By EMEKA NWOKOCHA
There is no doubting the fact that worsening corruption in the Nigeria Police Force is taking its toll on Nigerians, especially the voiceless majority.
As this odious trend continues to stare us in the face, discerning Nigerians are taken aback that plethora of complaints about the unlawful acts are oftentimes treated with levity, even as continuous calls on the government to overhaul the police force to ensure better services have ignominiously been ignored by successive governments.
Recalling the statutory duties and responsibilities of the police force, which are centrally premised on protection of life and property, upholding the law and maintaining public order, it is obvious that a police force that is fully entrenched in corruption and wilfully subjects the citizens to all forms of hostilities and disreputable practices such as paying for police services, will seriously harm the country’s effort to advance its democracy and promote rule of law.
Most regrettable however, is that while the citizens work assiduously towards the growth and development of the country, the Nigeria Police Force has vigorously stock to illegal and discredited acts of providing police services to citizens for various charges, and this has become an acceptable norm in the country’s police force for decades.
Worse still, Nigerians have watched with clenched fists as this inglorious practice has over the years been endorsed by the Nigerian governments, thus subjecting the citizens to rounds of humiliation, extortions and brutalisation every day, while the institutions of government feign ignorance.
Little wonder, corruption has become an embedded “professional” ethic that most police officers imbibe and practice with unimaginable impunity.
For purpose of emphasis, a candid replay of the horrendous treatment being meted out to Nigerian citizens at police stations will inspire better understanding of the deep-rooted professional decadence ravaging the nation’s police force.
On that note, one recalls that when complainants go to police station to lodge a complaint, they’re often subjected to unprofessional treatment by police officers, such that they’re compelled to pay illegal charges before their complaints will be recorded in the police station diary. They’re also coerced to pay more charges before a police officer will be assigned to take charge of their cases. Then, the extortion continues as the complainants are compelled to provide a vehicle that will convey the police officer to make an arrest when it becomes necessary. The extortion goes on as long as the case continues.
Whilst this anomaly takes root in our policing system, it is pertinent to say that the governments’ continuous feigning of ignorance over the wrongs pervading the country’s police force unquestionably amounts to full endorsement of extortion of poor citizens by police personnel.
In the same vein, the governments’ nonchalant disposition towards reforming the police force largely exposes the country to greater harm, obviously not good for our nascent democracy.
Much as this “stench” continues to trail the operations of our country’s police force, the question on the lips of patriotic Nigerians is, why would successive governments play ostrich over endemic corruption in the police force?
Regrettably, the laissez-faire disposition of Nigerian governments towards the wrongs afflicting the police force has become a recurring decimal thus causing a serious wane of public trust for the police.
However, it is common knowledge that adequate funding is vital for the police force to function effectively in line with its statutory duties and responsibilities. But a comprehensive check on the administration and operations of the Nigeria Police Force brings to the fore the recurring challenge of poor funding of the police force over the decades.
Without mincing words, it is crucial to note that the obvious failing in the funding of the country’s police operations may have given room for corruption to permeate the policing system. As recorded events have shown, it is incontrovertibly obvious that extortion of the citizens by police personnel through various crooked ways has become an improvised source of funding the operations of the country’s police, and the Nigerian government has directly or indirectly given the despicable act an official nod.
Such sadistic development further demeans the country’s policing system and makes mockery of the Nigeria police force before the prying eyes of international community.
In the face of the messy narratives that continues to hurt the country’s police force, one wonders why the government would not prioritise funding of the police force to make it function better, and why would the government look away while police personnel overtly extort the citizens with brute force?
Suffice it to say that until the government of the day in collaboration with the National Assembly takes drastic steps to overhaul the police force and make it truly professional, its canon as enshrined in the Act, Nigerians will continually perceive the government as being complicit in the extortion of the citizens by the personnel of the Nigeria Police Force.
To be precise, untill the Nigerian government takes decisive steps to criminalise every act of corruption and extortion in the country’s police force, public trust for the police will drastically erode to irredeemable level.
In a nutshell, the trading of police services is not a practice that is recognised or permitted by the Nigerian laws.
Therefore, the continuous act of extorting the citizens by the personnel of the Nigeria Police Force underscores the decay and bastardization of the tenets of rule of law in the Nigeria Police Force.
