Right Cure For Wrong Ailment
BY KUNLE SANYAOLU
THE Nigeria Police may not rank among the best in the world, but that is not for want of trying. From time to time, the top hierarchy of the force wakes up to the recurring rot in its system and tries to cure it. Each time, it achieves a fair success, which last a few weeks, only for the rot to set in again under another form. This is hardly surprising having regard to the myriad of problems the force has to contend with on a regular basis. If the problem is not non-payment of salary, it is paucity of fund to buy operational vehicles and communication equipment. At other times, the police are confronted with armed robbers using state of the art guns and ammunition, against which the police's obsolete or antiquated guns cannot stand. When this happens, as it does rather frequently, the police take cover for dear life. Quite often too, many policemen are killed in the confrontation. Yet at other times, the police hierarchy adopts policies that are inimical to the efficiency of its operation. Sometimes, it sets up several checkpoints on a single road of 20 or 30 kilometres but there are no radio or other type of communication link among them. So if a criminal or car thief escapes one checkpoint, the other checkpoints have no way of knowing, and they end up clearing the way for the criminal.
There is of course the more human element of corruption, whereby the police is induced to arrest the wrong person or to lose concentration of its crime tackling duty while demanding N20 egunje from motorists. That aside, there is the accidental discharge syndrome which has sent many innocent souls to untimely death, the latest being Saheed Aborisade in Ibadan and Air Force Corporal B.P. Obochi. All these tend to weigh heavily on the police image while rubbing off adversely on its performance. As the police tries to address the problems, it consoles itself with the fact that the Nigerian society is rotten and the police can only be a reflection of the society. Aferall, there are cases whereby the police does not demand bribe but Nigerians offer them same, sometimes in mouth-watering proportion. In Edo State for instance, the Police Commissioner had to cry out recently that powerful individuals, including top government officials are involved in cult-related offences in the state, making it difficult for the police to tackle the crime. These are real problems confronting the police. But what the commissioner should do is to assume full authority of his position and expose, if not arrest these criminal collaborators.
At the moment, a wind of change appears to be blowing through the Police Force. The Inspector General himself, Mr. Tafa Balogun launched community policing in Enugu. The idea is that it will be extended to the rest the country in due course. According to the Inspector General: "The community policing is an attempt to bring police to your doorstep. Crime wave will reduce and the public will sleep with their eyes closed. Community policing is founded on the principle that in a democratic society, the police are entrusted by their fellow citizens to protect their fundamental liberty and ensure equity and justice under the law." The Inspector General realised that a yawning communication gap exist between the police and the public, leading to mutual distrust. That gap can be bridged when and if the police becomes part of the community they serve. Lofty ideas. How far can they be achieved, is the millionaire naira question. For one, the structure of the police as presently obtained is a far distant from the idea of community policing. Policemen from Lagos State are serving in Kano and Jos, while policemen from Zamfara and Bauchi are deployed to Lagos and Abeokuta, all because of the centrality of the force. Those policemen are not likely to develop a sense of belonging in their operational areas. Rather, they see themselves as being there for a mission. They are eager to leave as soon as the assignment is over and they have official permission to go. If the present structure holds sway, the distrust and communication gap between the police and the public will also persist. At the end, the cause of effective policing which the scheme is intended to serve will be defeated.
The details of the scheme are bound to be revealing whenever they are made available. If the Inspector General seriously expects results, he may as well be campaigning for state police or something close to it. Yet, this is one suggestion the authorities love to disparage. Anyway, the police will ultimately need a new orientation if they hope to inspire public confidence, without which community police will exist only on paper.
While we await the practicality of community policing, the police should be careful not to further damage the existing tiny relations it has with the public and human rights activists. That relationship can suffer if the law of wandering is brought back into the criminal statute. I do hope that DIG, Mr. Mike Okiro is not canvassing for the return of wandering law when he attributed its absence to increased criminal activities. Delivering a lecture on "the state, the society and the church: role in security of lives and property," Okiro had noted that once upon a time in Nigeria, no one had the courage to move carelessly in some parts of Lagos State without the security agents asking for his identity and his mission.
The law of wandering was good in conception, against the background that an idle person who wanders at odd times and cannot satisfy the police as to his identity and mission is likely to be a devil's workshop. But the police grossly abused the law, turning it into a tool for extortion. It was customary then for the police to fill huge trucks and vans with people picked on the streets and threaten to lock them up and charge them for wandering. Usually, the police made the offence self-bailable. If you are arrested and you have money, you can be released upon payment. If you don't have money, you are summarily remanded in custody for wandering until a relative or friend bails you out. Naturally, the set up drew the ire of human rights groups, forcing the Federal Attorney General at the time, Chief Bola Ajibola to abrogate the law. It was a great relief for many people including those who had been detained and with no one to bail them. Conversely, it was devastating to the average policeman who felt that a good chunk of his income had been taken away from him.
Okiro's lamentation is instructive. But there should be no suggestion that a retrogressive law, liable to gross abuse should be returned after it was expunged from the statute book. The former Lagos Police Commissioner should tell his men that even without wandering law, they have enough power and authority to challenge anyone with suspicious movement. This can be done politely but firmly. The ordinary Nigerian is dismayed when police deliberately turn their back to people likely to be criminals. This happens regularly in checkpoints, particularly when a car is occupied by four or more rough-looking guys. But if the car occupant is a lone ranger, the police are eager to stop and ask for his particulars. Such a person is more vulnerable to police extortion.
In any event, who says the police are not arresting for wandering even now The practice is a die hard one that is not likely to be jettisoned so easily. Everyday particularly in the early evening, dozens of youngmen are accosted along the road and picked up by the police. Indeed, some of them may be criminals or potential ones. But a good number are law abiding citizens who nevertheless will have to cough out something to secure their release. Obviously, Okiro's assertion that it takes two to tango does not apply in this case. He had said that on corruption, "the giver and the collector are both guilty." The question is can one describe a "giver" who was arrested for committing no crime as "guilty"
Mind you, he is torn between giving and being set free on the one hand; and not giving and being kept in detention on the other. Certainly, there is a lot more to effective policing than what is presently placed on the examination board.
