By Mobolaji Sanusi

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”—Martin Luther King Jr.

For some time now, the piteous plight of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) personnel has consistently been perturbing to the sight. This is coupled with the high expectations from an unyielding public despite glaring official underfunding that make police personnel situation precarious. The untidy daily sights of policemen on our roads in rickety vehicles adorned in not-too-neat uniforms and weather-battered booths; observed constraints in the discharge of their duties during occasional visits to police stations in my line of duty coupled with the sometimes random discussions with cops during chanced meetings and at checkpoints on their debilitating plights could be mindboggling. These problems are largely caused by institutional corruption and official neglect that made right thinking people shudder about whether or when this country would get the issue of policing right.

Some have argued that until police affairs are decentralized or better put, state police is adopted, the avoidable plight of the police as an institution would continue. While this position cannot be completely ignored, the truth is that sociologically speaking, a society is a reflection of its institutions.

A rotten society begets rotten institutions. But however bad a society is, certain institutions of state must be accorded a pride of place in terms of deliberate engendering of proper psycho-social attitudes, well-guarded rules of engagement and provision of attractive conditions of service and necessary working tools. Are these currently obtainable in the police force?

The answer to above may not likely be affirmative, and this is a consequence of decades of police leadership complacency and lack of desirable verve to attempt a change of the shameful status quo ante. I used the words police leadership, advisedly because it is at that level that a workable roadmap can be drafted and presented to whoever is leading the country at any point in time.

More importantly so is the fact that whoever had served as IGP or is currently serving as IGP is believed to be repository of major problems and challenges of the police as an institution and are expected to at least solve part, if not all the problems while in the saddle, no matter how short the tenure might be.

Sadly, what the Nigerian state has witnessed in relation to police leadership is: “Take your turn to be IGP, enjoy the perquisites of the position and leave the recurring questions begging for answers for your successors to handle.” This surrendering approach in police leadership attitude is seriously faulty, affecting the efficacy and general wellbeing of the Nigeria Police Force that is blessed with competent officers and men who have always made the country proud while posted on international assignments. This is notwithstanding the despicable few bad eggs in the force and the puritanical killing systems in place across the country.

Recently, IGP Kayode Egbetokun came up with an initiative that is not completely new or bad, but like most lawful domestic initiatives, its online processing implementation platform is somewhat complicated. What is meant to ease its processing has become the bane making life unbearable for permit seekers willing to pay the exorbitant official fee of about N16,000. Complaints of payment of higher fees to third parties to gain online access rent the air and may persist despite the rescheduled deadline to October 1, 2025. To avoid this processing extortion, many believe that the police should have liaised with states licensing authorities for ease of operation. Also, many harbour the belief that the high fees demanded at this point in time is akin to according priority to revenue generation over police duty and convenience of permit seekers. Many also think that other important challenges for smooth policing should be accorded priority by the current police leadership under Egbetokun.

It won’t be out of place at this juncture to ask what significant problems of the force the current IGP Kayode Egbetokun, Ph.D., is solving or will solve before the end of his tenure? One germane thing also is that he urgently needs to make serious efforts to significantly reposition the police force since he has the ears of our hardworking president to his advantage.

IGP Egbetokun undoubtedly possesses what it takes to be the number one cop of not only Nigeria but any other country of the world. He has good education with requisite experience and exposure. He has paid his dues from when he joined the force as a commissioned officer in the early nineties till when he was appointed, initially in acting capacity, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR

Egbetokun is obviously not new to the president, having worked closely as his Chief Security Officer when he was governor while the current Kabiyesi Oniru, Oba Omogbolahan Lawal, took over the role of ADC from now AIG Tunji Disu, the erstwhile CP, FCT Command.

Asiwaju as governor of Lagos State did not take issues of security and policing with levity. Despite the constitutional limitation of police matters being outside the purview of states across the federation, the president as Lagos governor creatively established the model Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) and improvised the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), through which corporate entities in the centre of excellence complement government’s policing efforts at making Lagos safe for all to live in.

Till date, LSSTF and RRS still exist, surviving through former governors Babatunde Raji Fashola, Akinwunmi Ambode, and now under incumbent Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Through the LSSTF and RRS, the shortfalls in the federal government’s handling of police affairs were to a satisfactory level taken care of by the state government under Asiwaju. That is the institutional building that Asiwaju created, which has become a model for other states across the country to emulate.

Without this kind of initiative, it won’t be hyperbolic to say that policing in Lagos and possibly across the country would have existed only in name. The tales of operational and welfare woes faced by Divisional Police Officers (DPOs), Area Commanders and even states’ Commissioners of Police in the discharge of their lawful duties of maintaining societal peace and order are not things that could be put in print for fear of publishing inciting information against the government.

These challenges have been on for decades, but with the leadership ingenuity of Asiwaju as Lagos henchman, the bad policing situation was put under manageable control. IGP Egbetokun was in the know of all that Asiwaju did at that time. But what is he doing about the serious police underfunding and the need to improve on the not so encouraging policing operational cum welfare situations in the country?

Most people accustomed to the Lagos model under Asiwaju celebrated the appointment of Egbetokun as police IG. But are Nigerians having a feel of the experience that he garnered while working with the ingenious Asiwaju as governor of Lagos State?

Egbetokun’s name in contemporary Nigeria is synonymous with policing and there’s no way he could shy away from the discouraging state of policing and police personnel welfare in the country. And so far, can it be said that he is doing enough to alleviate the general wellbeing of policemen in the country? The deep-rooted rot he met on the ground ravaging the force needs a bold institutional leadership approach to combat.

