Wrong police deployments and insecurity

Nigeria, with implicit 200 cardinal citizens, faces sedate information challenges—terrorism, kidnapping, equipped robbery, banditry, termination bombings, and communal killings. The Nigeria Police Force, NPF, with astir 370,000 unit and officers, is overstretched.

The imagination to summation constabulary unit spot to astatine slightest 600,000 is acold from being realised. The ratio of 1 constabulary serviceman to astir 650 citizens falls beneath the United Nations recommended modular of 1 to 450.

In the midst of this shortage, a troubling distortion persists: a important fig of officers is withdrawn from halfway policing duties to service arsenic escorts and orderlies to Very Important Personalities, VIPs. We person a strategy wherever the precocious and mighty are adequately protected but the masses are mostly neglected.

This practice, agelong normalised, represents 1 of the starkest contradictions successful Nigeria’s policing system. For governmental officeholders and the affluent elite, having convoys of equipped policemen has go a presumption symbol. But for mean Nigerians, it means being near unprotected successful the look of regular threats. 

The law mandate of the police—to support lives and property—has been reduced to a commodity that lone the affluent tin buy. This fuels resentment, widens inequality, and erodes spot betwixt citizens and instrumentality enforcement. President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser connected Policy and Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman, was close to telephone for an extremity to this practice. 

She said: “One of the astir disturbing things for maine is erstwhile VIPs get determination with truthful galore policemen trailing them, portion the areas that really request information are near unattended. We cannot proceed to deploy constabulary trained for anti-terrorism operations conscionable to defender individuals successful Ikoyi. That is wholly wrong.” 

As she rightly observed, it is disturbing to spot VIPs parade entourages of policemen trained for anti-terror operations portion communities successful dire request of information stay exposed. Even the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has admitted that lone definite categories of persons are entitled to protective security. Yet successful practice, the deployment of constabulary unit to individuals has gone acold beyond what the instrumentality permits. 

Force Order No. 281 and existing statesmanlike directives connected this contented are routinely flouted. This indispensable change. First, the Private Guard Companies Act indispensable beryllium amended to empower licensed information firms to instrumentality implicit VIP protection. Those who tendency instrumentality gun-wielding escorts should prosecute backstage guards, and not divert state-trained unit from nationalist duty. 

Second, VIP extortion should beryllium streamlined, with strict limits connected the fig of officers attached to individuals. A dedicated, well-regulated protective work tin cater for those with morganatic needs, portion the bulk of the unit returns to its law duty. Nigeria’s worsening insecurity makes betterment urgent. Third, the NPF indispensable instrumentality its docket to rise unit spot to astatine slightest 650,000.

Policing indispensable beryllium rebalanced successful favour of the communal citizenry.

The station Wrong constabulary deployments and insecurity appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.