The Nigerian Police Force is the worst in the world according to the World Internal Security and Police Index (WISPI). This comes as no surprise to me, some of us already knew this. The Nigerian Police Force is pitiful, incompetent, ineffective, inefficient and corrupt as is. Our Government both past and present should take full responsibility for this.
The Nigerian Police is pitiful, incompetent, ineffective, inefficient, unlawful, corrupt and the worst in the world because of awful leadership, poor training, inadequate and poor personnel, insufficient funding and terrible oversight by the Minister of Interior, the Attorney General, The National Assembly and the President.
The security situation in Nigeria today should frighten everyone. Nigerians are going into police stations and making the police hand suspects over to them. Thugs are chasing police officers out of police stations. Jungle justice, kidnappings, ritual killings, murder for hire are at alarming levels, gang members continue to be a menace, Boko Haram is still terrorizing the North East and herdsmen continue to kill scores of people all over the country.
Look at the massacre that occurred at a church in Anambra State a few months ago, we are yet to get the full details of what really happened and the outcome of the investigations just like so many other massacres that have happened in Nigeria. Nigerian lives seem not to matter to our Government, keeping Nigerians safe is supposed to be the utmost priority of our Government.
In addition to not being able to protect Nigerians, some police officers and their superiors continue to violate the police code of conduct, the rule of law and the constitution. Section 33(1) of our constitution states that every person has a right to life and no one shall be deprived of his/her life but we’ve seen time without number how police officers take people’s lives because they wear a uniform and carry a gun.
The most violated section of our constitution by the Nigeria Police Force is section(34), this violation happens almost everyday. Section (34)(1)(a) states that no person shall be subject to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment. In Nigeria you never hear of a police officer being fired and charged to court for torturing or subjecting a human being to inhuman or degrading treatment. Total disregard of the law and the constitution by police officers is as a result of awful leadership, poor training and terrible oversight. The Nigerian Police Force has to be a force that upholds the law and the constitution not one that breaks the law and violates the constitution.
Any reasonable Government would have addressed constitutional and fundamental human right violations by the police, the continued complaints by the Inspector General of Police in regards to inadequate manpower and funding for the police, the increased crime rate, the breakdown of law and order across the nation and the continued massacre of Nigerians. Do thousands have to die or does the international community have to make some noise about these issues before it become serious enough for our Government?
In 2013, I sacrificed my time and resources for this country, I put together a well detailed plan that would better fund, reform, better equip, increase the manpower of the Nigerian Police Force and reduce crime drastically. This plan was also going to make the Force more technologically driven.
A lot of effort went into this plan, I shadowed a friend of mine who is a Police Chief in Los Angeles for weeks, sat with the Inspector General of Police, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Research and Planning), an Assistant Inspector General of Police, a few Commissioners of Police, low ranking members of the Force, visited more than a few police stations in Nigeria and went through the books of the research and planning department at the Force headquarters. I also had discussions with Executives at one of the premier security and risk management firms in the world, the Chertoff Group. The Chertoff Group was founded by Michael Chertoff, the second United States Secretary of Homeland Security.
The idea was to give this detailed plan to President Goodluck Jonathan for free as a service to my country. The People I discussed this with in the Goodluck Jonathan administration did not want me to sit with the Former President because there was nothing in it for them.
I also reached out to some members of this current administration and the All Progressive Congress (APC) like the Minister of Interior, the Chief of Staff to the Vice President, the Chairman of APC and a few others, none of them were interested. The so called change agents in APC are far from what they claim to be.
I have also had several discussions with Senator Abu Ibrahim who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Police Affairs, he only wants to discuss the police and police reform when I tell him I am going to the press. Senator Ibrahim is very comical to me, he is more interested in trying to convince me to become a Buhari supporter for the 2019 elections instead of doing his job. Senator Abu Ibrahim chairs the Coalition of Buhari Support Groups as well.
His. Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari as a matter of urgency need to reform, reorganize, better fund, better equip and increase the manpower of the Nigerian Police Force. We currently have a deficit of about 258,667 police officers.
I am not a supporter of the Buhari Government for various reasons but if the Presidency ask me for the plan I put together, I am willing to give it to them, like I said earlier, this was done as a service for my country. I want Nigeria to become a very safe country, my brothers and sisters can’t keep dying every day as a result of a pitiful, incompetent, ineffective, inefficient and corrupt Police Force. Making sure Nigerians are safe should be President Buhari’s utmost priority.
Written by Nosa Eweka
Nosa Eweka is an Entrepreneur and a Member of the Benin Royal Family, he can be reached via E-mail at nosaeweka@yahoo.com or through Twitter @nosaeweka.
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