By Sunny Awhefeada
That the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) remains the most reviled public institution in Nigeria has never been in doubt. A police force that has deliberately refused to cleanse itself of its unenviable colonial stigma of repression and exploitation, it continues to sink into worse quagmires each time there was a glimmer of hope that it will shed its sordid character and free itself from its unenviable burden. With the ENDSARS riots of October 2020, not a few Nigerians and even foreigners nursed the hope that a new police force will emerge from the debris of that uprising that not only petrified the rank and file of the force, but shook the foundation of governance to the extent that the Nigerian Army rolled out troops to quell the uprising.
As the rage simmered, police honchos raved and ranted issuing threats here and there. But the overwhelming mood was that the police, by the nefarious action of its men, had become like the thief that had taken too much for the owner not to notice. The owner in this case being Nigerians, especially the victimized youths, who could no longer take the insouciance of a police force paid and sustained by tax payers’ money. The loud outcry from Nigerians and foreigners around the world compelled the police and the government to disband the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and also initiate police reforms that were for all intents and purpose hollow.
The few days and may be weeks following the end of the ENDSARS upheavals saw policemen and women behaving mild and civil. Unfortunately, that was not to last. They relapsed into their well-known character of bestiality and went back to their bad old ways so that the way Nigerians apprehend them till this moment remains reprehensible to say the least.
What has become apparent in the catastrophe of the police as an institution is the reality that the police is its own enemy. Its refusal to embark on genuine institutional reforms remains its albatross. And the police as an organization is the casualty in this ugly scenario.
The painful reality of the police as casualty played out last week when a video of a police officer that was allegedly brutalized at the orders of a woman to whom she was attached as an orderly surfaced on the social media. The police officer, of the rank of an inspector who went by the name Teju Moses, was seen in the video crying for help as blood gushed out of her face. The narrative that was eventually woven around that gory sight was that she was assaulted, allegedly, on the orders of one Professor Zainab Duke-Abiola because she refused to do house chores.
That a police officer serving as an orderly will be ordered to do house chores and get beaten up for refusing to do so points to how bad things have become for the Nigeria Police Force. Yet, sad as the case is, it is no brainer to say that the police brought it upon itself. Besides the more than many infractions committed by men of the Nigeria Police Force, one other issue that has brought them spite from the public is their deployment as orderlies to every Tom, Dick and Harry who is able to pay for their services. Previous Inspectors-General of Police have had cause to, again and again, promise that the practice of policemen serving as orderlies to civilians will be stopped, but to no avail. If a thorough investigation were to be carried out, the number of policemen on such duties will outnumber those available to fight crime. We thus have a situation where a few affluent citizens are protected by a horde of policemen, while the majority of Nigerians are left at the mercy of criminal elements.
What has come to play over the years is the proclivity for policemen to serve as orderlies to the affluent. It is reckoned that they earn more money, feed well, are better kitted and roll in the same space and circles as the oga and madam they follow about.
The below average regard and odium Nigerians have for the police is largely self-inflicted. The police must look inwards to cure itself of the many maladies afflicting it. There have been too many instances of malfeasance that make the police look almost irredeemable.
The story of George Iyamu, a deputy superintendent of police, who was actually the patron of a robbery gang in the 1980s still remain fresh in our memory. Nigerians will also not forget how a serving Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun, was wrestled down and hauled into a van during his arrest for stealing police money. Balogun died recently, but there are still many of his type still in the force. The criminality exhibited by the infamous SARS is still very fresh in our mind.
Many policemen have had to act in ways that rob them of respect and dignity. We have seen videos: of a police orderly carrying a plate of food for a madam at a party; a policewoman fanning a madam at an event; a policemen trying to be obsequious with Tony Kabaka even when some touts were rudely shoving him aside and more. We have seen policemen escorting yahoo boys. A member of an armed robbery gang that killed a policeman during a robbery operation in Lekki got a policeman to be his escort to a party in Sapele where the DSS tracked him and gunned him down. Yes, policemen in Nigeria provide security for wanted criminals. Things are that bad. It is all about cash and carry.
The case of Teju Moses would not have happened if she was not made to serve as an orderly to the woman who allegedly gave orders that she should be assaulted. Many policemen have lost their lives serving as orderlies to the high and mighty. They are usually the first target to be hit before the attackers can get to oga or madam.
Many felt pained over what happened to Teju Moses. We hope she will get justice. The police hierarchy should rethink ways of not just rebranding the police, but recreating it. We need a police that has a human face with officers and men who wear the badge of honour and adhere to the creed of service and patriotism. The new Nigeria we all yearn for cannot be realized without a new police force.
