By Gabriel Omonhinmin
The Chairman, Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council, His Royal Majesty King Bubaraye Dakolo (FNAA) has said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s attitude, manner and approach to state matters indicate seriousness and focus. So, for the President to further consolidate in the good job he has already started within this short period of time, all men and women of goodwill in Nigeria and beyond need to encourage him with genuine advice and suggestions that will enable him further consolidate and move the country to greatness.
He said that most experts in the country were not readily available or not willing to advice past governments in the country, especially the immediate past civilian government because of its unserious posture and poor body language which did not encourage giving such advice or suggestion.
King Dakolo further explained, “Now that we have a leader, who is showing some signs of seriousness in the handling of state matters, whatever should be done to make the President bring out his best, should be done.
The King continued, “There is no doubt or pretense that all is not well with the Nigerian Police Force, the way things are now in the country. The hopelessness of the Nigerian Police Force, no matter the working experience and qualifications of the person who is appointed to lead the organization is glaring for all to see.
“For any major step or steps to be taken towards revamping the Police, there must first be a better understanding as to reason(s) why the Nigerian Police is throwing up its ugliest sides daily. The reason or reasons why the organization has turned out to be what it is today. So, if we have this understanding, as a country, we will begin to know and appreciate better what to do to make the police better or where to go to.
“Or how to improve the lots of the Nigerian Police Force and its members. I know that many of us have not yet been able to link the colonial experience of the Nigerian Police Force or the colonial least experience, the Nigerian Civil War to the present attitude of the Police against its citizens. More appropriately their attitude against themselves and other citizens.
“Once this understanding is gotten, we will now design a way, on how to pull the police out of this particular impasse.
“I will prescribe that we get that understanding first, or more so, there has to be a way for Nigeria to get this understanding….
“So, when you are training members of the Nigerian Police Force, you must do this, with an intent of civil duties. Their training schools must first reflect this. As a matter of fact, even the people you take into these training schools must be ready to reflect this attitude. For instance, if you take a semi armed robber into these Police training schools, and the training is not intense enough, at the end of day, you might or will end up producing a better armed robber and sadly equip him and his likes with guns.
“For clarity sake, if the training in these Police colleges or institutions are intense enough, some of the people, or the bad eggs so to speak, will be eventually eased out of the system before they get to graduate. Because the instructors in these colleges in the course of time, will get to detect or see these bad qualities. The tendencies will show. Some of these intakes, who were bad, while in these police training facilities might change completely for good, as the training will transform them.
“This is exactly what is done in most military academies across the globe. So, if a hundred of people are recruited into any good police college or institution, the training itself, will make some of them not to graduate as they will be forced to go out of the system. And if while you are still in these institutions you exhibit any act of sharp practices you’ll be caught and shown the way out the academy.
“In the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) for instance, as a cadet, you are going to be fed and be given all the things you are supposed to be given. But in the Nigerian Police Training Colleges or Schools their big Ogas in the system eat up all their allowances and the things meant for their training, at the end of the day, the recruits or officer cadets go hungry. Some of them, will have to virtually steal to survive in the place.
“For you to know the seriousness of what I am talking about, I will ask the Nigerian Police Authorities, to open up their training facilities and allow Nigerians to take a tour of some of these Police College’s or institutions.
“Nigerians will be shocked at what they will meet on ground in these training institutions. If this happened to be the situation, Nigerians will understand better that those institutions are not the right and appropriate places to train people who will come out to be civil to the Nigerian public.
“Again, if one takes a critical look at these training facilities, one will easily discover, that those were not the right places to train people who will come out to be civil authorities, as these institutions instead of reforming their students end up producing thieves more or less. For example, a simple thief in the criminal den kind of, after undergoing training in these Police institutions will end up being contaminated and made much more complex to manage.
“So, the training for every member of the Nigerian Police Force has to be right from the beginning. They must be made to understand citizen rules and rights, and whatever training they are given must be long enough to make it sink. Like I earlier said, the intensity of the training must be there, for it to have the necessary and required impacts.
King Dakolo further explained, “On the duration of training of police recruits and officers, for example, if there training usually last six months, the Police authorities should be able to put in place mechanism of detecting whether or not the majority of people they have been training comes out to be good men and officers who represent the Nigerian police force well as an institution. Or exhibit the desired character the police require.
