenry.
Section
214(1) provides that “There shall be a police Force for Nigeria which shall
be known as the Nigerian Police Force, and subject to the provisions of
this section no other Police Force shall be established for the Federation or
any part thereof.”
But
from the abundance of empirical evidence it is clear even to the most incurable
optimist that the Nigeria Police Force has failed to carry out this sacred
constitutional duty thereby leading to the serial killings of Nigerians by
armed hoodlums in all parts of Nigeria.
In
almost all North Eastern States, armed insurgents have reportedly ransacked
majority of the police stations thereby exposing the civil populace to a
harvest of intermittent orgy of killings of villagers by these freelance armed
terrorists. There is a total break down of discipline by the officers, rank and
file of the current Nigeria Police Force even as most operatives of this
national outfit are deployed to do domestic duties such as escorting wives of
political office holders to markets and schools to drop off their children. A
former Inspector General of police with whom I discussed this topic told me that
virtually all traders with the six digit deposits in their bank accounts now
parade around with police escorts since operatives of the Nigeria police are
now for the highest bidder.
The
need for the delegates to the national conference to devote quality time to
work out the best form of policing institution for a post-national conference
Nigeria can not therefore be over emphasized.
What
kind of policing institution do we need in Nigeria to save Nigerians in their
villages from becoming endangered species? To answer the interrogatory I will
look towards the United Kingdom’s jurisdiction for possible solution.
The
British society have successfully placed serious premium on the formation of
what is called neighbourhood policing institution grounded under what the
British Association of Chief police officers rightly code named as “the Peelian
principles.”
Neighbourhood
policing and the Peelian Principles are the heart and soul of the British
model. This is the aspect of policing that most people related to and evidence
points to increases in public confidence directly linked to visibility of
police officers and staff.
Findings
from the British society by experts shows clearly that public confidence
underpins police legitimacy and has practical benefits. These include gaining
intelligence about criminal activity within communities, opportunities for
engaging with neighbourhood groups and boosting recruitment of those either
wishing to volunteer or join through the Special Constabulary.
The
Peelian principles are grounded as follows; The basic mission for which the
police exist is to prevent crime and disorder; the ability of the police to
perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions;
police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary
observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the
public.
Over
the years of successful policing work, the British Police officials know
that the degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured
diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force; and
that the police should seek and preserve public favour not by catering to
public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to
the law.
Other
aspects of the Peelian Principles are that; police use physical force to
the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only
when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be
insufficient; police, at all times should maintain a relationship with the
public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the
public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the
public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent
on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
Other
Peelian Principles are that; police should always direct their action
strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the
judiciary; the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder,
not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.
It is
therefore safe to state that the British model of policing if experimented in
Nigeria may help to curb these persistent attacks of communities by armed
freelance terrorists.
Besides,
the United States also practices local and state policing institutions and from
transparent media reporting of the crime statistics, it is clear that no single
crime has gone unpunished but in Nigeria even operatives of the Nigeria police
are glad to see that heinous crimes are swept under the carpet.
This is
the fundamental reason for the regime of impunity that reigns supreme in all
parts of Nigeria making it all the more imperative that the moribund and
dysfunctional Nigeria police force must be comprehensively reformed.
The
delegates to the National Conference should go into the government archives to
read volumes of reports submitted to the central government by successive
federal administrations on suggested modes of reforming the police. The
delegates should therefore sift from the volumes of recommendations, the best
approach to physically and concretely reform and transform the Nigeria police.
If you
ask me, I am for state police in such a way that the federal policing
institution should be significantly scaled down, thereby allowing those
neighbourhood police operatives drawn largely from the various communities to
stamp out crimes and criminality from their neighborhood terrains. The
federal police should only operate as an interventionist force whenever the
State police demands their presence.
Now
that virtually all parts of Nigeria have felt the pinch of policing
inefficiency by the current structure of policing in Nigeria, it is hoped that
the elites at the National conference from a section of the country will not
scuttle any patriotic move to recommend the institutionalization of state and
local police for Nigeria.
My
conversations recently with a former Inspector General of police shows that
Nigeria sits on a time bomb if the current structure of the Nigeria police is
not fundamentally reformed. The ball is in our court.
*
Emmanuel Onwubiko; Head HUMAN
RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA; blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.com;
www.huriwa.org.
18/2/2014
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