The news on the plan to introduce community policing by President Buhari was announced by the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu at the Forum of Northern Traditional Rulers in Kaduna.The event deliberated on critical security issues, especially as they affect the north.
Adamu, during the event, said the new policy, ready to be adopted by almost every Nigerian state, has received the blessing of president Buhari.He said the Community Policing Model envisaged for the country will involve the establishment and utilisation of the Special Constables.
The police boss added that it is mirrored after the Police Community Support Officers standard in the United Kingdom policing architecture, and will be tailored to align with the existing traditional security structure in Northern Nigeria.He said the Special Constables will be drawn from members of the community to serve as voluntary community police officers under the coordination of the Nigeria Police Force Members of Birmingham Neighbourhood police team in England (Birmingham Mail).
“The Special Constables will be drawn from members of the community to serve as voluntary community police officers under the coordination of the Nigeria Police Force,” Adamu said.
With the adoption, Nigeria would have joined the big league of nations like the U.S, UK, India, France and many more that have decentralised their security system by adopting community or neighbourhood policing, in which policing functions are citizen-centred and community-driven.
Reports from across the country reveal that while the Federal Government is planning to formalize the concept, many governors, depending on the nature of their security challenges, have devised ways of co-opting citizens directly and indirectly to provide internal security within their jurisdiction, under different names.
Before the IGP amplified the intention of President Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had at a different occasion said the Federal Government would announce a new policy on community policing, and assured that the establishment of community policing would not take away the powers of the national police.
Contributing to the development during the security meeting in Kaduna, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, and other top government functionaries, said traditional rulers are strategic actors within the community policing architecture.They said the traditional institutional structure presents a unique framework which if properly engaged could enhance the attainment of community policing practices.
Policing tailored to peculiarity of communities – Mba
The spokesman of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Frank Mba, in an interview with Daily Trust Saturday, noted that the policing initiative intends to enter each community and come up with a specific policing model that suits that community and implement it there.
Mba said there is no universally applicable community policing model.He said they are planning to roll out community policing in full, which would be customized to suit each segment of society: “When we talk of community, we are talking of the community in geo-cultural perspective, the media is a community, the banking sector is a community, and the university is a community, among others.”
Mba noted that an advantage of community policing is that it engenders partnership, engagement, accountability, transparency, accessibility and improves the visibility of police officers.He added that the biggest problem with community policing is a lack of political will and resistance to change by some traditional police officers and stakeholders.
“The need for community policing came as a result of an evidence-based study which showed that the use of traditional policing methods and core law enforcement approaches alone are insufficient in combating crime and social disorder in our society.”
“The truth is that traditional policing approach is essentially reactive, and they are also law enforcement-based, they often isolate the community they are policing, and isolate the different interest groups within the community that they are policing,” he added.He said in a city like Abuja, “we are trying to lighten up dark spots and install CCTV cameras; we are also encouraging individuals and businesses to install cameras on their streets and business environment.”
Mba also said part of the long-term plans for community policing is the revival of the special constabulary, provided for in section 50 of the Police Act. This he said would be done by drafting and training volunteers as special constables to serve as community policing officers.
These special constables must be gainfully employed, he noted, adding that they should be from different fields of life, that volunteer their time, but only allowed to work within their community, with the full powers of a policeman.
While there is a kind of consensus on the need for community policing, there are places where it is felt that the initiative is just an aspect of an issue that requires bigger intervention.
A view from Makurdi
In Benue, Terver Akase who is the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Samuel Ortom, said community policing has been in existence in Nigeria.”What is yet to be in operation is state police, which requires constitutional amendment to become operational,” he said.
Akase had in a recent interview insisted that the only way out of Nigeria’s present security challenges remains the creation of state police.”Some people have argued that the state police could be used by governors to harass perceived enemies, but the states have judiciary, who they pay, and yet still lose some of their cases,” he said.
