It is very depressing that the Nigeria Police which used to be classified among the best in the world in those days, has now been reduced to a mockery of itself. Last week, many of them were cheaply massacred by a thuggish group in Nasarawa State. At other times, the police have been made a laughing stock by the Boko Haram. Armed robbers make a mince meat of them and nobody sends them near the Niger Delta militant camps anymore. These days, instead of the police offering you protection, it is the police stations that need to be protected by soldiers in some parts of the country. The only use for the Nigerian police these days is in arresting journalists and opposition politicians, and rigging elections.
The main reason why our police have become so useless is because of corruption from the very top or, as Nigerians now prefer to say, "from the ogas at the top". Their appropriated budgets are not given to them as appropriated. They are, therefore, ill-equipped and ill-trained for the challenges of modern policing especially in an environment that is increasingly defined by terrorism and high crime. These days, the police depend on the generosity of governors in the different states to do their job. State governors now fund the police even though it is not their job. They now do that in addition to funding the different JTFs in their states. The current Nigerian police is useless to Nigerians, except those who use them for their personal gains.
But, isn't it time for both the Senate and the House of Representatives to live up to their responsibilities and come to the rescue of the police, for the sake of every one of us, by ensuring that the police get 100 per cent of its appropriated budgets and also monitor the police high command in the utilisation of such funds? If the police intelligence units were working well, truckloads of policemen would not be ambushed so cheaply and all the policemen killed so easily. Has Nigeria been reduced to such a useless country by its leaders?
As I write this, the police colleges are dead (we saw a photograph of one of their hostels recently), police intelligence units are dead, police salaries very, very poor and in most cases they use weapons that are no better than dane guns against the superior and more sophisticated weapons of criminals. Many failed states are better than Nigeria today.
The main reason why our police have become so useless is because of corruption from the very top or, as Nigerians now prefer to say, "from the ogas at the top". Their appropriated budgets are not given to them as appropriated. They are, therefore, ill-equipped and ill-trained for the challenges of modern policing especially in an environment that is increasingly defined by terrorism and high crime. These days, the police depend on the generosity of governors in the different states to do their job. State governors now fund the police even though it is not their job. They now do that in addition to funding the different JTFs in their states. The current Nigerian police is useless to Nigerians, except those who use them for their personal gains.
But, isn't it time for both the Senate and the House of Representatives to live up to their responsibilities and come to the rescue of the police, for the sake of every one of us, by ensuring that the police get 100 per cent of its appropriated budgets and also monitor the police high command in the utilisation of such funds? If the police intelligence units were working well, truckloads of policemen would not be ambushed so cheaply and all the policemen killed so easily. Has Nigeria been reduced to such a useless country by its leaders?
As I write this, the police colleges are dead (we saw a photograph of one of their hostels recently), police intelligence units are dead, police salaries very, very poor and in most cases they use weapons that are no better than dane guns against the superior and more sophisticated weapons of criminals. Many failed states are better than Nigeria today.