” If this is not the case then, there is the need along the line for these training to be elongated. The long and short story, is for the police authorities to ask themselves what do they want to teach these recruits and officers within the stipulated period of time in their colleges and institutions? Is it only to teach them how to shoot guns? Is it just to run about? Is it for their men and officers to understand the history of the Nigerian Police Force or the psychology of how to live with people?
“When these new courses are design, the Police authorities in collaboration with the experts will begin to facilitate and impact these courses along the line the time frame the courses will take, for the new ideas injected into the Nigerian Police training curriculums to concretized and sink in the brains or attitude of the people they are training or want to train.
“So, let me not just say, six months, ten months or one year. The experts the Nigerian Police authorities, will bring to design the curriculums, will know, the needs for the people they are meant to train and for whatever period of time. If the police authorities do this, just like I earlier pointed out in this interview, the money meant for these Police Colleges and other institutions must be judiciously used for the benefit of the recruit and officers of the Nigerian Police Force. Not for the big men in charge of these training institutions to steal all the monies allocated for these institutions.
“It is not for the recruit and officers to go and start buying their uniforms themselves. It is not for these men and officers to be, to go and start buying their boots. You know the story of the Nigerian Police Force and their Colleges better than I, as a trained journalist. These things for a good training are not just there in the Police Colleges. So, when you take these people and put them through such inhuman conditions, at the end of day, you’ll end up producing an anti-people’s human or more appropriately an anti-people member of the Nigerian Police Force.
King Dakolo further explained, “Even with all these short comings, I have very strong doubts whether the Nigerian Police Force will within its ranks, be able to produce an officer, who will help bring about this much desired reforms in the Police force.
“This is the bitter truth, that most people would not want to hear. I am already a traditional ruler of my people, this is a life-long assignment. I’m therefore not in search of any job nor looking forward to be appointed into any government position. Part of the reasons why the Nigerian Police is not as effective as we all expect them to be, is because part of the benefits, the money meant for Police officers at different levels does not get home to the people concerned. For instance, the money meant for the feeding of trainees, are never used fully. The money meant for the welfare of staffs never disbursed to them fully. This happened at different levels; therefore, everybody is waiting for his or her turn to do its own damage to the Police system.
“So, among the Nigerian Police High Command, everybody is patiently waiting for his or her turn. So, when a new set of people come into positions of authority in the Nigerian Police Force, they also want to behave like their predecessors. Saying it is time for us to eat.
So, if you want to change the system, you must fight this rot, or else, you’ll not succeed. It is the anti-corruption agency that could help sanitize the Nigerian Police Force. Unfortunately, the Police itself, is supposed to be an anti-graft agency. But do you have the men and women with the liver and clean records, which some people in the high-ranking of the Police will not used to intimidate or blackmail them? Some members of the Police High Command when threatened could go and dig out these people’s records to blackmail them. Are there people like this appointed in these Anti-corruption’s agencies of government? I very much doubt!
“Once you get a member of the Nigeria Police or an untrained person who is ready to allow the men and officers of the Nigerian Police Force to get their dues, for example their allowances and other entitlements, who is ready to do this transparently, possibly publish everything or records pertaining to Police welfare, we will begin to make a head way in the area of transforming members of the Nigerian Police Force for good.
“Some members of the Police might begin to change their minds about taking bribe on the road. Once members of the Police now begin to see, at the end of every month, they now have the money to feed their families and pay their children school fees and meet other needs, there certainly will be tremendous improvement in the behavior of the majority of the member of the Nigerian Police Force.
“It will all depend on whether or not the Ogas at the top are willing to allow the resources to flow down to the least person down the ladder.
“Another major problem with the Police is that people who are willing to do the job who are also efficient never get to be promoted on merit. The lay about with very bad track records, who have godfathers and mothers, are the ones who get the promotions they do not deserved or qualified for. Today, if you ask most Police officers on the streets, they will tell you that they bribe or pay, before they get promoted. So, promotions and all other things are not based on merit or competency, they are based on patronage. How do one therefore expect to get the very best from a system that is rewarding failure instead of excellence?
“In some countries, people are appointed outside the Police system to head the organization. Qualified persons, who might have read other courses outside the Police training, maybe a military Psychologist is appointed to head the Police and they do a damn good job out of it. They usually bring them from outside the Police system sanitize the organization.