“In a state like Benue, where herdsmen issues have been the case, the governor has been supporting security agencies because it is his duty to do so. Therefore, to manage the police of their own wouldn’t be grievous. Even if it means cutting other cost of governance to run it, I think the governors’ forum can sit and look at it as a group and know what to do because the security of this country cannot be taken for granted,” he maintained.
A Bauchi approach
The new Bauchi State Police Commissioner Habu Sani Ahmadu recently launched a new strategy to tackle security challenges in communities across the state, launched on May 25 for a joint patrol between the police and vigilantes in the state.As part of the strategy, Bauchi metropolis was divided into 42 operational sectors for easy coverage.
The CP had on May 8 emphasized that the policing strategy in the state would be intelligence-led and community policing guided by intelligence at strategic, operational, and tactical levels.
According to him, the policing strategy had been reviewed, analysed and re-strategized through Police-Community Policing Partnership to augment police manpower challenges to checkmate crimes like Sara-Suka, Armed Robbery, Kidnapping and other crimes.
CP Ahmadu said about 1,500 Police and volunteers have been deployed across the 42 sectors to maintain peace.
What’s done in Borno
Malam Isa Umar Gusau who is the Special Adviser on Public Relations and Strategy to Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum, said he could not talk on the issue of state police, but added that Borno had gone far in community policing.“You are aware that if there is one state that has proved to be responsible, apolitical and efficient in administration of a group in community policing, it’s Borno,” he said.
“Professor Babagana Umara Zulum inherited well-over 20,000 volunteers under the Civilian JTF, vigilantes and hunters involved in securing different parts of Borno, including joining soldiers at the frontlines.
“If you drive to most parts of Maiduguri, Jere, Bama, Konduga, Kaga, Biu during the day or in the middle of the night, you are likely to see youths awake and alert, securing routes. They have been doing that patriotic work for nearly 7 years without majority of them being involved in partisan politics.
“You are aware that Prof. has increased their monthly allowances and he is trying to improve their mode of payment by making their payments through individual bank accounts.
“All of these have proved Borno’s competence in managing community policing. I am sure when the time is right, the state government will make its official position known, especially because the state is known to go along with decisions taking by the Nigerian Governors Forum and other national decision-making groups,” he said.
Rainbow over the Plateau
With the debate on community policing taking different directions, Plateau State Governor, Simon Bako Lalong is using Operation Rainbow, the state-owned security outfit to drive the policy in his state.
Daily Trust Saturday observed that the governor is however focusing on using the outfit for early warning and response through the recruitment of citizens from all the wards in the state to assist in information-gathering.
Though Lalong is yet to make a formal position on the issue of community policing, late last year he approved the employment of 350 persons for Operation Rainbow to assist in information-gathering in the hinterland. The governor had said the recruits would be employed from the various wards to assist security agents with information that would check crisis.
Established by then-governor Jonah David Jang, it is backed by a 2012 state legislation. An early warning system was last year developed for the outfit by the United Nations Development Programme for timely and appropriate prevention of violent conflict.
The Coordinator of the security outfit, Major General Steven Gu’ar (rtd.) had last year told Daily Trust Saturday that Operation Rainbow was responsible for coordinating every informal sector including vigilante groups to turn them into grassroots guard forces.
‘Neighbourhood Watch’ in Rivers
Rivers State government last year set up an internal security outfit known as Neighbourhood Watch.While inaugurating it, Governor Nyesom Wike said the outfit will complement the efforts of security agencies, and that it will be grassroots-oriented, where its personnel will be deployed to villages and remote communities to gather intelligence and security reports.
About 10,000 Rivers indigenes and non-indigenes, mainly youths, were engaged, with a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Dr Uche Mike Chukwuma, as Director-General, with a functional office located at the GRA part of Port Harcourt.
The personnel of the security outfit had embarked on a training session at the NYSC Orientation Camp at Nonwa when they were dispatched by men of 6 Division of the Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt on the ground that they were a militia group.The training camp was shut down by the Army just as the trainees were asked to go back home.The shutting down of the outfit did not go down well with the state, and sparked outcry.
