In response to the worsening state of insecurity across the country, President Bola Tinubu last week directed that police escorts attached to very important persons (VIPs), be withdrawn. The directive further clarified that henceforth, police authorities would deploy these escorts to concentrate on their core police duties while the affected VIPs who will have need for police protection would now request well-armed personnel from the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC). About 11566 police officers are to be affected by this directive. Meanwhile, Nigerians are eagerly awaiting to see how fa-reaching the implementation of this directive will be and to what extent it will stem the tide of the convoluting wave of insecurity across the country.
The National Assembly has also been called upon to commence the legislative framework for the practical realisation of a set of new laws to empower the operations of State Police in the country. The nation did not need to wait for this magnitude of humiliation before heeding the persistent calls for the implementation of the laws on State Police. Never made any sense that State governors as Chief security officers of their States cannot issue directives to Commissioners of police in their States. The police institution also urgently needs fundamental reforms that will wean its men from the anti-people disposition and orientation of oppression, bullying and extortion that have followed it from the colonial formative years . Some have even insisted that the real problem with the police is less the issue of number but more of the endemic nature of corruption and disorientation that make it such that no amount of resources allocated to its operations will make any visible impact in terms of operations, logistics and efficiency. A reorientation of the national police institution has indeed become a very urgent assignment. Plans are also said to be underway to fast track recruitments into the armed forces. Many consider these as panicky resorts to policy measures long overdue for implementation. The Federal Government’s response to the deepening security challenge is also considered a bit too cosmetic and reactionary to have the required lasting impact especially in the light of the complex and hydra-headed dimensions of insecurity confronting the country. Even when a former Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, and the then Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Mohammed Dingyadi had at some point maintained before the National Assembly that there was no clear record of the number of policemen in Nigeria, official records still have it that the country has an estimated 371,800 police officers tasked with the responsibility of policing the country’s total area of approximately 356,669 square miles (923,768 square kilometers).
Available reports also indicate that over 100,000 of these officers were assigned to protect political elites and Very Important Persons (VIPs), leaving far fewer to patrol the general populace and geographic area. Policing and security generally have become essentially technology driven and whereas so much resources are voted into security only a negligible fraction gets to the actual operations of the police institution. A Police institution that is not intelligence driven but rather runs on bullying and brute extortion will always turn out to be defective in the face of security challenges.
Nigeria’s estimated population still hovers around 230 to 250 million people. This leaves the country with a Police-to-Citizen Ratio of roughly one police officer for every 700 citizens. This is way below the United Nations recommended ratio of One police officer to 450 Citizens.
What the lack of manpower translates to is that many rural communities have no police presence, and the existing force struggles to effectively secure the nation’s vast geographical space. Nigeria should also do well to tackle the politicisation of insecurity, commercialization of banditry and ethnicization of criminality.
The practice of providing police escorts to high ranking officers and VIPs has become a major feature of the security landscape in Nigeria but it should be noted that as the country grapples with growing security concerns, the use of police personnel for VIP protection has raised significant questions about its broader implications on public safety and the overall effectiveness of the police force. The VIPs would argue that they need the police escorts because of rising insecurity. Meanwhile it has proven to be a key factor why the communities have remained vulnerable. The way forward is not for the political elites and VIPs to beef up more security around them but to put in place an effective and proactive security architecture.
Nigerians must face the bigger concern which is that by their training, mentality and orientation, these policemen are ill-suited and ill-equipped for the desperate emergency that we are currently facing.
In a country grappling with a wide range of security threats, including insurgencies, armed robberies, kidnappings, and communal violence, the use of law enforcement personnel to safeguard individuals who can afford private security remains a cause for concern .There is no doubt thatthe growing demand for VIP protection has significantly impacted the distribution of resources across the force.
This has led to situations where police patrol teams are often understaffed, and response times to distress calls are prolonged as a result of the overwhelming number of officers assigned to VIP duties. This has remained a major logistical challenge that undermines the overall effectiveness of policing.
Preponderance of police escorts for VIPs has the potential to undermine public trust in law enforcement. The Nigerian public increasingly perceives the practice as a symbol of institutionalized inequality. While the elite enjoy protection and attention from the police, ordinary citizens are often left vulnerable to the vagaries of mounting insecurity. The difference the new policy will make in the security situation across the country is left to be seen in the coming months. The culture of corruption however needs to be duly addressed even as funding is improved. In all, Nigeria is long overdue for the effective operation of State Police for improved security architecture across the country.
