“Inadequate funding can hamper police efforts in Nigeria. If they do not have necessary tools to work; you are now providing room for what will aid corruption in the sector’’
He also said that it is terrible that in Nigeria a police officer does not have enough money to put petrol in police vehicles, a situation he said is not obtainable in the UK. This is so true. Imagine calling the Police Station during a crisis or an attack and the police man tells you they cannot come because there is no fuel in their patrol van.
The Police Station near us looks run down and deserted. There is hardly electricity light in the building. The few Policemen are always standing outside because of heat and darkness. I don't even think they have a functional Police vehicle because we have not seen any parked or driven. Honestly I always feel sorry for them any time I pass the Station and the men look dejected.
Mr. Askew came for a training on leadership. He said that the training would impact ethical leadership quality on the trainees and enable them to discharge their responsibilities fairly and appropriately in an effort to give good governance to local communities.
The problem of the Police Force is leadership. The people saddled with the responsibility of providing funds and and monitoring the use do not release the funds after disbursement from the Federal Government. Before this present administration, we were informed that Police men were owed months before payment of salary. So most of them including the senior officers resort to bribe taking for survival. The late Fela Anikulapo Kuti once sang that the Police stations have turned to banks and the commissioners of Police, branch managers.
Then it was really bad. If you are so unfortunate to visit or check on anyone at the Station, you will be forced to part with money to buy Izal for cleaning, candle for light or money to buy fuel for their generators. This is apart from money for food or to 'put in pocket' as they called it.
Their leaders were not perturbed as long as the interest from salaries deposited in banks for months keep rolling in. It was really sad and pathetic. Then most of the Policemen were in mufti because no new uniforms were given to them for years.
But this new Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar is working so hard to reposition the Nigerian Police and to restore public confidence in the them. He has made proposal to increase the minimum wage to N50, 000 per month to the Federal Government. This he says will go a long way to boost morale and promote efficiency in the force. I totally agree. If the Police men and women are paid good salary, the idea of coming to stand on the road to harass innocent citizens for 'egunje' will be out. I hope the Presidency will listen and let this new salary structure come to light.
Apart from salary, other welfare packages like housing, training, mortgage policy are being restructured to ensure that every policeman benefits from the scheme. 'We have started with the 500 housing unit in Abuja', the IG said recently. Also 16,000 policemen out of the 50,000 will go for Intelligence Training, while 10,000 will go for Detective Training. He added that the newly promoted Assistant Inspector Generals of Police underwent a two week management course in Lagos.
The training is the one that thrilled me the most. These men and women of the force are supposed to go for training often so they are up to date on Security issues and what is obtainable in other Countries. They need to know how to protect their stations and other public buildings. They need to be security conscious. Like the Inspector General said, “The era of attacking police station or government building is over.” I honestly pray that with this new commitment to reposition the force, the men involved will take advantage of all these changes and be a force to reckon with in security and civility.
Like Mr Askew said, Corruption is a worldwide problem. But in Nigeria, it is a particular problem in that the people that are supposed to fight it are the ones indulging in it. Unfortunately, the Police Force suffered the most.
1 comment:
Did not talk about the scrapping of Police check points which did more harm than good. I think the present leadership has done well although they can do more.
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