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By Itaobong Etim
The World Internal Security and Police Index International recently released its 2016 report which rates Nigeria Police as the worst in the world. The Force, according to the assessment of the world body, was at the bottom rung of the ladder in terms of how it handles its internal security issues. The report, which was made public by a group of researchers and scholars working with the International Police Science Association (IPSA) and the Institute of Economic and Peace (IEP), predicated the poor rating on factors such as process, capacity, legitimacy and outcomes in both present and future crime detection, prevention and general police international best practices.
That the Nigeria Police did not meet the set criteria on international best practices in this global assessment cannot be a surprise to many Nigerians who have been criticizing its method and approach. It is not in doubt that not a few Nigerians have perennial issues with the way the police conduct their investigation and handle prosecution in the country. Even the much-touted slogan of police being one’s friend only exists in the imagination of those who coined the phrase. The general attitude of an average Nigeria policeman towards the civil populace is that of hostility and brutality. We are daily confronted by personnel of the Force who constantly transfer their sundry aggressions to hapless citizens.
Many Nigerians have come to accept this offensive attitude of the Police as the professional norm and practice because of its national pervasiveness in most police formations. Many have indefatigably spoken against this attitude of the police through frequent litigations against their brutality.
If the police authority sincerely wants to do a self-assessment to know how Nigerians feel about its operations, it should conduct a performance survey to feel the pulse of Nigerians about them. Such internal self-appraisal mechanism would be an effective check on their modus operandi, instead of waiting for international embarrassment.
The police are not free from the well known Nigerian culture of refusing to accept genuine criticism. We are a people who would rather refute any assessment that does not praise or extol our performances to the high heavens. If Nigeria Police was rated the best in the world in spite of its obvious inadequacies, I believe its authorities would by now be now celebrating without interrogating how they got such a rating. I think the culture of impunity, which has no regard for either structure or procedure, is the bane of our socio-cultural advancement in an ever dynamic globalized system.
Here in Nigeria, government agencies like to set exams, mark their scripts and score themselves very high. They would want to be seen as performing at a superlative level even if this clearly stands logic in the head. This is why international ratings which show our abysmal performance are inevitable.
The Nigeria Police cannot sincerely claim to deserve anything better than such an unbiased global verdict on their performance. Take, for instance, the fact that it is boldly written everywhere in their stations that bail is free, yet even a day old police recruit has mastered the act of manipulating the process to squeeze out money from accused persons. It appears that they perfected these skills while in the police college, because they know how to make a complainant buy pen, paper, file and other sundry items to document their cases. Their vehicles always have no fuel and must be filled before any movement can be made to carry out their responsibilities.
Do not forget that every state police command has an anti-corruption unit, but you would soon realize you have made a comedy of yourself, if you ever go there to report any erring officer for corrupt practices or unprofessional conduct. Everyone has his story upon leaving a police station. Our police stations have different narratives for different classes of people. For instance, opulent and influential businessmen are treated differently. There is also a story for politically exposed persons who are not persecuted by the powers that be. But, by far the ugliest scene of the police manipulative prowess is seen when a common man finds himself in the police net. He too would have a story to tell but be sure that it would not be anything near the much-publicized slogan of police being one’s friend.
If they are not friends to the poor masses of the nation who are in the majority, who are they friends to? Of course, the less than five percent privileged class, which they serve as ADCs and security guards, cannot justify that slogan. They are, of course, best of friends to this special specie of Nigerians and are at their whims and caprices. They (the police) even risk their lives to serve and save them.
The size of the Force, at 305,000 in 2016, cannot optimally police more than 180 million people in Nigeria. This number and the eternal paucity of funds may have significantly accounted for that low rating, but instead of addressing the obvious setbacks in the Force, it is traditional to blame the rating on the usual international conspiracy against the country.
Nigeria has similar poor rating in healthcare delivery, education, electricity supply, living conditions, housing needs, ease of doing business, youth employment, life-expectancy et al. That Nigeria was rated below countries like Madagascar, Zambia, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Cameroun, Mozambique, Uganda, Kenya and DR Congo in the global police security ranking is the unfortunate reality in the country.
In spite of the ineptitude and malfeasance in the force, the Nigeria Police is still the only institution constitutionally charged with the onerous responsibility of maintaining peace and order in the country. And, with the current capacity building and retraining of its officers, a great improvement in service delivery may be in the offing.
Etim writes from Cross River
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