Nigerian police in action                                     Photo courtesy

While Nigerians are assured that their national police, the NPF can do their job, this is a blue moon occurrence.

If NPF can be motivated to do good police gumshoe work, I wonder why the killer[s] of former federal justice minister - Bola Ige, have not been arrested. That the killers of Bola Ige have not been arrested and prosecuted, will always be a tarnish on OBJ, and I think Tafa Balogun at a time was IG??. Were OBJ and Balogun, non-Yorubas, the fingers would have pointed at the president/IG, for not doing their job. But in this case of 'Physician/Doctor, cure thyself', the case is gone cold and as most things Nigerians do, it is swept under the rug, in an annoying God, will take care - wishful culture. Awful.

That Nigeria in the 21st century still promotes national police when the character of the nation has drastically changed and NPF is seriously challenged, when policing has taken more than the 'colonial' style, shows that the country is stuck. Some crimes may never be solved but the confidence gained and or bestowed on a police is important for a variety of reasons among them, peace, prosperity and economic development. There is a direct co-relation between a country's growth and economic wellbeing, and its sense of security - police. 

NPF's annual budget is less than $2b, factor in waste, redundancy, inefficiencies and innate misappropriations, and the effective result out of every budgeted Naira, is less than 25%. It's a dead proposition. In Nigeria, NPF budget is about $12 per Nigerian while in Dallas, it is about $346. Coupled with active citizenry involvements and support for the police efforts, the budgeted amount goes farther.

In Dallas and as well as most US cities where the police force is always city owned and controlled, the police budget is the highest single item in the budget. In the case of Dallas, it's about $450m and $220m, for Fire and Rescue, out of a $2.8b, annual budget of a 1.3m city people. Why? People need the best their police can offer in order to have a sense of freedom. Freedom begets liberty which invariably opens a place up for development. The value of security/police, and its impact on the attitude of a people, has to be perceived and measured in tangible and intangible factors. That is priceless.

I don't know what it would take, but it is about time the Nigeria national assembly took serious look at reforming and transforming NPF. One quick change is to take away the so called Security Vote granted or given to the States and the Governors, and apply that to local police efforts. The governors do not need security vote because they are getting double benefits - using the police and at the same time other means to protect themselves while in return abuse the system.

The hit and miss mentality of NPF on policing, does not augur well for this odd 150+m people stitched together in an experimental amalgamation in 1914. Nigeria may not unstitch, but it can benefit from taking closer and serious look at how its Police is set up to make it relevant for today's 21st century Nigerian needs and expectations.

By Ejike  E Okpa ii

Graduate of Dallas Police -'97 and Dallas FBI -'03 Citizens Academies.