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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
A former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has advised the Federal Government to appoint a civil servant to head the Police Service Commission (PSC) in order to address the lingering war between the police force and PSC.
Obasanjo, who gave the advice at the public presentation of a book, ‘Policing the Nigeria Police’ written by a former PSC chairman, Simon Okeke, said a retired police must not be in charge of PSC.
President Muhammadu Buhari appointed former Inspector-General of Police, Mr Musiliu Smith as chairman of the PSC in 2018. He resigned in 2022 and retired Justice Clara Ogunbiyi took over as acting chairman.
In January 2023, President Buhari appointed another retired Inspector-General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase as substantive chairman of the PSC
According to Obasanjo, it was a disservice to the nation to always appoint retired police officers to head a supervising agency that oversees the activities of the police officers.
He noted that the mandate of the PSC as stated in the 2001PSC ACT stated that it was the job, however, the inspector-generals of police have often times, gone beyond their duties to interfere with the jobs of the PSC.
He contended that the Police should be allowed to be monitored and supervised as stated in the PSC ACT and that the PSC must be allowed to do its normal oversight function.
On creation of state police, the former president said though the book spoke on the creation of state police, he is calling for the creation of state guard that would assist in tackling the challenges of insecurities in the state.
He stated that the argument of state governors abusing the state police cannot stand the test of time as even the federal government has been found guilty of misusing the police too.
He said: “The police must be policed by a strong civilian peoples’ community, not police being policed by the police. If that is addressed, I believe we will get better police than we have today. This is because there are jealousies and biases within the police, and therefore when you make a retired policeman the head of the commission it is like asking a thief to catch a thief. Those jealousies and biases will come to the fore.
“From the book, and of course as president, I cannot say I do not know some of these Acts.
“The IGPs tend to want to take more than their mandate allows them to take. The headship of the commission, I believe must be a civilian, not a retired police officer. A retired Police officer should be a member of the commission.”
In addition, he called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to implement state police to adequately safeguard the lives and properties of Nigerians at the state level.
“People have said state police will be abused by governors, I won’t say yes or no, but are they not being abused by the central government?
“But I believe we can have guides for state police, particularly for the communities to reduce to the bare minimum that abuse of police by the state government.”
Mr Ray Ekpu, publisher of the book recalled that the PSC was first created by the Independence Constitution of 1960. He said it remained sane until the appointment of Inspectors-General of Police was transferred to the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.
“Under the military PSC was chaired by the various Chiefs of Staffs until it was abolished by Decree 5 of Feb. 6, 1989 backdated to Aug. 27, 1985.
“For the period that there was no PSC, the Inspectors-General of Police worked under the supervision of either the Heads of State or Chiefs of staff, Supreme Headquarters.
“During that period, it was the Inspectors-General of Police that handled the recruitment, appointment and discipline of police officers,” he said.
Ekpu said the lacuna contributed to the present conflicts between the Inspectors-General of Police and the PSC as the former found it difficult to surrender the powers they formerly enjoyed to an oversight agency, the PSC.
