Here is the damning verdict on the Nigeria police

– Okechukwu Nwanguma, the national coordinator of NOPRIN, says Solomon Arase, the retiring inspector-general of police started well, but is ending with a police that has failed the nation

– The NOPRIN boss alleges human rights abuses against the police adding that Arase lacks the will to actually deal with the bad eggs in the system

– He also declares his support for calls the Nigerian government to consider establishing state police, but notes things that must be put in place to ensure effectiveness

– He also said the Police Service Commission (PSC) had a lot of challenges as its chairman, Mike Okiro, has allegations of corruption hanging on his neck

Okechukwu Nwanguma is the national coordinator of the Network on Police Reform (NOPRIN), a coalition of 46 groups which monitor the activities of the police in Nigeria and other such security agencies and reporting same to the authorities. In this interview with Eromosele Ebhomele, Nwanguma rates the tenure of Solomon Arase, the out-going inspector-general very low. He however lists reasons for this poor score

I remember that when he just came in, apart from congratulating him, you also listed some challenges he would face. What is assessment of his tenure now?

We were full of hope and expectations when he was appointed and this was because of what we knew of his pedigree. He was a rare police officer in our clime who was reform-oriented and his human rights sensitive. He had inclination for professionalism. And of course, the rhetoric and steps, measures he tried to put in place to effect the change he had in mind to fight corruption and tackle human rights abuse were evidences of a man who was well-meaning. For instance, one of the mechanisms he put in place is the complaints response unit meant for citizens to report complaints anytime and get quick response from the police. But as an organisation, we in NOPRIN decided to test the functioning of that complaint mechanism.

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Of all the complaints that we sent to the complaint response unit, not a single one was responded to. The only difference, I could say, between what was and what Arase put in place is that when you send a complaint, you get an automatic response acknowledging the complaint, but thereafter, nothing ever happens.

How do you mean sir?

There are two cases where I had to call to remind them that they had not responded and then they asked me to monitor it and let them know. I asked them how they expected me to monitor what they are supposed to do themselves. I gave you a complaint and the officers involved and the police station involved and you are asking me to follow up events. So for me, there are those within the police who are resisting change and who have made it a point of duty to make sure that nothing works in spite of the efforts of the police boss.

The point I am making is that in spite of the rhetoric about the intention to make a difference, not much has really changed in terms of the police human rights abuses. We still have cases of killings and no justice for victims. So as far as I am concerned, the inspector-general had so much in rhetoric than in real concrete changes happening.

During this year’s June 12 celebration, many Nigerian leaders complained that the police, as currently constituted, is really overwhelmed and that something must be done urgently. As the head of NOPRIN, do you support calls for state police?

This call for state police has become a recurrent one especially anytime something happens. It often becomes the fall back for a lot of people when issues insecurity arise. And each time this call is made, certain people within the security sector would dismiss it. But for us, it only calls for deep-thinking. The argument has been that during the era of regional government when we had the regional police, it was abused. But I think that shouldn’t serve as a barrier not to subject this idea to the hard thinking it calls for.

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Everywhere in the world, police is local. Nobody can doubt that in Nigeria, the police is over-centralised and that is one of the issues why it has remained ineffective and inefficient. There is certainly some need to decentralise the police even if we don’t want to agree. But I think that for state police to be established, we must agree to certain modalities that must be put in place in terms of operational control and ensure that no state governor exerts unrestrained control over the outfit the way the president has executive control over the police.

One of the problems the police has today is such operational control. You know that operational control of the police under the act setting it up resides with the president whereas it ought to reside with the inspector-general of police. That is why many cases of political killings are not resolved. Or course, the police will only act to the extent that political authorities would allow them.

For us in NOPRIN, the idea of state police is one that should not be dismissed, but what is important is the need to address the fears of those who kick against states having their police for fear that governors would use them to carry out personal vendetta or settle scores. In terms of whether it would be used to address crime, I think it is an idea that should be considered. Policing everywhere is local.

Several times you have complained about SARS. How far have you been able to settle issues with them?

One of the major complaints that we made when Arase came on board is the issue of wide-spread abuses going on in SARS, killings, torture, extortion and armed robbery, because they are also involved here. Imagine when the police arrests somebody and then goes to that person’s account. That’s robbery. That was a major complaint from NOPRIN and in direct response to it, Arase decided to split SARS, one part handling arrests and detention and the other part handling investigation and prosecution. But in spite of that, killings, tortures have continued to happen and one of the problems I saw is that Arase doesn’t seem to have the will to move against certain police officers. We’ve brought cases involving particular officers to his attention. The most he did in one of the cases was to transfer the officer in charge. We made specific calls that this particular officer should be brought to account for the atrocities he committed, but till today, that has not happened. Because the police inspector-general does not have the will to bring certain police officers to account, nothing much has changed.

If a new inspector-general is to come on board, what do you think are the challenges he would meet?

The challenges remain the same. One of the major challenges is that until there is a constitutional amendment to remove operational control of the police from the president and hand it over to the inspector-general of police, until we have an inspector-general of police who has operational autonomy and flexibility of so that he can act independently without fear or favour, until the Nigerian police is insulated from partisan political control, no inspector-general can make a major headway in terms of the police.

You think that is the only place the solution lies?

We also have the Police Service Commission (PSC) that has statutory powers to recruit, promote and dismiss. But all that the PSC has preoccupied itself with is promoting people while there are a lot of people who are stagnated. Promotion in the Nigeria Police is marked by corruption and that is why there are a lot of complaints in the system; you see two people who joined the police the same year, one is promoted two times ahead of the other. Sometimes, you see somebody promoted ahead of his senior because there is no standard procedure.

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And we have a man like Mike Okiro who has a lot of. Corruption allegations hanging on his neck and who is also a politician as the chairman of the PSC. With such a man heading the commission and the commission not being able to do its work in a very credible manner, the Nigeria police has nobody to put it in check to ensure that those who commit crimes are brought to book. So we have a police that is lacking in professionalism.

If you are to advise the president on who to pick as the next inspector-general, what would you be looking at?

The first point is that members of the police council are supposed make inputs into who becomes the inspector-general, but the president often by-passes them based on political calculations. And I think that this is part of the problems. We are Also thinking that the position of the inspector-general of police should be advertised so that qualified people would apply and they are screened to make sure that the person appointed would not put himself under the control of any particular political party. Within the framework that we have now, I think the president should consider the best interest of the country and appoint someone who truly possess the ability.

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