Nigerian Police and Computer Literacy
In this report, Tayo Ajakaye writes on the computer literacy level of members of the Nigeria Police in an increasing IT-conscious society
There was a recent report that the British Police was not computer literate enough. The report suggested that more education needed to be done in the area of Information Technology for the British Police.
In Nigeria, the average policeman knows next to nothing about computers. More than 98 percent of them were not taught computer appreciation and individually, they are not making any effort in that direction.
Once there was the report in the press that a police computer college would be established. Latest report concerning that project indicates that the school would soon start off in a secondary school in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. It would start off. It has not!
Although the Nigerian society is increasingly becoming more sophisticated in the use of the computer, the police of the same society was, unfortunately, seriously backward in the act.
A couple of months ago, this reporter was stopped by a team of policemen at a checkpoint. At the boot of the car, the policeman searching the car saw a black bag. Upon asking what the bag contained, the constable was told that it was a computer, a laptop. One could imagine the next question: "Where is the receipt?" Fortunately, the receipt was on hand. Only God knows how many hours would have been wasted. The reporter, however, had to embark on some tutorials, explaining to the policeman, who already asked for identification before the search, that, for a journalist, a computer is like a biro, a tool of the job. How many times has he asked for the receipt of a biro, or for that matter, a notebook, which is actually another name for a laptop. It is like asking a night watchman the receipts for his torch. It is ridiculous!
On another occasion more recently on Adetokunbo Ademola Street in Victoria Island, Lagos, another team of policemen stopped the reporter and informed him they were on stop and search duties. After the reporter had duly identified himself, the policeman, this time an inspector, proceeded to search the reporter's folder. He came across a diskette and wanted to know what was stored in the diskette. The reporter told him that he was not really sure which material was in a particular diskette since he had so many diskettes anyway and after publishing a particular material, he deletes it and stores another material inside. The inspector could not imagine that anyone could hold a diskette and not know what the content was. To avoid arguments, the reporter volunteered to switch on his laptop and open the diskette for the policeman to see. He declined and asked the reporter to go. Evidently, the officer does not know how to handle a computer. Even with his eyes and ears opened, the reporter could go ahead and open a completely different document. The inspector would not know. They were not taught to know.
More than three quarters of Nigerian policemen do not know that information could be stored in a CD. What they are aware of is that the CD could store audio or audio visual materials. Much more than that figure does not know what a zip is. To 99 percent of Nigerian policemen, flash is something they have to look up in the dictionary. They have heard that people send e-mails, but only one in 20 policemen has ever sent or received one. A fewer proportion still has ever bothered to check anything up in the Internet. Get to any police station and ask for the number of officers and men that could boot a computer, select a word application, type out and print a letter, and you would get the picture.
Although the Police have a department called compter section headed by a Deputy Commissioner, it is a specialized unit. Members of the unit may be able to hold their own professionally but they do not engage in everyday dealing with the general public.
To emphasise the IT level of backwardness of the Nigeria Police, many of the stations do not even possess a computer. They do their paperwork with manual or electronic typewriter. Some police posts even have to do their typing in nearby business centres.
To ask whether the Police have a central database where all criminal records are kept would be taking it too far. A criminal jailed in say Delta State could be arrested for a different crime in Lagos and his former records in Delta remain unknown. Yet, it is a single police force.
In this age, there is no reason why computer appreciation should not form part of the training in police colleges. As the sections of the criminal code are being taught, computer appreciation should also be taught. Not only does it make the policeman a better officer, it gives him more confidence in his ability, and he stops seeing just any 10- year old at a system as a computer wizard.
Beyond that, every policeman should be sent compulsorily on at least one computer course a year. There are so many computer training institutes in the country that could offer that service. A Police computer college doesn't have to do all that.
It is only when this is done that the average Nigerian policeman upon entering an office would know the difference between a computer monitor and a television screen.
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