BOKO Haram insurgency, which started as an isolated sore point in Borno State, Northeast Nigeria, has enveloped the entire North. It is growing in membership, weaponry and operational efficiency into a counter-state force.In the Southeast and South-South, violent crime, including abduction for ransom, is almost seen as a full-scale career among the youths. And then, the characteristic security challenges in Lagos and Ogun States.The capacity of the police to maintain law and order is stressed. Nationwide, the best efforts of the police are being challenged by the sheer frequency and volume of crime.Altogether, it isn't the best time to be named Nigeria's Inspector General of Police (IGP). But that remains the lot of Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar, who was confirmed the substantive Police IG on July 12 after about six months in acting capacity.His immediate predecessor, Hafiz Ringim, does not ring a bell as such. He did not have a glorious exit. Ringim ascendance coincided with the renewed Boko Haram uprising. He did not have a counter-plan and as a result, rolled with the punches. Like a fire fighter, he deployed only when there was an outbreak and would retract immediately after the flame had simmered to tell a bemused public that the police was 'on top of the fire.'If anything, the police were at all the time groaning under the situation. Nothing was done to dictate the pace. Ringim even needed as much protection from the rampaging Boko Haram, as the ordinary man on the street of Maiduguri and Kano. He came very close to being consumed by the violence when a suicide bomber followed him to the Force Headquarters to detonate a bomb.In real terms, this democracy has meant more troubles for the police. Under the military, attitudes were highly curtailed for self-preservation and the police didn't have serious issues managing a self-censored civil society.Policing in a democracy where free speech and action remain the norm is a different ball game. Like many other things about this democracy, including even the operating Constitution, the police were not fine-tuned to take up challenges in the new dispensation. It just transited from policing in a police state to policing in a parliamentary democracy.The police institution was also not insulated from the force of freedom, which hit the polity like a gale at the dawn of civil rule in 1999. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, policemen and women under IGP Musiliu Smith embarked on strike to draw attention to their reported plight. Although their resolve was broken, the point about the institutional weaknesses of the police resulting in its lack of capacity to do serious policing under a democracy was so glowingly made.Between 1999 and when the incumbent was appointed, the police have had six Inspectors-general. It shows at once that the issue has more to do with the institutional framework than it has to do with police administration.This is not to say, however, that proven instances of corruption involving the police topmost leadership has not had its toll on the force. After all, the billions of Naira of police fund traced to jailed former IG, Tafa Balogun, were meant for projects and programmes that would have put men and women of the force in a stead to perform their job better.In a sense, therefore, the force has remained its worst enemy. It is officially starved and even the little that comes its way is stolen by those entrusted to protect the heritage. The men and women are left to fend for themselves and also do the work. This has precipitated anger in the rank and file, which is transferred on the people via the many unethical practices that define policing in the country.Among the people, the image of the police is very low. A policeman is more of a fiend than a friend. Thus, it will take more than cosmetic changes to reinvent the force.Formation and reformationTHE Nigeria Police, as it is today, was created in 1930 following the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates. The various outfits that performed police duties in the colony of Lagos and other areas where the Royal Niger Company had established authority were consolidated into a central command with headquarters in Lagos. It became a wholly Nigeria Police in 1964 when Mr. Louis Orok Edet became the first IGP.In 48 years, the force has had 16 IGPs, including the incumbent. And from the 30 men with whom the British started the Consular Guard in 1861, the Nigeria Police is today a big force in terms of numbers that participates in international peace operations.There have been structural alignments and re-alignments, too, all aimed at increasing the operational efficiency of the police. For instance, in 1986, the Zonal Commands headed by Assistant Inspectors-General (AIG) of Police, were created to bridge the distance between the headquarters and the state commands headed by commissioners of police.Still, somewhere along the long journey, the Police Service Commission and Police Ministry were established, scrapped and re-established to make policing smoother. The administrative and operational scopes were also clearly defined into directorates. These are administration, operations, investigation/intelligence, logistics/supplies, training/command and lately research and ICT.In a nutshell, attempts might have been genuinely made in the past to make the police work but nothing ever added up to advantage in addressing the issues of policing in Nigeria. What stand out always are the ill practices that permeate the institution from the roof to the base.The police have changed uniforms close to half a dozen times in the