Ebonyi’s 500
In Ebonyi, 500 youths have been engaged for community policing by the state government since 2017.Their monthly take-home as salary and allowance is N20,000 and N10,000 respectively.
Secretary to the State Government and Commissioner for Border Peace and Internal Security, Dr. Kenneth Ogballa, who spoke to Daily Trust Saturday explained that the funding comes from state and the 13 local government councils.
Ogballa noted that the essence behind the inauguration of the state local security outfit “Ebonyi State Neighbourhood Watch” was to step-down security activities at the grassroots.The idea is to call for collaboration and partnership because we don’t have enough manpower in some of this federal security outfits, like the police,” he said.
“We believe that if we have people that partner with them, and provide the necessary information, it will help us to cover more ground.The CP is the chairman of the board in charge of the Neighbourhood Watch. So, community policing is very important but that doesn’t mean that federal police should be scrapped,” he said.
Edo will key-in
Spokesperson of Governor Godwin Obaseki, Crusoe Osagie, said Edo State will key into the concept of community policing if approved.
“Edo faces armed robbery, kidnapping, banditry, among others, so we’ll welcome any effort to beef-up security in the country.I don’t think the IGP, sitting in Abuja, would know about a community in the suburbs of Edoas much as people who live there,” he said.
Osagie added that those to be recruited to do the policing on behalf of the state government would be drawn from the communities, with stronger ties with actors in communities, access to intelligence, and more.
Osun is ready
Osun State governor’s spokesman, Mr Adeniyi Adesina, said the state is already making use of some residents of communities to complement the federal police to provide security in all nooks and crannies of the state. He said the state would build on this and streamline things to fit for the objective.
Adesina said as soon as it becomes legal for states to establish their own police, there would be guidelines and procedures that would be developed according to best practices.
Expert opinions
Also speaking with Daily Trust Saturday, Asimi Samuel, the Program Officer, Criminal Justice Project (CRIMJUST), of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), said when we talk community policing, two things come to mind, the familiarity of officers with the terrain they police, while the other is a close relationship between these officers and the communities being policed.
Samuel explained that these two are achieved when we have officers who are indigenes or have resided in that particular area for a considerably long period of time, thereby establishing bonds with residents of these areas.
These residents, he said, often provide support to these officers when they can. This support could range from intelligence to donation of facilities by communities.He added that “We are aware that the presidency through the SGF announced the setting up of a panel on this issue about two months ago; we are monitoring it closely.”He noted that community policing could be challenging especially in the area of infiltration of these communities by organized crime syndicates.
Samuel said this will be borne out of familiarity between these officers and the syndicates, adding that transparency in the use of funds is also an issue.“As observed, funds budgeted sometimes don’t trickle down to the divisional police stations and police outposts,” he stated, adding that Nigeria needs a form of community policing strategy, especially at the geo-political zones that have familiar challenges.
Samuel said there is a need to have a Police Reform Bill that will enshrine integrity, accountability, respect for human rights, community policing and other good practices into our policing system.“We can’t be using a Police Act that was enacted by our colonial masters as we currently have it. We need to move forward,” he stated.
Also speaking to Daily Trust Saturday, Okechukwu Nwanguma the Executive Director, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Center (RULAAC) said the same factors inhibiting effective police performance affect community policing.He said poor resourcing, excessive executive control of the police and lack of operations autonomy, resistance to change, corruption and poor management account for the lack of actual take-off of community policing as the new method that will address worsening insecurity in Nigeria.
Nwanguma said unless the new National Assembly is determined to revisit and review of the Police Act with a view to providing a new legal framework that will regulate policing in a democratic dispensation, all the talk about community policing will remain empty and insecurity will worsen. He added that the current structure of Nigeria’s police force hinders effectiveness and efficiency, noting that it is one of the most centralised ones in the world.
Nwanguma also said Nigeria, with its population and history of ethnic and religious differences and antagonism, cannot successfully operate a one-size-fits-all police force. He explained that there is the need for decentralization, in terms of authority and resources, to enable local initiatives. “Policing is local, after all,” he said.
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