Many Nigerians who have had close encounters with the police have been left with sour aftertastes. Indeed, when towards the end of 2020, unprecedented protests convulsed the country, the police were firmly in the eye of the storm.
Since then, the topsy-turvy relationship between Nigerians and the Nigerian Police Force has continued, haunted by the memories of indiscriminate killings of innocent Nigerians on the road over as little as twenty naira.
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However, beyond the many avoidable atrocities committed by the rotten eggs which fill the basket of the Nigerian Police Force, a searing scrutiny of the force would reveal honest men and women who only want to serve Nigerians by maintaining law and order, preventing crime, and apprehending criminals.
Recently, there were reports of plans by policemen to embark on a two-week warning strike fixed for March 26.
According to the reports which have long been denied by the authorities of the Nigerian Police Force, the warning strike was to protest against poor working conditions, poor salaries, lack of genuine welfare benefits and outdated weapons.
Although the authorities of the Nigerian police have since come forward to deny that a strike by its personnel is imminent, Nigerians must be greatly alarmed.
For all its shortcomings, and there are many, the Nigerian police remain a key security and law enforcement agency in the country, and a crucial partner in the vision Nigeria has to beat back a security crisis that grows more menacing by the day.
For the very rough row they have been given to hoe in the country as it is today, personnel of the Nigerian police work under absolutely shocking conditions.
When they fall in the line of duty, their families are mostly abandoned to their fate with too little done to mend their broken hearts.
The federal government and the authorities of the Nigerian police must not be mistaken. They may have successfully doused the flames of any impending strike action by the personnel of the police, but unless the conditions of work in the police force improve and quickly too, any respite from dousing the tension will be replaced by the cataclysmic embarrassment and dire effects.
Kene Obiezu, [email protected]
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