Friday 27 September 2013

DIGs TO HEAD POLICE ZONAL COMMANDS: MIKE OKIRO’S POLICE RESTRUCTURE MASTERPLAN.

04:43 | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post


“In keeping with the president’s invitation to me to forward my contribution to the restructuring of the Nigerian Police for greater efficiency, the commission recommends the deployment of DIGs to the zonal headquarters. You will agree with me that this is one way of building democratic institutions and a way of bringing policing nearer to the people for safer and secured environment for sustainable development”
-Mr. Mike Okiro,Chairman,Police Service Commission.
Obviously, Mr. Okiro is not aware, does not understand, cannot appreciate the quantum of decay in the Nigeria Police Force, or he is benefiting immensely from the status quo; and I tilt towards the latter. Because I find  hard to understand why Mr. Okiro,who was a policeman all his life, who has served under virtually every government that has ruled this nation, with all his experience to come up with this “swoop AIGs for DIGs” as the restructure recommendation that will bring greater efficiency ,discipline, effective monitoring and supervision in the Police Force.
As a citizen, who has interacted with the police both on the road  and at their stations, I can without fear of contradiction say that the problems of the police are literacy, professionalism, technological proficiency, welfare and equipments amongst others, I will dwell on these few for want of space and time, you can help by also identifying other areas that needs fixing in the NPF, perhaps, soon, Mr. Okiro or his advisers will stumble on this piece.
From personal interaction with the police and through popular opinion pools and street gist,I have come to the dogmatic conclusion that more than 70% of the men and officers of the Nigeria Police are stack illiterates, we see them everywhere; on the roads ,police stations, and on TV. Most of them are extremely unlettered, untamed, and annoyingly ill-mannered. This to a very great extent is the reflection of the recruitment process into the police force; I see boys and girls in uniform and wonder if these children passed through secondary school at all! Go to any police station the lingual-franc a is Pidgin English from the gate, to the counter, to the IPO’s desk right straight to the table of the DPO!
The recruitment process and requirements should be reviewed, sanitize the rank and file, retire the illiterates who qualify for retirement, and lay off the ones that do not. Clean up and raise the qualification bar to a minimum of OND for junior officers and first degree minimum for senior officers.
Secondly, the training, without any doubt, from what we see, police training lacks any form of professionalism. The training curriculum and facilities of the police college should be reviewed, updated and upgraded in international standard .Train recruits on relevant, modern and customized policing strategies. Organize regular, strategic, value-based and ethics seminars, conferences and retreats for both junior and senior officers, invite expatriates when necessary. Concentrate more on intellectual empowerment than on physical and paramilitary training; let it be the major parameter for evaluation and promotions. Don’t promote an officer because he killed one or two armed robbers, because when he need another promotion, he will find something to kill, e.g protesting students, innocent citizens,etc and make it look like he is the hero.
In modern day policing, the expediency of ICT must not be taken for granted, officers without IT proficiency have no business being in the police force, it is an aberration to have police stations and departments without computers,internet,CCTV,modern  and sophisticated communication devices, up-to-date record keeping software and hardware,impenetrable and eagle eyed monitored premises, a police station should be a people-friendly fortress.terrorist should think more than twice before storming a police station talk-less a command headquarters.
Police, teachers, and doctors should be among the highest paid employees of any responsible government, but sorry for Nigeria. Unfortunately for our police, while teachers and doctors can go on strike, police can’t. I strongly advocate for a better welfare package for our police officers, this will reduce greater the desperation, aggression and compromise we see in the force today. There should be a life insurance cover of say N500,000 for junior officers and N5million for senior officer, I also suggest an health insurance scheme; no matter how little, for officers, their spouses and dependents.

“Give an hungry man a gun, the first thing that will come to his mind is  hunting, since the policeman can’t go into the forest and start hunting for games, he will rent out his gun to criminals, or use it to harass, intimidate and extort money from the people he signed up to protect”


Equipments is also one area that needs attention ,with our police uniforms,boots,batons guns ,vehicles,computers,radios,telephones,internet problems should be promptly addressed, we are tired of seeing policemen in dirty uniforms and bathroom slippers, obsolete guns, and rickety patrol vans. It’s very embarrassing.
Mr. Mike okiro, if you truly have the interest of the Nigeria Police Force at heart, I advise you think about these things and take appropriate and deliberate steps towards proffering lasting solution, take time to do an independent investigation in order to understand what in on ground and the level of devastation in the force, and don’t politicize the issue for posterity will judge, do the police some good now that you can.
 I HAVE SPOKEN!!! 

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