Watching the news on Tuesday night was a bit bizarre. First, there was the report of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu touring the attacked Imo State Police Command Headquarters in the South East, where criminals, suspected to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), have targeted police officers and made an easy killing of them. Then there was the breaking news announcing that a new Acting IGP, Usman Alkali Baba, had been appointed by President Muhammdu Buhari. For a while, the two stories ran concurrently, and the news felt like some absurdist theatre.
The question had to be asked what was the point of extending the former IGP Adamu’s tenure by three months when he should have retired at the beginning of February. Sadly, those who made that decision did not feel that they should explain any of this to Nigerians so we may likely never know the wisdom behind this, if there was any.
What makes the decision even more baffling is that in this last two months, one cannot point out specifically what new things Mr Adamu had accomplished or what specific reform he had been able to complete.
Incidentally, it is during this period that the killing of policemen in the south peaked and other forms of criminalities continued unabated. What is annoying about this killing of police officers is the total lack of response from the police. They did not seem to have a solution to this problem, nor the commitment to find those who are picking off police officers and overrunning police posts. If there is a failure to realise that this killing of officers and looting of weapons from overrun police stations is a build up to something even more scary and, therefore, calls for immediate and strategic solution. There has been no noticeable effort to secure the country better.
Ironically, during his last tour, which in essence was completely redundant, as at that time, his replacement letter had probably been signed by the president, Mr Adamu was making the same call he had made to the police in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests.
“You have the right to defend yourselves,” he said.
What is problematic about this is the suggestion that the police should dig in, much like the military in the North East had done with its super camps strategy, and wait for the enemy to come for them so they could ‘defend’ themselves.
The police, through diligent intelligence work, (and not much of it is required in this instance since the cop killers are all too happy to advertise their crimes) should identify the enemy, target them and through special operations, neutralise the threat and bring to justice all those who attack police officers and their posts.
After all, the police has a Special Tactics and Weapons Unit, which strangely is yet to materialise, as well as previously existing Tactical Operations Team.
This is where the new IGP, Usman Alkali Baba, has to demonstrate that he has something new to bring on board, that the police will no longer wait to be attacked so they could defend themselves but they would be proactive and neutralise these threats.
I hope and pray he would not repeat the same tired order that previous IGs, including Mr Adamu, had made asking the over 200 000 policemen in VIP protection to report back for regular duty with nothing changing. These orders seem to serve no purpose other than for the VIPs to reach out to the police authorities and effectively renew their ‘subscription’ for special protection while the rest of the country suffers and the thinning line of officers on regular duty are continuously exposed.
At no point has the police been more endangered than now and issue such inane directives that amount to little more than noisemaking must change because the lives of police officers and innocent Nigerians are at stake.
While the new Mr Alkali Baba takes office, it is paramount that there is a follow through on the reforms of the force, in the after math of the #EndSARS protests.
The importance of intelligent policing has to be emphasised over the smash-and-grab policing we have been subjected to, where the concept of police patrol is restricted to mounting checkpoints in the guise of securing the streets, only for these checkpoints to disappear from 10 pm when one would expect they would be needed the most. Or the policing type where citizens in need of help are referred to as “customers.”
The first time I heard this term, I was shocked. I had gone to a police station to help secure the release of two fighting artisans. When I asked for the officer in charge of the case, her namesake answered with a quizzical look. When we both realised it was her namesake, not her, that I should be seeing, she said, “Ehen, meself I look your face talk say this one no be my customer.”
This exploitative perception the police, who should be our friends, have of Nigerians they should be protecting and helping, is based on the fact that the police has been so debased that it milks Nigerians for cash, for their private pockets and to run their offices. It is a known fact that part of the “bail money,” which should not be paid in the first place, goes to the running cost of police stations. Where some police stations are fortunate to receive between N15, 000 and N20,000 as monthly running cost, others go months without receiving a kobo as one ASP disclosed to me not too long ago.
While new Acting IGP Alkali Baba would of course be busy now with congratulatory messages and the jostling by family, friends and police officers angling for better placement with him, it is important that he remembers the enormity of the task before him. He must not forget those pigsties called barracks that officers are forced to live in, the poor working condition of the police and the need for better, intelligent and safer policing which would benefit both Nigerians and police officers themselves.
The best legacy he could aspire to leave behind at the end of his tenure is a police force in the best shape possible rather than a reputation of using this office to accumulate wealth and cultivate a car farm, as Tafa Balogun did. The whole of this desperate country is counting on this.
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