“What I am proposing therefore, is just like what the government did some time back, when they brought Chidoka to go and sanitize the Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC).
Finally, my personal observation of what happened during the just concluded Gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State, has further reinforced my belief that the Nigerian Police Force needs a head that will be appointed from outside the system.
King Dakolo added, “The British Metropolitan Police, which was founded in England in 1829, to maintain law and order in the then criminogenic British society is the root of the problems associated with the Nigerian Police Force. In England, the Metropolitan Police up till today work assiduously, and do everything within their powers to diligently protect citizens from any harm.
“But when this same British Police came to the colonial territory called Nigeria, their mind-set and agenda of Policing was entirely different. When they arrived Nigeria, their principal mission was to protect what is today regarded as “the Lord Lugard pillaged.”
“This is why the British Metropolitan Police, which is known for its efficiency, expectedly, did not get a good scored card while on duty tour in Nigeria.
“The British Police sadly, became a brutal, repressive, anti-people police. As they daily worked while in Nigeria, to protect the colonial government and its officials but not the generality of the Nigerian people.
“Worse still, and to ensure that there are no errors in their agenda of five centuries Britain, some White Police Officers were made to stay behind to indoctrinate the Nigerians that were recruited into Nigerian Police Force to their satisfaction. Hence, the brutality and dishonest that is today associated with majority members of country’s police force.
King Dakolo further stressed, “Although the Nigerian Police Force started gradually after the country’s independence to have Black African face in its organization, with time the Nigerian Police Force, turned out to be an organization with Black faces but with European spirit.
“Any surprise therefore, decades after, the Nigerian Police Force has further internalized this ugly mind set and spirit of their colonial masters.
“This has made the Nigerian Police to be one of the most brutal, self-annihilating, anti-people, repressive organization in the world.
“This is why the Nigerian Police Force is not commanding the respect and friendliness of the people it was supposed to serve and protect.
King Dakolo explained, “For the Nigerian Police Force, to serve Nigerians properly and not consider the people it is meant to serve as enemies like their colonial predecessor, it needs to be indigenized in all forms and fashion.
“But unfortunately, with one military coup after another, including the well-known ones of January 1966, July 1966, 1975, 1976, 1983, August 1985, December 1985, 1990, 1993 and others in which members of the Nigerian Police Force were summarily dealt with by the then military power that be, the Nigerian Police were gradually cowed and not allowed to evolve into an indigenized people’s Police.
He said, “During this period, when members of the Nigerian Armed Forces reigned supreme in the land, the military gradually took over some of the duties and functions of the Nigerian Police Force one after another, usurping their functions.
“With every protest by citizens, especially during the reign of the military juntas in the country, the army rolled out their combat boots, guns and armored personnel carriers to quell ordinary civil protest, the way they know how best to handle such situations.
“The army did not only kick asses; they left sorrows tears and blood of what they regarded as “bloody civilians”.
“This was therefore a very strong message everywhere on the streets of Nigerian villages and towns. It was as good as saying “Do not ever call us for this anti-citizen operations. “but sadly, up till today, the authorities, including the civilian governments have made the military their preferred choice in operations like this in the country.
“These were supposed to have been operations where the Nigerian Police would have been allowed to perform, make their mistakes and correct these mistakes in subsequent operations.
The King concluded, some members of the Nigerian Police Force over the years have not helped matters, with their personal conduct.
“Some wailed and cried out loud, while others frowned and even cursed. They gradually kicked, fell on the ground, threw tantrums everywhere; like labour leaders, they threatened strike actions and issued several warning strike-notices. In their numbers, they vehemently protested the idea of been made a pro-people organization.
“Some members of the Nigerian Police Force, craved and begged to be made the most effective anti-people organization. They in the process threw down their shields and wooden batons, and with their made in England boots they smashed everything to pieces.
“At some point, they eventually went on strike, marched on the streets, and demanded to be given Kalashnikovs, Mortars, anti-tanks, and anti-aircraft guns. These were serious sets of actions aimed at ensuring that they ceased to be Police. Ultimately, they wanted to be soldiers too. All this, they did instead of concentrating on how to improve Police/Civilian relationship which is the core of their mandate.
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