IGP and his Billions

 

I decided to tune in and watch the “News at 10” on Channels TV after the 8pm news I watched on AIT. Their headlines were quite similar to those of other media outfits but the story of the Inspector General of police appearing before the senate committee on police affairs caught my attention.

He was at the hearing to defend the police force budget accompanied by a platoon of officers with a good number of them clearly overweight with significant undercuts beneath their abdominal regions. I could not help but admire how smartly dressed they all were in their crisp blue shirts on black trousers and berets which for some reason they never remove. I managed to listen to some of the submissions by the IG but could not get the exact details of the figures he had gone to the senate to defend, though I am sure it was to the tune of about 10 billion Naira not Dollars.

He told the rather bemused members of the panel that he may not be able to pay the salaries of police men for the year covered by the budget due to a massive shortfall in the funds provided. He went on to describe how poorly adorned the average policeman on the street was and how kiting one policeman was so expensive, I am not sure if I heard over 1 million Naira for that purpose. One million seven hundred thousand naira to provide clothes and shoes for only one cop? He further mentioned that people who came in from outside the country wondered why our policemen could not look like the ones in more civilized nations. He asked them how they expected him to expect his men to stop crime, halt kidnappings and maintain law and order if the funds required were not provided. The IG further stated that he was not even asking for walkie- talkies or pistols for the men in question.

I think I would have maintained an equally bemused look like the senators on that panel if I was in their midst. The IG was talking about uniforms when his and those of his senior and favored officers were looking top quality. How is money enough for these aforementioned to maintain regular uniforms and the blue combat fatigues they wear about like a fashion statement?  Why did it take so long for the very junior officers to have a taste of wearing the light blue shirts the equivalent of which the Army, Airforce and Navy officers have been wearing since like forever?

Was he trying to heap the present and future failures of the police force on the limited budget he had come to defend? I hope he has not just realized that the systematic destruction of the police force commenced even before he joined? Does he realize that he and the past IGs before him have been instruments in the hands of past rulers to pulverize the force? I do not want to talk about their pension funds that took a walk or the police training scandal exposed recently, too much information on those.

Does the IG think that whatever peanuts the cops are getting or a change of uniforms and shoes would improve morale and efficiency in the force? He must be joking! These IGs are lords in their own domain, rubbing shoulders with the four service chiefs and are accorded similar if not the same respect in government circles. The photo of the jet operated by the force was even on their website a while back. I'm not sure if the other service chiefs have such luxury though the Air Marshall could always hitch a flight anytime he needs one.

I remember in 2007, being in the same room in Abuja with Mike Okiro who was then the IG. I do not remember the number of aides that came with him then, plain clothes and uniformed ones. One held his phones, another held newspapers and all sorts. That does not look like a force starved of funds. I also remember seeing the supposedly disgraced Tafa Balogun within LUTH late last year on a Saturday. The huge and ebony toned man was dressed in all white 'buba and soro' and was on his way out after attending a wedding reception. He got into a Honda 4WD with police plates and there were about 2 other vehicles as escorts with armed, uniformed mobile policemen if I remember correctly. How does the police force afford this type of luxury when the dog schools and horse training schools are lacking in raw materials. I had firsthand exposure passing regularly the dog training school in Bukuru back in 2008/ 2009; although I recollect a time when they said they bought a lot of police German shepherd canines and dog collars. I do not know if those facilities operate optimally at the moment.

We operate an already divided unit where discrimination features prominently. I experienced this first hand in 2009 just outside the British deputy high commission at Victoria Island. I had gone there with my fiancée who had been requested to visit for a visa interview very early that morning. We got there in good enough time but I had to wait outside as I had no personal business there. Across the embassy was a building occupied by Siemens and they had a covered shed in front. I strolled repeatedly along Walter Carrington to while away time observing the various embassies that occupied that crescent and the number of people that had visited the American embassy that day. Then out of the Siemens building appeared my friend from UI, Dipupo who I had not seen since she graduated 2 years before me. She was glad to see me but had to rush to meet her colleague in their company car. They were on their way to Ibadan for a meeting with officials of the” Celtel” office there. The elderly man dressed in faded, black police uniform and security detail at the Siemens office saw the two friends exchange pleasantries and goodbyes. He decided to do good to me having noticed that I must have paced across his building a few times. He offered me a spot in the shed outside his building.

I couldn't refuse cover from the forces of nature and found myself though uncomfortable in the midst of about 5 mobile police officers who had come there to relax from an embassy that must have been about 2 or 3 buildings away. Their talk was dominated by the individuals they escorted the day before and whatever tip they must have gotten from such missions. I watched as a few discharged their rifles in sand containers outside the embassy before coming to sit under the shade.

 

The problem started when one of them started to attack the elderly police man, questioning him on why he permitted a common civilian to sit alongside them. One of them with characteristic “Egbira” tribal markings tried to calm issues when the exchange of words intensified with the agitated “mopol” completely trash talking the good Samaritan who was not so privileged to be part of the security detail to embassies or expatriates like they were. I subsequently moved along before any accidental discharge came my way.

They now have a counter terrorism unit, cops who have now been reduced to dipping hands into luggage for check-in at the Lagos International Airport alongside customs officers; one of  them told me in October last year to "bless the table" when he saw some food items I was taking along to the UK for my sister. I saw another group of counter terrorism cops as I was driving out of Ilorin last month. They didn't wear their full regalia that Sunday morning in a bid to appear like mopols or highway patrol cops. They stopped me and said their 'twales' before asking for some change to get breakfast that morning.

The Nigeria police force must be run as a proper institution, able to attract the best of minds and graduates to man the various divisions that ought to be part of the force. I still think some agencies are duplications of what the police ought to be doing and they are plenty of them. Many go for NYSC and after one year are unable to find dignified employment. A professional force would have been able to accommodate potential officers that could end up instead as generator operators, cyber-crime kingpins or touts for politicians.

There are serious problems with the police that admittedly did not start 10 years ago but what persists is the lack of political will to make the force professional and liberated from the grip of politicians who never cease to use them for their own selfish ends.

Why are they afraid of state police? Why do they want police men perpetually reduced to drivers and escorts for the wives and children of the elite and politicians? Even Chief Medical Directors go around with them as escorts within the hospital grounds.

We all should be part of policing our country and advocacy for what is right and needful is a start.

Jide Akeju

26/02/2014