Conveying detainees to court on Keke Napep: Sorry state of Nigeria Police By Polycarp Onwubiko

It is lamentable that the Nigeria Police which could best be described as “Northern Moslem Police, NMP] has deteriorated to an abysmal level that they no longer have serviceable vehicles for their daily operations including conveying detainees awaiting trials to the law courts. The reference to the Nigeria Police as “Northern Moslem Police” is that the imposition of centralized security system due to the pseudo federalism was the devious ethno-religious agenda of the feudal caliphate. The natural outcome is pervasive and intractable insecurity in all parts of the country since it is a well- nigh impossibility to centrally fund the daily operations of police in a country with a vast land mass; in addition to the diverse socio-economic and cultural world-view of the people.
The top ranks of the Nigeria Police are always manned by the Northern Moslems due to predetermined skewed mode of recruitment, promotions, training and deployments. Mediocrity which goes with federal character is elevated above intellectual competence. In their selective discharge of their duties, the turn blind eyes to the rampaging exploits of undisguised terrorists with AK-47 riffles masquerading as Fulani herdsmen. They are regarded as being above the law or sacred cows; their unlicensed guns are not seized by the police. As they move down to the southern part of the country, they drive their cows into farm lands to eat up the crops of farmers, rape women and slaughter anybody that resisted their destructive gambits. In Benue state, they sacked communities and occupied their home-lands; while the indigenes are languishing in refugee camps when the country is not at war.
Both Nigeria Police and Nigeria Army feigned helpless to confront the armed herdsmen and dislodge them so that the people would go back to their communities and resume their economic activities and means of lively-hood. These terrorists are not arrested and the regard themselves as above the law. It is unfortunate that the President has not regarded the menace as worth-while issue to be summarily dealt with to demonstrate that he is the father of all. The Police display agility and proactive in the southern part of the country and search premises for arms and confiscate them but look the other way as the Fulani herdsmen indulge in impunity.
It is laughable when Senator Andy Uba, unsatisfactorily representing Anambra south senatorial zone moved a motion entitled “The unfortunate reoccurrence of kidnapping in Nigeria; a national wakeup call”, with a stale suggestion that the police should be well funded to discharge their responsibilities. The support of like-minded senators remains illusory as they avoided prescribing state police as the country ought to be operating True Federalism. No Igbo man was expecting support for state police from Senator Andy Uba because of his sycophantic attachment to Northern Moslems. He resorted to hypocritical sing-song of “well funding of police” as if he did not know that the federal government had not been able to do it due to centralization.
The challenge facing the Police is the willful violation of the principles of federal system of government. In the first republic, the regional governments were operating their regional police coterminous with the principles of true federalism and there was effective security all over the country as the respective security systems were manageable and well catered for. It was the self-serving ambition of the Northern Moslems to lord it over the rest of the ethnic nationalities that led to centralization of MDA’s including the police. The monstrous aberration was continued as the normal practice by civilian governments who ought to know the sacred principles of systems of governments the word over.
Since it is a well-nigh impossibility to fund police centrally, decay and dilapidation set in without remedy. New barracks were no longer built and the police were no longer dressing well. The annual federal budgets could not meet the ever growing needs of modern policing as obtained in civilized countries of the world. In a frantic attempt to make up the deplorable conditions of the police, the federal government compelled state governors to deny their people their revenues for the provision of basic amenities and infrastructural facilities and purchase vehicles, security gadgets and sundry equipment for their respective state police commands. But for this improper strategy, the Nigeria Police would have collapsed.
The AIG Mr Mbu Joseph Mbu during his tour of police training facilities lamented the dilapidated infrastructural and logistic facilities in police training institutes for the past 20 years. The economy of the country has nose-dived due to the dwindling revenue from sale of crude oil. Consequently, the monthly revenue allocation to the three tiers of government has significantly reduced; to the extent that the Nigeria Governors Forum during their last meeting at Abuja declared that they would meet President Buhari over their inability to sustain the current minimum wage. Therefore in this parlous condition, no state government will ever entertain request to assist the Nigeria Police; and this explains the carrying of detainees to the law courts with try-cycles [aka Keke Napep]. Shame to Nigeria!
The Northern Moslems have held this country at the jugular veins by resisting the needed restructuring of the country with revenue allocation that will drastically reduce the share of the federal government to operate three ministries while the rest will be operated by the federating units with state police so as to re-invent True Federalism. The political reform conferences from 1995, 2005 to 2014 have to be implemented for the country since all the sector are on the verge of collapse; heading to a failed nation. Without restructuring the country, the APC government would be groping in the dark, even as the “Change” mantra would remain hypocritical. There is no amount of security summit organized every year by the police and so-called funding that will guarantee effective security in Nigeria except state police.
Mr Onwubiko, an author and public affairs analyst, wrote via [email protected], Awka Anambra state