THAT AUDACIOUS CONDEMNATION OF THE NIGERIAN POLICE FORCE WAS ILL-CONCEIVED!

That the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), is the worst security organisation in the world in terms of its "inability to handle internal security challenges", is the cruellest, wicked, uncharitable and most unpatriotic assumption that any person or group of persons could ever adduce to the present crop of dedicated, courageous, diligent and very brave officers and men of this noble profession of the Change Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and his management team!
The 2016 World Internal Security and Police Index (WISPI), negative report - credited to two organisations, on 10th November, 2017, was based on hearsay since it failed to consider the United Nations credit rating that the Force has been a consistent best global law-enforcement institution in foreign peace-keeping operations! And at the home front, NPF has proved to be well-established and vibrant in terms of organisation, administration, communications, advocacy, operational capabilities, and the most consolidated and credible institution that Nigeria could boast of, even in the face of socio-economic and political challenges!
The maintenance of law, order, peace, tranquillity, and enforcement of all lawful orders from government are some of the core duties which the Force had been saddled with since middle 20th Century till date!
It is evident that the controversial ranking was based on the ability of POLICE to address Internal Security issues in 127 Countries in four key areas of (1) Capacity, (2) Process, (3) Legitimacy and (4) Outcomes, as criteria, not through research but on adulterated social media stories without considering the serious international diplomatic implications!

THE NIGERIAN POLICE FORCE IS THE BREATH AND LIVE-WIRE OF NIGERIAN GOVERNMENTS & PATRIOTIC CITIZENS BECAUSE THEY ARE INVOLVED IN EVERY FACET OF THE PEOPLE'S SOCIAL, POLITICAL & ECONOMIC LIVES:
* They settle community/marital squabbles at the police posts/stations in all 774 Local Government Areas;
* Provide security in their vicinities at night, when they are fast asleep;
* They are at traffic duties in the day time to ease congestion; These ubiquitous officers are in the market places/shopping plazas/motor parks to prevent crimes and criminalities.
*They are the MAJOR SECURITY FORCE constitutionally recognized to provide adequate security during all ELECTIONS across the length and breadth of Nigeria!!

HISTORY:

(a) The Nigeria Police was established with a meagre 30 men in the June 1861, as a Consular Guard made up of Lagos natives, specifically to take care of community policing, but has now grown in numerical strength to over 360.000 high-tech-trained, and efficient officers and men with modern weapons to deal with all-conflicting issues of crimes and criminalities of the 21st Century.

(b) CAPACITY-building in the Force has been very progressive through a well-designed, deliberate, meticulous and painstaking process which took into cognisance, officers enhancement in literacy, mental/physical capabilities, welfare and adequate remunerations, with successive team managers who piloted the Force patiently as it progressed to the Hausa Police (1863), Royal Niger Constabulary (1886), Niger Coast Constabulary (1894), Crime Detection Department (1898), Northern Nigeria Police Force (1900), Fire Brigade (1901), Southern Nigeria Police Force (1906), Amalgamation/Consolidation: The Nigeria Police Force (1930), Constitutional Establishment of NPF at Independence (1960); and Subsequent Constitutional Recognition in all Democratic Administrations (1963,1979,1999).

(c) From inception in 1861 until Nigeria's Independence in 1960, the British Colonial masters were very courteous to build up the NPF in line with international best practice, through incisive personnel training - (locally and overseas), by tested officers from the renown Britain's Metropolitan/Scotland Yard Police Departments - to acquire modern ideas, tactics and deployment of technological equipments as the world gradually turns out to become a civilized global village.

(d) PROCESS of administration and growth in the NPF, has been gradual, - taking into consideration that the country experienced an inglorious CIVIL WAR shortly after independence, from July, 1967 to January, 1970. During that unfortunate 30-month-old war which consumed much lives and properties between Biafran secessionists and the Nigerian troops, the role of the Police as the enforcers of law and order, diminished tremendously because the Nigerian Army (established in 1960), took over their numerous responsibilities through Internal Security (IS) Operations, and were thus treated as subordinates and relegated to the background in a country run by martial laws.

(e) LEGITIMACY of the Police in almost 30 years of military interregnum, (1967-1999), was at its lowest ebb since the Nigerian Constitution was thrown overboard and the Force became a shadow of its pre-eminent position before 1960, but coped efficiently through submission, courage, resilience and perseverance only to enter into a new dawn of another 8-year quasi civilian/military administration of former Nigerian Army General, Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo, 1999-2007, who introduced the "do-or-die" commando style into the democratic arena before his departure from the political scene!