For example, the Nigeria Police Force, as at 2021, from Google search, had a staff strength of about 371,800. It is doubtful if the plans to increase the force to 650,000 by adding fresh 280,000 recruits to the existing have been approved or implemented. Yet, country is grossly under-policed.

The United Nations’ standards, though not adhered to by many nations according to Google is about 230 police for every 100,000 people. The same United Nations also from the same source recommended a ratio of one policeman to 450 citizens. This looks utopian in Nigeria where the total number of police personnel is less than 400,000 despite her population of over 200million people. The Guardian newspaper also in a report earlier this year stated that police-to-citizen ratio in Nigeria stands at 1:650. Viewed from whatever prisms, the picture looks grim.

More sadly is the fact that a significant number of these inadequate policemen are being consistently deployed as personal escorts/guards to powerful politicians, wealthy, and other money-miss-road individuals. Most of the Nigerian individuals enjoying police protections do not deserve such protections and are largely one of the major reasons why true policing of the society might continue to encounter hiccups.

Why should primacy be accorded, on cash and carry basis, to individual citizens at the expense of Nigeria’s collective security?

Also sickening is that the attached policemen to these individuals are even more loyal to them than to the country. IGP Egbetokun once recalled these misused policemen attached to individuals at the expense of the country’s general policing’s well-being. But within days, he recanted on his directive. The true reason for his less than courageous recant may come out one day in probably his autobiography after leaving office.

IGP Egbetokun needs to unravel why officers and men of the force jostle for deployment to guard individuals, and not the country. Again, figures on Google confirm that the highest monthly salary for a policeman in Nigeria is N309,167; while the lowest monthly salary stands at N105,833. These figures are disgusting and disturbingly low when juxtaposed with other variables.

For instance, the revelations from Mr. Fatai Owoseni, a retired commissioner of police in Lagos State, in a recent viral social media interview, is grippingly annoying on what the ideal police was but has since been institutionally destroyed.

As against what is obtainable in years past when government provided free operational tools and personnel policing necessaries, Owoseni revealed, amongst other scathing details that today, it is from the pittance called salary that policemen are expected to procure their uniforms, booths and other necessaries.

In addition to this, necessary equipment and incentives for the force are either not available and where available, they are hoarded or only made available for use by the highest bidder amongst privileged Nigerians. No wonder we do read news stories of policemen planning to go on strike. Something that should ordinarily be deemed as a taboo for such an institution.

With this kind of contemptuous treatment meted out to policemen, there’s no way they can effectively be providers of peace and order in the society because the urge for personal survival in a biting economy will instinctively come first in their priority lists. How then won’t there be trust issues between the force and the public?

Yours sincerely can affirm, without equivocation, that a largely denied police force would be nothing but an enclave of corruption and haven for abuse of cherished inalienable rights of the people. Such police force, as currently kept and grossly underfunded in the country, cannot be relied upon to effectively combat insecurity and other criminal activities.

These policemen, mostly found wanting in the proper discharge of their duties, cannot sadly be completely blamed for their despicable laxity in battling security challenges, including terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and other forms of violent crimes.

Having gone this far, it is pertinent to say that the IGP needs to do something fast by quickly articulating an empirical route to be handed over to the president, to resolve part, if not to substantively resolve problems impeding the growth of the police as an institution for maintaining peace and order.

IGP Egbetokun should not see this as an Herculean task since he was appointed by President Tinubu to put the force on the right footing and not to give excuses like his predecessors in office. The recent inexorable plummeting of police public image, though not solely caused by Egbetokun, should be frontally addressed because the buck stops on his table. After all, uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.

He still has about two years, due to his rare service extension before his retirement, and it’s necessary to ask him what the defining thrust of his tenure as IGP is. We do know that he’ll never be in want again in his life; his name is already in the nation’s history book as having been privileged to attain the enviable heights of Nigeria’s number one cop.

Beyond these ephemeral personal achievements, the most important to reasonable Nigerians is to know what the enduring legacy Egbetokun is planning to bequeath to Nigerians and the police force are.

At the moment, the state of affairs of the police has not improved in terms of welfare, operations, logistics and importantly attitude wise. Nigerians expect more from a man of Egbetokun’s standing. President Tinubu will be more than willing to give presidential helping hands to motivate the force in terms of improved remuneration, training, exit perquisites and adequacy of police workforce that is scandalously low at the moment.

Does the IGP believe a poorly paid policeman can be a pride to his leadership, not to talk of being to their country? His letter to the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, requesting an expedited amendment to the pension law to exclude the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) is belated but commendable. He obviously needs to do more tangible initiatives.

In contemporary Nigeria, if judicial officers are getting improved welfare packages, neglecting policemen perquisites of office is like putting a horse on fire, security wise. The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMFC) in its ongoing attempt to review the salaries of political leaders/appointees must look into police force perquisites as a matter of urgency.

The police also needs complete attitudinal reawakening and sense of inclusivity under Egbetokun like we had under Tafa Balogun when he got presidential approval under Obasanjo for the promotion of stagnated police officers and also the upgrade to officer cadre of graduates that got enlisted in to the force as recruits. To date, those who benefited from Tafa’s foresight, serving or retired, will never forget that singular act.

Egbetokun needs to let Nigerians see his truly enduring plans for uplifting the morale of policemen and for boosting police operational efficiency and welfare needs…..No more, no less!

•Sanusi, former MD/CEO of LASAA, is a managerial psychologist and currently the managing partner of AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS.

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