GUARDIAN

Much ado about police reform - by Reuben Abati

January 11, 2008

On Tuesday, President Umaru Yar'Adua inaugurated a 16-man police reform panel led by Alhaji M. D. Yusufu, a retired police man, There have been complaints about the composition of the panel, focussing mainly on its lack of ethnic balancing, and its domination by former police men and women whereas the panel ought to be more representative, to include other stakeholders particularly civil society groups who are directly affected by police functions.

However, a more pertinent question is: do we need another police reform panel? This panel is no more than a needless repetition of similar efforts in the past. It is something that we have seen and heard before. And yet the Nigeria Police Force is not in a better shape than it was in 1999. The M. D. Yusufu panel has been asked specifically to do the following: (a) Examine the present state of the police and review previous efforts, reports and Government White papers on the police. (b) Identify and recommend definitive, measurable and practical measures for the enhancement of effective police service delivery. (c) Examine and recommend measures for the complete transformation of the Nigeria Police; and (d) Make any other recommendation deemed necessary by the committee. There is nothing original in these terms of reference.

The creation of a new bureaucracy may serve the purpose of showing President Yar'Adua's seriousness about the security component of his seven-point agenda, which he says he now wants to operationalise. But what is needed is not another bureaucracy that creates an assignment for tired men and women. A government that campaigned on the platform of continuity from where the previous administration stopped should not behave as if it wants to start every little thing afresh. It can save time, cost and energy by moving on directly to what needs to be done. There is more than enough existing intelligence and information about what is wrong with the Nigeria Police Force. Previous panel reports yielded no results because no serious effort was made to translate the various reform plans into measurable action. Where efforts were made at all, the criminal politicization of the police and its work stood in the way of the larger objective of creating a better police force

It will be recalled that the reform of the Nigerian Police Force was a major issue under the Obasanjo administration between 1999 and 2007, The reform process was indeed on-going as at the time President Yar'Adua took over in May 2007. By 2000, the Federal Government was already talking about the administration's plan to change the image of the average police man to that of a "courteous, polite, well-disciplined and well-behaved police officer and men who are truly friends of the people" The same year, the Ministry of Police Affairs released a five-year development plan which outlined strategies for transforming the police.

The then Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Musiliu Smith further announced a six-point agenda for the police. There was also a lot of support from the American and British governments; civil society was also invited to participate in the reform process under the umbrella of a Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN). When Mr. Tafa Balogun took over as Inspector General of Police, there was even more urgent talk about reform. In 2002, Tafa Balogun announced an eight-point agenda. He launched what he called "Operation Fire for Fire" to convey the determination of the Police Force under his command to combat crime and ensure the safety of lives and property. Like Smith before him, Balogun also focussed on community policing, improved welfare for policemen, massive recruitment of more police men and campaigns about zero tolerance of corruption in the police.

In 2005, Balogun lost his commission, following his indictment for corrupt practices. He was succeeded by Mr Sunday Ehindero who promptly announced a ten-point agenda which involved a changed of strategy from "Operation Fire for Fire" to "To serve and protect with integrity". Like the two IGs before him, Ehindero also talked about community policing, crime prevention, developing police competence, and improvement of work conditions. Ehindero was succeeded in 2007 in passing by DIG Ogbonnaya Onovo, and later by Mr Mike Okiro as Inspector General of Police, Okiro, the present IG, has also been very creative with ideas about how to transform the Nigerian Police. He has adopted a nine-point agenda which includes human rights, training, crime prevention, transparency and accountability, public relations; community policing, intelligence/data collection upgrade and inter-agency co-operation to achieve "efficient service delivery" and the objective of a "crime-free nation"

Each of the various measures, outlined above, took place since 1999 in the context of a general concern about police reform by the Federal Government. In 2006, as part of the reform agenda, and in order to deal with legal limitations of the Nigerian Police Force, a new police bill was prepared and forwarded to the National Assembly. Between 1999 and 2007, the work of the police force as a serviced delivery institution was probably one of the most debated issues in the Nigerian polity with loud demands for structural and constitutional reforms.

The reality sadly is that the challenges of police reform remain daunting. One lesson that we have learnt is that when government talks about police reform or when every new Inspector General waves the banner of reform, they do so merely as an attention-grabbing gesture and as an opportunity to spend more money and award contracts. The police rank and file also do not believe in the idea of reform. And yet there is no doubt that the Nigerian Police Force truly needs to be transformed. Nigerians want a police that is responsive and accountable, a police that is able to deal with high level crime and deliver on its constitutional mandate as spelled in Section 214 of the 1999 Constitution.

Today in Nigeria, the level of crime is high, anti-social behaviour is taken for granted, there is a reign of lawlessness. The Police Force needs to be modernized. Its performance needs to be managed to ensure quality performance. There are serious problems with the Nigerian Police Force indeed. As an organisation, it has lost the confidence of the Nigerian people. There is so much lawlessness in the land in part because the people prefer to resort to self-help rather than go to a police station where the officers can be bought by the highest bidder. The Nigerian Police has become a threat to both the justice system and national security.

Stories abound, and these are not necessarily apocryphal about how the average police man is a part time armed robber and a full time extortionist. Human Rights Watch, the international ombudsman, reported, recently, that the Nigerian Police have killed more than 8, 000 Nigerians since 1999. This is clearly a conservative estimate. The police routinely commit human rights violations including torture, rape, extra-judicial killings and despite promises by successive Inspectors General of Police to discipline errant officers, the biggest problem with the police is the attitude of its men and women. In a June 11, 2007 editorial, The Guardian described the police as the "most visible symbol of corruption in Nigeria" . It is in addition, a symbol of the failures of the Nigerian state.

The starting point for the transformation of the Police must be an insistence on a change of attitude among the ranks. The entire police system needs to be overhauled. Corrupt police men must be identified and expelled. But this change of attitude must begin at the leadership level, beginning with Divisional Police Officers (DPOs), Crime Investigating Officers and their various bosses all the way to the top. Structural questions also have to be addressed, First, the Police must be decentralized and made accountable not to the President, but to the Nigerian people.

Its work must also be de-politicized. Inspectors General of Police seem to be more interested in doing the bidding of the President and the ruling party rather than serving the Nigerian people. The police recruitment process must also become more transparent. A Police Force that throws its doors open to the flotsam and jetsam of the society certainly cannot provide security. There is also a Police Service Commission establiished under Section 153 of the 1999 Constitution which is supposed to provide civilian oversight. Why is that Commission so ineffectual?

Beyond police reform however, there are other aspects of the security question that the Yar'adua administration should be concerned about. The biggest source of insecurity in the land is the continuing pauperization of the masses. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen and the door of optimism is being shut in the people's faces. With high unemployment rate, and the collapse of social infrastructure, more Nigerians are resorting to self-help, including crime and the creation of alternative, community-based security units. Guarantees for the dignity of the human person provide a useful shield against insecurity.

In many ways, government is in a position to restore the people's lost pride and reduce the uncertainties in their lives. Addressing the national security question would also involve tackling issues of equity and justice such as exist at the roots of the mayhem in the Niger Delta. National security is not just about policing or police reform; it is a lot more, and indeed, the Yar'Adua administration should not be under the illusion that once it sets up a police reform panel, it is already doing something about the security challenge.

Civil renewal is important. Nigerian communities are weak and alienated, because they have more or less, been abandoned by the state and denied the open access that they require. On a final note, President Yar'Adua can make a direct, personal contribution to the needed transformation of the Police Force, by eschewing any tendency to subject it to partisan control and abuse, now, and for as long as he is President.