(f) OUTCOME of all of the above is now the branding of the "CHANGE NPF" under the able mentorship/leadership of no other personality than the Nigerian Brand himself - President Muhhamadu Buhari, GCFR, who identified the great potentials of the indomitable and indefatigable qualities of the NPF as the only solid foundation on which his democratic agenda for adequate and water-tight 24-hour security of lives, properties and strategic infrastructures heavily depended and therefore left IGP Solomon Arase, (appointed by ex-President Jonathan), to complete his term before appointing the incumbent, Ibrahim K. Idris in July 2016!

NIGERIAN POLICE IS GLOBAL BEST!
The Nigerian Police High Command on Monday 13th November, 2017, dismissed the said rating as unempirical, claimed its officers and men to be the BEST IN THE WORLD instead of the Singapore Police (adjudged as NO. 1), and urged all Nigerians and the International Community to disregard the report which also scored the country 0.255, below DR Congo, Kenya, Uganda and Pakistan, as unfounded and misleading.
The strength of about 370.000 Police personnel in the country stands out at around One (1) policeman to less than Six Hundred (600) people in a population estimate of One Hundred Million (180.000.000) Nigerians but the Federal Government has ordered immediate recruitment of additional 10.000 Police personnel while the Inspector General has equally requested for annual recruitment of 31.000 men for a period of five years, in order to make up for the shortfall in personnel strength to fulfil the United Nation's recommendation of One policeman to 400 citizens.

BAD COPS ARE NOT SPARED BY POLICE HIGH COMMAND!
The NPF is the only Para-military organisation with constitutional powers for the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the preservation of law and order, the protection of property and the due enforcement of all laws and regulations with which they are directly charged, and shall perform such military duties within or without Nigeria as may be required of them.
In the discharge of these very daunting duties, the Force had to cope with some "BAD COPS" who attempted to smear the dogged and formidable image which had been built with sweat and blood of PAST HEROES in 156 years and would have succeeded but for the determined courage of the majority population of highly efficient and dedicated officers who had kept the flag flying through lawful discharge of their constitutional duties with decorum and probity.

In all of the years of existence of the NPF, junior officers of the Rank and File, had been the BLACK SHEEP until IGP, Mustapha Adebayo Balogun, (2002-2005), who was alleged to have hired thousands of officers with criminal records during his tenure was eventually indicted and later convicted over corruption charges!
THE FORCE HAS ITS OWN IN-HOUSE DISCIPLINARY AND CLEANSING MECHANISM WHICH ENSURES THAT NO OFFENCE, MISDEMEANOR OR CRIME COMMITED BY ANY MEMBER IS EVER COVERED UP! From the recruits to all Superior Police Officers (SPOs), crimes - including extra-judicial killings - were exposed and punished adequately according to the law and that why it was not easy for ex-IGP 'Tafa Balogun to wriggle out of the accusations that were proven against him at the law courts!

STRONG LEADERS MUST BE SUPPORTED TO BUILD STRONG INSTITUTIONS!
We advocate that government institutions should be strengthened to outlive all strong and charismatic leaders of this generation and those yet unborn in credibility, probity and equity in the execution of all defined constitutional duties, functions and performances!
PMB was once castigated by ex-Prime Minister David Cameron, who alluded that Nigeria and Afghanistan were "fantastically corrupt countries", because Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2015, (released in January 2016), ranked Nigeria in the 136th position out of 168 countries as the most corrupt nation in the world since 2014, but President Buhari was neither deterred by the negative comments nor the obnoxious ratings, instead, he was rather encouraged to carry on the crusade to purge the stigma and turn the nation around to become one of the 20 MOST ECONOMICALLY-VIABLE NATIONS BY THE YEAR 2020!

The Nigeria Police Management Team should follow suit. They should discountenance the HATE REPORT OF WISPI and move on to a greater level of superior professionalism, dexterity, tenacity of purpose, diligence and above all resilience, in order to put their detractors to everlasting shame and prove to the whole world that they have come a long way to become a very STRONG AND RELIABLE INSTITITION! "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings;he shall not stand before mean men." (Prov 22:29 KJV)



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

Perhaps the above writer does not live in Nigeria or he is yet to experience Nigeria police brutality.

Paperwhite:
Perhaps the above writer does not live in Nigeria or he is yet to experience Nigeria police brutality.

A paid and hungry writer.

They are the worse.