A crying need to reform our Police

Military regimes are notorious for underfunding the Police Force. Civilian

regimes are notorious for over funding the Police Force.

The Military authorities neglect the Police Force out of jealousy and the need for self preservation. Against civilians, they fear a well funded Police could rise up to resist the Army.

On the other hand, the Civil Authorities need a partial or real check against the ambitious Army. Of this thinking did the Mobile Police come into being, to check violence and let the Army know, they are no push overs.

Whichever brand of the Police Force you are looking at in Nigeria, one thing is clear, our Police are in dire need of reforms.

Starting from the Police College, indeed, the Police are primed to unleash their terror on whomever, they can. Their Bosses so extort them that they just cannot wait to be through with their training.

Think of it. Those who are tasked to bring the best out of the Police do all in their power to criminalize them.

It is said that you cannot give what you do not have. They are trained by extortion and all kinds of privation by those who should teach them responsibility and humility in the maintenance of Law and Order.

It is said that there is honour among thieves, but what do you expect from someone who is taught to be crooked and cruel?

I understand our Policemen perform creditably well abroad. I doubt if the attraction of foreign currency is not the motivation or perhaps their foreign colleagues are worse.

The brutality of our Police does the society no good. It explains why it is easy for even impostors to get away with their crimes.

Our Policemen, I doubt can advise citizens of their rights. There are two groups of people who always  get the better of our Police and they are the Lawyers and Medical Doctors. Lawyers because they know the Law better than Policemen and Doctors because of the respect we all have for their work. Every other person is at the mercy of our greedy Policemen.

With each passing day, our Police grow in brutality and force of arms. I wonder which is easier, to kit our Policemen well enough to attract admiration and respect or to arm them enough to attract fear and hate at the same time. All manners of poorly dressed men bear arms in the name of the Police.

I believe it will be much cheaper to give them new uniforms for free and arm them minimally than to sell them uniforms and then arm them with AK - 47s to recover from hapless citizens the cost of their uniforms.

The more we militarize our Policemen, the more violent the citizens become. To bear the brunt, will be gentle members of the society.

If you have had the good or bad fortune of seeing members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers at War, you will understand the damage the use of excessive force has done to our psyche.

Electoral violence is what deprives decent men and women of their right to vote. On a typical election day, violence breaks out among the electorate, on the average, of once every five minutes, in spite of the presence of Policemen.

You wonder why the violence? It is a trick to depopulate the voting public to the advantage of violent members of the electorate under the influence of Godfathers.

Elections, especially secret ones are supposed to be peaceful but no, the society is so militarized that you have to demonstrate support by show of bravado.

In the end, indecency wins and we all complain. We are in it as one and together, we should solve the problem.

My take is that the training we give our Policemen should be a good starting point.