The Problem With Nigeria Police Force

is is basically the Federal Government’s responsibility and it determines the level of adequacy or preparedness of the Police to combat crimes. A top police officer told TheNEWS that it was not true that the Police hierarchy had not been putting forward what the force needs. “You ask for N20.00, government brings N10. Whereas, other areas are being properly funded. But the mistake is that if you don’t fund security, you are wasting money on those other areas that you are funding because without security, those ones cannot stand,” he argued.

Another officer in Lagos reasoned that it was not enough to announce a N20 million budget, for example, but what N20m will buy is more important. In other words, he said if such money could buy only one armoured car, then that is the end of the story since there is a limit to what it can do in a vast territory.“What we are saying,” according to the top cop “is that the government should sit down and say I want 10 police officers, what does it cost?” He referred to 1999, when the government ordered that the Police should recruit 40,000 men every year for four years. He wondered why nobody ever asked what happened and why the programme was not implemented.

He explained: “It was not done because the money was not provided. By the time the Police hierarchy then sat down and said 40,000 policemen per year times four will cost XY Naira, the government dropped the programme. That’s what killed the policy.”If that programme was implemented, analysts posited that this would have helped to purify the Police by easing off bad eggs and bringing in fresh ones.He maintained that there is no way an IGP will keep money without using it on what is necessary. “Go and check. It is either the money is not enough or the one budgeted for has not been translated into real money. You will go and tell the world that you are giving the IGP N5mn, but you have only released N2mn and yet the year is running to an end. What does he do? What will he tell his men? The government has not sat down to know what it wants to do about the security of the country. If you give one quarter of the budget to security, all will be well and it is not that one is exaggerating it,” he said.

Last August, President Jonathan blamed insecurity problems in the country on long years of underfunding of the Nigeria Police. To correct that, the government said it approved N79 billion as its contribution to the N1.5 trillion proposed by a committee set up to reform the Police. The committee is headed by Alhaji M. D. Yusuf, a former Inspector-General of Police. But it remains unclear if the money was released.Inadequate funding, as experts told this magazine, has direct negative impact on other factors that could make for an effective policing.

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Posted: at 1-07-2011 04:07 AM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac

Police force??hmmmmmmmmmmm Just as the devil cannot repent I doubt if they will ever repent, reform, only God is our security in this country.

Posted: at 1-07-2011 11:24 AM (12 years ago) | Upcoming

 

Posted: at 26-08-2012 11:00 AM (11 years ago) | Addicted Hero