Punch Editorial Board
Just 48 hours after the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, announced the immediate withdrawal of police officers attached to Very Important Personalities, his two subsequent pronouncements have proved too floundering to inspire any hope of a successful implementation.
He said that President Muhammadu Buhari would have to approve the proposal first; just as he made April 24 the effective date for its enforcement, instead of the hitherto stated “immediate effect.” Recalling the policemen has become necessary because of the current eerie security situation occasioned by rampant killings across the country. Enhanced, effective and efficient policing would be derived from the redeployment, he reasoned. There are well over 100,000 police personnel attached to the VIPs, out of the total force of 291,685 officers, going by the expose from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System used to pay their February salaries.
Under the existing order, public and political office holders, judges, VIPs, banks, religious leaders, businessmen, oil companies and other multinationals and even questionable characters get police deployments. Indeed, it is a service provided for the highest bidder.
This flop leaves the larger society imperilled by the activities of robbers, kidnappers and other bandits. A former IG, Mike Okiro, who is also the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, said, “We cannot afford to have more than half of the population of the police in private hands,” as he reviewed this oddity last month. According to him, there are 150,000 personnel involved.
But to enforce the new order, a Task Force has been constituted at the Police Headquarters, Abuja, while police commissioners are required to replicate the template at their commands. Unfortunately, this is only a paper work. Our pessimism stems from the fact that every IG has trodden this path, but without any success.
Even more strange is the fact that Idris appears oblivious of a subsisting presidential directive on the issue. This makes his memo to the President for the approval of the policy laughable. Buhari had in August 2015, barely three months after he assumed office, ordered the then IG, Solomon Arase, to withdraw policemen attached to dignitaries for redeployment to regular police duties. The President’s spokesman, Femi Adesina, clarified in a statement that the directive came when his principal met with the Ministry of Police Affairs and Police Service Commission officials at the Presidential Villa.
Earlier, a former IG, Ogbonna Onovo, had embraced this façade in 2009, giving an August 13 deadline for compliance. “By this date, any policeman or woman who continues in such duty will be dismissed forthwith and delisted,” he threatened. His order was a spin-off from the March 2009 Federal Executive Council meeting, which had directed that cops be withdrawn from individuals who were not entitled to the privilege. Also, former IGs, Hafiz Ringim and Mohammed Abubakar, did not miss this charade.
The fact is, had previous withdrawals been carried out or effective, Idris would not be concerned today about the same mess. It is unbelievable that presidential and FEC directives on a critical national security challenge can be trifled with by the IGs in a security outfit, where command and discipline are supposed to be in its DNA. It explains why indiscipline is corrosive in the police. This has rendered them ineffective in discharging their statutory responsibilities, for which the military have sadly taken over in most of the 36 states. The recent revelation that the IG did not comply with the President’s directive to relocate to Benue State and remain there until law and order was restored, amid the unremitting carnage by Fulani herdsmen, further dims any hope of any positive outcome from the police VIPs withdrawal.
Nevertheless, the President, who also exposed himself to public odium with his confession that he was unaware of the IG’s disobedience of his order, will do himself a lot of good by ensuring that this police deployment racketeering is stopped forthwith. The safety and interest of a tiny fraction of the citizenry should not prevail over those of the larger society.
In the public domain are reports that cops on this kind of assignments carry bags for VIPs’ spouses and openly polish their shoes at social gatherings. The Nigerian state is affronted by such indignities suffered by these policemen. What is more, their personal misconduct in an attempt to please their masters sometimes paints the picture of an irresponsible Police Force. Once a gridlock occurs, police officers lead pilot vehicles to drive against the traffic with sirens, and shoot indiscriminately in the air to the discomfort and danger of other road users. Indeed, these sights are sickening.
Obviously, this folly has endured because the police hierarchy feeds fat on it. Banks and multi-nationals reportedly pay heavily for such protection. Confessions of some cops indicate that some of them, placed on N70,000 stipends by their masters monthly, end up being paid N30,000, while their bosses in the office collect the balance.
With the current police strength of less than 300,000, the country is under-policed, evident in her estimated population of 193 million people. The United Nations ratio of 1:400 (police to population), cannot be attained with the current personnel strength. To bridge the gap, the IG says the country must recruit 155,000, which translates to 31,000 personnel annually for five years. The 10,000 enrolled in the force at the behest of the President last year, is obviously a far cry from what is required.
From our frequent upheavals, it is palpable that insecurity has seized the country’s landscape. For a few privileged individuals to monopolise the services of the police is a direct invitation to anarchy. Above all, Nigeria’s security challenge can be better tackled if policing is devolved the way it is done in the United States, Canada and other democracies with a raft of policing – state, canton, community and institutional − in tandem with the principles of federalism.
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