last 15 years in the belief that a new outfit may translate into new image but like the serpent, the men and women in all cases only discarded the uniforms and continued as usual.The force has unfortunately become a metaphor for corruption. Yet, situating the blame is as difficult as proffering solution to the problem. The argument usually runs in circles. One half of it says the police are behaving like monkeys because they are paid peanuts. The other half maintains that monkeys will remain monkeys even if they are given far more than peanuts. In other words, what is missing in the police structure is character and not chances.At some point, just to stem extortion of motorists at checkpoints, a drastic limit was placed on how much money a policeman on duty at such spot checks could have. It was N5 and anything more would be written against him as money forcefully collected from innocent persons.In the metrics, roadblock duties account for almost 90 per cent of the reasons the image of the police has remained poor in spite of the persistent efforts to push it up. And to underscore that point, new IGPs had often used the dismantling of roadblocks nationwide to gain instant acclamation. The sad fact though is that the roadblocks have a way of resurfacing even before the big boss wears his new rank.This has fuelled stories that the men on the road collect money from motorists on behalf on the police high command and to ensure continued stay on the checkpoints, they make steady returns to the police leadership at all levels ' the Division, Area Command, State Command, Zonal Command and the Force Headquarters.Critics stretch the argument that a new IGP would only sustain the dismantling order for the time it would take him to re-organise the entire police operations and deploy loyal men to sensitive posts to ensure that he was not short-changed in the allocation of the police Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)....Enter Mohammed Dahiru AbubakarHE comes when the call for police reforms has gained a new crescendo. While a segment wants the force balkanised along the lines of a federal structure, another segment says no, arguing that a decentralised police shall turn into terror machines in the hands of regional operators.As IG, Abubakar naturally cannot preside over the division of his empire. He has said Nigeria is not ripe for multiple levels of policing, as the case in other developed polities. The debate is still on, and somewhat taking on regional coloration between the North and the South of the country.In the main, Abubakar is trying hard to make the police attractive again so that people can drop the call for decentralisation.When he announced the immediate dismantling of police roadblocks nationwide, nobody was particularly impressed because he was not doing a new performance, but re-enacting an old act. Nigerians were waiting for when the order would dissipate so that the police could continue in their old ways.Eight or so months on, the order is standing strong and surprisingly, there are no signs that it is losing severity. The order is as fresh and potent as if it was made yesterday. Nationwide, the roads are free from infuriating police roadblocks that caused a journey of three hours, such as from Lagos to Benin, to extend by another three hours.Well schooled in the game, Abubakar had moved quickly to puncture the cheap blackmail the police establishment had often used to push back checkpoints on the highways each time there was a reversal. Bandits would reign unchallenged if the police left the road completely.But IGP Abubakar was unequivocal when he addressed his officers and men on the issue. Absence of roadblocks does not translate into absence of policing and he consequently warned the various commands to be more vigilant because Divisional Police officers (DPOs), Area Commanders, State Commissioners and Zonal AIGs would be held responsible for any wave of crime in the new regime.Perhaps, for the first time in 48 years, the image of the police is on the upswing. The IG himself constitutes a good advertisement. His physique, poise and carriage bestow on him a Spartan outlook that tends to make many people comfortable. He looks very far from a potbelly politician or contractor, who happens to work himself up the police hierarchy to become the IG and who is hungry for the police funds.Abubakar looks like that officer that President Jonathan can take along to the White House and proudly introduce to Obama saying, 'hey Barack, this is my new police boss' and Obama will reply: 'Yeah Jona, good choice; keep it up, we ain't branding Boko Haram a terrorist group again.' But that precisely is the real challenge of Abubakar.Outside Boko Haram, he seems to know how to fix the other blocks to rebuild the police institution. He has proposed a N50,000 minimum wage for the police even as he opens training opportunities for the rank and file. His housing project and the automation of police operations are on course. In all, his approach is to build a policeman that can in turn build an acceptable institution.Born on May 5, 1960, Mohammed Abubakar joined the Nigeria Police on August 1, 1979 as a Cadet Inspector. He trained in Nigeria, Europe, America, Asia and the Middle East to equip himself for the job.In 33 years, he had gone round virtually all the key departments in police management before perching on the very pinnacle of his career. He was at various times the commissioner of police in Plateau, Abia, Kano and Lagos States. He was also the AIG in charge of Zone 2, 5, 6 and 12 from where he was named the acting IG.
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