Redeploying Police To Underserved Nigerians

The recent revelation by the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Sir Mike Okiro that 150,000 out of 400,000 Nigeria’s police workforce are attached to influential Nigerians and corporate bodies is, to say the least, appalling. It underscores the preeminence the nation’s police high command accords personal or private security, as against general security and well-being of the citizenry.
Equally worrisome is the fact that despite several orders from successive Inspectors General of Police (IGPs) including the current IGP, Ibrahim Idris, and indeed presidential directives, to reverse the practice, the ugly trend continues unabated.
We consider this an aberration and therefore, unacceptable in view of the fact that the Nigerian society is currently under-policed. The country falls short of the globally acceptable benchmark of one police personnel to 400 citizens.
Simple arithmetic shows that with 150,000 policemen attached to few elite in the country, the rest of millions of Nigerians are left at the mercy of 250,000 police personnel for protection. Going by the country’s conservative population of 180 million, this implies that one policeman oversees about 720 citizens rather than 400 as prescribed by the United Nations. This is horrendous!
The consequence of this lopsided police security arrangement tells on the society on daily basis, as crimes and criminality are on the increase. Kidnapping, armed robbery, terrorism, illegal oil bunkering, arson, cultism, fraud, cyber crimes, among others, are rising, perhaps, due to under-policing of the country.
While The Tide does not pretend to know the underlying considerations for the anomaly, we think that the police authorities must acknowledge the fact that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) lacks the political will to reverse the trend, largely because of the pecuniary and other auxiliary benefits accruing from the practice.
We, therefore, implore the police to do the needful by heeding the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari who, in 2015, ordered a review and re-deployment of some of the 150,000 police personnel to general duties.
By Buhari’s body language, we understand the need for profiling or re-profiling of those Nigerians and corporate bodies currently enjoying the special security services, with a view to re-couping and redeploying some of the 150,000 policemen to general duties.
By so doing, The Tide believes that the rising wave in crimes and criminality would be minimised and security of lives and property enhanced in the country.
The primary and constitutional obligation of the police is to protect all the citizens, especially the ordinary Nigerian, as influential citizens of the country can afford to make other security arrangements to protect themselves.
There is no gainsaying the fact that an average Nigerian who barely lives on one dollar per day cannot afford private security, as he battles daily to provide shelter, food, water, electricity, among other necessities of life for himself.
As the 2019 general elections are fast approaching, the need to deploy more police personnel to general duties has become more compelling, especially to provide adequate security before, during and after the elections. A situation where the country deploys soldiers to polling units is abnormal and can be stopped if there are enough policemen for civil and electoral activities.
The Inspector General of Police and the Police Service Commission must, therefore, work in concert in this regard, as well as resist the temptation of turning the country’s policemen to baby sitters and personal stewards for few privileged Nigerians to the detriment of our corporate existence, security and well-being.
Security of lives and property is a social contract the police must not fail to deliver to the Nigerian citizen. This, we believe, can only be achieved if Nigeria keeps to the minimum UN standard of one policeman to 400 citizens.