Towards Saving the Police Force
By Alozie Ogugbuaja
This letter is addressed to Nigerians, to all Nigerians, and Nigerians yet unborn. With the forces of Macduff marching on Dunsinane, with Lady Macbeth neurotically sick, Macbeth was compelled to enquire of the doctor for a laxative that could purge the mind of the Queen to make her whole again. The physician frankly replied that he knew of no drug to purge the mind. ".....my lord, therein the patient must minister to himself". But in a quiet soliloquy, the physician further noted that "unnatural deed do breed unnatural diseases".

The action by certain sections within the junior rank of the .Nigeria Police on February 1, 2002 touched the soul of the nation. That police action was an "unnatural disease" bred by, "unnatural deeds".

At the Justice Mustapha Akanbi Tribunal probing students riots in Nigeria, in 1986,1 had, in a two-hour submission, drawn attention to all these junior police officers who are now protesting. And more. The nation ignored. In 1987, I had done a memo calling on the police authority to establish a Nigeria Police Union. Again, it remained ignored. There was a time it was a taboo to even mention police problems. This was during the military empire. The police leadership called me a liar. They claimed that Nigerian police officers were one of the highest paid and happiest humans in the world. I was vilified and crucified. But were these same officers complaining now on the moon when I was betrayed 16 years ago? Now, every local policeman, in their candlelit stations and traffic warden, is delivering a manifesto on the denigration and wreck of the police by military juntas. These police officers are cowards of criminal proportions. They abandoned me with an unfinished revolution. But I shall never abandon the police cause and course. Meanwhile, It sounds fraudulent to hear any soldier complain. They came, they saw, they conquered. If their superiors conquered only on behalf of selves and families, we did not know. The aggrieved soldiers should know where to direct their attention for redress. Recently, I did a memo to the present establishment to establish a police union. Happily, and for the first time, the IG listened. It is most unfortunate that this event happened during the Smith regime, the first to take far- reaching decisions on the police union. If only those junior officers had a means of knowing this development, the saga would have been averted. It should take our National Assembly less than 30 minutes to pass a bill on the police union Act.

Police unions are not alien to the service. They exist in Britain. They exist in the USA, etc. The only proviso is that, due to the peculiar nature of their duties, the police unions are expressly forbidden by the establishing legislation from affiliating with the National Labour union. The Union is also forbidden from embarking on strike. Apart from these, the union performs and fulfills all functions of a trade union.

The British police picketed three times for pay rise, and the establishment of a police union. The police in the USA did. But these struggles were not in vain. For instance, the last strike of the British police in 1919 1ed to the establishment of a police union in Britain. This was on the recommendation of the Desborough committee.

Israel has the opportunity, and capability to assassinate the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. They will not do it. Not just because of the implications in international relations, and opinion. Israel will not do it because they need Arafat. Hate him, like him, he remains the contact point for dialogue. He is the rallying point of the Palestinian struggle. Without his organisation, splinter extremist groups, not ready for dialogue, would emerge. And so it is. The police leadership, since inception of the Consular Guard in 1861, has not had a forum to feel the pulse, feelings, aspirations and frustrations of the members of the Nigeria Police. This bridge of understanding between the police officers and the State, between the police staff and management, has been wide and very long. The British predatory administration failed to establish a police union because it was not in their interest to do so.

Secondly, the leadership had for too long exploited the culture of discipline existent in a Command institution to oppress and suppress serving members. A superior exercises the authority to openly tell an inferior in rank to "shut up, and wait for your time". The legitimacy or merit of the subordinate's request matters not.

Thirdly, there is the absence of a culture of loyalty to subordinates. At Owerri, during the Nigerian civil war, the Nigerian regiment was totally cut off. Paltry supplies were dropped by air. The men ate rats. They ate lizards. The commander had the opportunity to be evacuated. He refused. I shall never leave you", he reassured his men. This unsung commander lost his life at Owerri. The German Admiral commanding the greatest warship in history, the BISMARCK, remained at his command post, refusing to abandon ship. Crippled by bombardment, he permitted his men to start escaping. There he stood. He sank with the ship.

Military officers in Nigeria are more loyal to their subordinates. In Nigeria, however, there is an additional reason for this. In a politicised army, officers target "wicked" superiors during "night of the long knives", and during the ensuing military junta. police superiors trample upon their juniors because the police establishment does not organise coups to overthrow the government. February I was the police "day of the long knives". Though a poor imitation.

The year 1861-2002 is a very long time. If the accumulated problems of the Nigeria police are not addressed at this hour, the next crisis might assume a violent dimension. The leadership should not wait for a frustrated corporal, or sergeant, to turn his gun inwards, against his superiors.

No person has questioned the veracity or sagacity of this street documentary of the Nigeria police woes. What appears to be in contention is the 'undue process' adopted by the junior officers. But such a unilateral view is inherent with the intellectual danger of treating symptoms whilst ignoring causes. I suggest a holistic approach. The ICP is in a position to review the cases of the defaulting police officers, in whatever direction.

I fervently appeal that in exercising his enormous power and authority on these poor, hungry, and wretched of Nigeria, he may wish to blend this power with glory. I appeal to him, as the father of the service, and as a sociologist, to place this entire issue in its socio-economic perspective, political context and historical sequence. To see it in terms of pardonable deviance, rather than in purely legalistic terms. It might be more worthy to consider this syndrome an altruistic expression, rather than an egoistic aberration.

The fundamental way for the police leadership and the State to be in tune with officers and men, from Sokoto to Calabar, Lagos to Maiduguri, and to feel their pulse, and thence offer effective and efficient leadership, is to establish a police union. With the people's mandate, a peoples police is the conscience of the nation. Throughout my police career, I had always prayed "to be so strengthened so that the power of my example shall far exceed the authority of my rank" (Pauline H. Peter) "The power of the example" of the February 1 police action far exceeded the authority of their little ranks. The "good revolution is the successful revolution. While some policemen are languishing in detention, many are receiving commendation and gifts for loyalty. Many so-called prominent Nigerians have, in criminal conspiracy, overthrown governments in Nigeria. This is treason. Many of these culprits today are in top government positions, in the National Assembly, etc. Shockingly, many of them even are walking our streets dangling our highest national honours. Yet, their crimes were more culpable than what these few wretched of Nigeria junior police officers have done. Their example was bad for discipline. But the message stands true, loud and very clear for the whole world to hear.

History is listening. Watching. Waiting for the revolution I initiated 16 years ago to be completed. Not by the wretched, poor and hungry corporals and Inspectors. The revolution should be completed by the Nigerian government in the interest of the continued existence of this nation.

Ogugbuaja, a former FPRO , writes from Lagos