Police Colleges urged to incorporate driving lessons in training programmes

Authorities of the Nigeria Police Colleges across the country have been urged to incorporate driving lessons in the curricular of the schools’ programmes in order to inculcate in the trainees the proficiency skill in handling automobiles after graduation and posting.

This, according to a senior police officer in Lagos, who pleaded anonymity, is to curtail the rate of accidents involving police vehicles manned by unqualified personnel.
He said his experience as an officer in charge and in control of men and materials for effective policing, has taught him to be careful in handing over police patrol vehicles and other motorised equipment to non-skilled personnel to handle. As he put it, many police men/women without driving skill report at their stations for duty without any knowledge on how to drive, adding that when they are assigned on duty with police vehicles they use the vehicles to learn how to drive. The result, he said, is that the learner-driver will damage the vehicle before he returns from that duty. Again, he continued, if the next person on shift duty who is taking over from him does not know how to drive as well, he is likely to cause another damage to the patrol van, thereby aggravating the already precarious situation.

“This is the reason you find that police vehicles hardly last even when they usually come as new vehicles. Our men who are unskilled driving experience are the problem we have. Some of them are reckless with the vehicles, others deliberately drive one way in the name that they are on duty, some even drive other motorists out of the roads in the pretext that they are on special assignment. They do not even care if they damage the patrol van or car in the process. It is for this reason that I am advocating that driving courses should be introduced in our Police Colleges so that every trainee will acquire driving skill to enable him or her on posting to handle police vehicle with care and responsibility”, the senior police officer stated.

On how they can get their driving licenses on graduation, the officer, who is a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in one of the 120 police divisions of Lagos said the colleges should be responsible for procuring the driving licenses for the trainees on graduation which will act as one of their qualifications from the institutions.

He said: “Getting driving licenses for the policemen on graduation is no big deal provided the trainees have acquired the necessary driving skill and have been certified as skilled drivers. The college authorities having certified the graduates competent to drive vehicles of all categories, they should then procure licenses for them which the graduates will provide on demand when they at their various new stations. It makes policing very easy and seamless as every officer can be called upon at any time to handle a police vehicle on emergency duty and return the vehicle without any dent on the body of the automobile”.

The DPO who was ounce a UN peace keeper in Mali said every peace keeper must be proficient in driving and must in addition possess a valid driving license which qualifies one for such mission. According to him two peace keepers are usually a vehicle for patrol and the two corps must be proficient in driving because the number of hours each one drives on patrol is assigned and shared by the commander of the troops. For him, each of the policemen drives for an average of two hours and throws the vehicle keys to the next partner who takes over immediately. He said if the policeman does not know how to drive, he is on his own.

Ibe Uwaleke