The Nigerian Policeman Deserves Better

ARINZE IGBOELI

You see them mostly in their black and black uniforms; atimes in light green, sometimes in blue and a couple of times in their blue camouflage outfit. These are men and women of the Nigerian Police Force, the nation’s major enforcer of law and order; the men who bring to justice those who break the law; who also protect and help the citizenry as well as the community should the need arise.

The Nigerian Policeman or Policewoman is indeed a special breed, he is like Winston Churchill’s fulsome definition of the Soviet Union in the hey days of Cold War, “as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”. Now, before you say Arinze you have come again o, let our imaginations drift to a police station, where they deliver policing and commit to custody those suspected or accused of committing a crime. The Nigerian Policeman will always tell you that he is your” friend” whereas there is nothing friendly about the police station, even complainants who ought to get the sympathy of a police officer most times are left frustrated by the nature of the officer on duty, who requires a pen and file to get your details, he then forwards the matter to his superiors who will naturally lament that there is no fuel in the vehicle, can you spare some change for the miracle appearance of fuel? Even when you make the payment to get fuel, they further examine the case scenario, armed robbery cases take longer time to get them mobilized, who wants to die? So they dilly dally here and there before they tiptoe into action, naturally arriving much later after the robbers have had a field day. In their resumed sense of bravado, they let out some shots to the sneers and jeers of the local populace.

Let me not dwell much on other matters, where we have the police picking up innocent citizens all in the name of wandering, the case of ” I follow” requires a payment of 5,000 for immediate manumission, “I no follow” requires a most tortuous journey to the police counter before you get transferred to the “stadium” or “arena” , the cell, where you are placed side by side with a number of hardened criminals alongside fellow “wanderers” like yourself awaiting to be bailed, which I forgot to tell you, is free!

There is indeed everything wrong with our police, and for most times they seem to be in the news for the wrong reasons most of the time, yet, I know that this same police have the finest of men with the finest of hearts, men dedicated to their calling which is to protect and to serve!
I make bold to say that just as we attract the kind of leadership we deserve, likewise too the kind of police we see these days is indeed well deserved!

We can stew over the state of the Nigerian Police Force but have we bothered to ask ourselves, what is the take home of an average police officer? Let’s picture an Inspector of Police on Grade (07) whose monthly take home is 87,135.70 and has an annual salary of 1,045,628.4. When we compare this with the tasks at hand we would rightly understand that compared with a number of other nations which are relatively poorer than Nigeria offer better pay for their police officers.

How then do we expect a police officer to be efficient when his basic salary cannot make ends meet, why will he not take to the roads asking motor owners “Oga wetin you carry?” Why will corruption not take its own toll on the force?
How then do we expect a police officer to be efficient when his basic salary cannot make ends meet, why will he not take to the roads asking motor owners “Oga wetin you carry?” Why will corruption not take its own toll on the force?
Visit the police barracks and you will weep for the police officer; visit the police station and the state of decrepitude will weigh any citizen down.

So we poorly pay the police as well as underfund them, yet we expect them to work or operate properly? We expect miracles of them forgetting that crime fighting is not a charitable service but an investment. I chanced upon a report that did state that the NPF is poorly funded that it receives twenty percent of what it needs to fight crime, if we truly factor this; one thinks that the Nigerian police so far deserve laurels for their modest achievements.
This government and successive Nigerian governments must revisit the issue of policing in Nigeria; paying attention to funding; welfare and training, without which our desires for an effective police force would be as the popular Latin saying ” Nemo dat quod non habet” which simply means that one cannot give what they do not have. How true!