In recent weeks however, even the most Olopa-averse Nigerian has paused in the middle of his/her daily suffer-head to shed a tear, or at least heave a sigh of disgust (Mscheew!, Nsa-mi-O!) on behalf of the Nigerian police man and woman. This national outcry was evoked by a Channel TV documentary on the appalling living conditions of students at the Ikeja Police College. I have watched clips of the documentary. As disgusted as I am, I am not surprised because I see the situation as a pattern of the structural decay that pervades the Nigerian police system.
On May 14, 2011, I wrote about my visits to three police establishments in Akwa Ibom. Following is an excerpt from that piece:
“As we drove into the premises (of the Ikot Ekpene area command), I felt as if we had taken a wrong turn into a junk yard of abandoned vehicles and furniture. The windows in the main building were broken and the walls were brown, dirty and in dire need of a coat of paint … or two. We were led into an ‘office’ to wait for the Oga.
“The cement floor of the so-called office was broken in places and so were some of the chairs. Brown files covered in layers of dust piled up in one corner. A woman sat in front of an old manual typewriter. Everything looked old, dilapidated, forlorn and eminently pathetic. I wondered about the people who worked in this place. Each morning, they wake up, take a bath/shower, get dressed and come to … this? Do their children visit them in the … office? How can we expect the best from people who work in this kind of environment?
“A few days earlier, we had visited the Abak divisional police headquarters. Ikot Ekpene was paradise in comparison. The young female constable who sat at the charge counter in Abak looked smart and efficient and out of sync in a place that reeked of dirt, human decay and death. She waved us to a narrow hallway that led to the crammed office of the DPO where we sat on a bench against the wall. It was still early evening, but it was dark and dank in the office with half-hearted electricity for illumination. When that flickered out, I waited for a generator to come up but none did. The DPO continued talking as if holding a meeting in pitch darkness was the new normal in Nigerian policing. He told us not to move because ‘perhaps NEPA will come back.’
“At the police headquarters in Uyo … outside the wing where the Ogas and Madams had their offices, the general pattern of decay pervaded, climaxing in the detention block where the State Armed Robbery Squad (SARS) had its offices. Just typing up the letters – SARS – brings back memories of the smell of unwashed bodies, sweat, urine and human waste mixed with the sickly sweet smell of Mama-Put food.
“Besides the detainees, many of whom are innocent of the charges against them, men and women call this place their office. These are the people whom society expects to provide the best of law enforcement – to serve and to protect. How can people who work in this squalor and stench give us the best? Can they give anything good when there is none around them?”
We now know that the decay and neglect in the police force probably begin right from the training level. I don’t know what is worse though: the condition of the Ikeja Police College or the focus by President Goodluck Jonathan on the “image” problem. Is it more important to “look” good in the eyes of the international community than actually “do” something good?
After visiting the college to confirm that Channel TV wasn’t making up stories to embarrass him (yes, it’s always about him), a commander-in-chief should be shocked enough to order the relevant agency to tear down those derelict structures. Out of the ashes would be a campus fit to train the kind of police force that we envision – efficient, professional and principled. That’s what a president does, rather than waste time worrying about what people think of Nigeria.
A newspaper headline implying that the Ikeja Police College commandant, Mr. Irimiya Yerima, might be sanctioned got an approving nod from me until I read that the possible sanction would be for the negative publicity. God forbid that Mr. Yerima would be sanctioned for heading an institution not fit for roaches! He should have borrowed a leaf from Principal Bridget Edem’s book. Last year, this woman was posted to Cornelia Connelly College, Uyo. She got there, was appalled at the condition of the buildings and began a rehabilitation crusade. Months later, construction vehicles rolled into the campus to rebuild the broken structures. Every reasonable person wants to clean up filth rather than preside over it with contentment, unless one is Mr. Huxley (in Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland).
School, any school, should provide its students with visions of a better future and aspirations for higher purpose. As much as postcolonialists criticize colonial education and its 3Rs (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic), they acknowledge its immense contributions. For instance, the facilities, structure and discipline of the boarding schools inspired students to dream and imagine a future where their lives are positively different from the “same old same old.” There is no guarantee that a great physical environment will produce better citizens but it’s unlikely that the average police trainee who graduates from the Ikeja Police College depicted in the Channel TV documentary will aspire beyond the five-Naira checkpoint (if she can bribe his way there).
The outcry about the police college should compel Mr. Jonathan to look away from the mirror for a second and begin his own Nehemiah project of rehabilitating the country’s public schools, not just the Ikeja Police College. Since the president seems obsessed with his image, he has a great opportunity to look good by fixing the structural decay of our schools (at all levels). Uncle Sege gets credit for revolutionizing Nigerian telecommunication. What will be your legacy, Uncle Lucky?
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