Apparently pained by what has come to be described as a prostrate force parading itself as Nigeria Police Force, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua last week inaugurated a Police Reform Panel. Headed by Alhaji M.D. Yusufu, a former Inspector General of Police (IGP), the presidential panel was charged to: "Examine the present state of the Nigeria Police and review previous efforts, reports and government white papers on the reorganization, restructuring and repositioning of the Nigeria Police; identify and recommend definitive, measurable and practical measures for the enhancement of effective police service delivery, including possible areas of assistance from our development partners; examine and recommend measures needed for the complete transformation of the Nigeria Police into an efficient and proficient agency for the effective maintenance of law and order in the country; and make any other recommendation deemed necessary by the committee."

Given our more than passing concern with the problems of the Nigeria Police as articulated in numerous editorials, we cannot but support the President’s view and appreciate his anxieties. Over the years successive administrations have been paying lip-service to the security situation in the country ostensibly because government officials feel protected as policemen are assigned to them while the rest are all over the place extorting money from motorists with the lust to kill innocent Nigerians. It seems the present administration has suddenly woken up to the full import of the unqualified decay burrowing into the very heart of the nation’s security bulwark, rousing itself to the realisation that the nation is confronted with a clear and present danger. We recall that government had in the past set up similar committees just as it did constitute two panels to raise funds to salvage the declining manpower and equipment capability of the Nigeria Police Force so that it can perform optimally.

Yet, unfortunately, while Nigerians are yet to be briefed on how far previous committees had gone, the Force remains largely under-funded, under-motivated, and under-equipped. Nigerians had thought that sequel to the White Paper on the report of the Mohammad Danmadami-led Presidential Committee on Police Reform submitted to the Federal Government in 2006, government would swing into action by setting aside funds through a speedy enactment of the Police Trust Fund Bill to tackle the problems of police funding and equipment.

We urge government to see the current Police Reform Panel as a platform for the implementation of all the best possible suggestions and views by previous committees and opinion leaders since the time when the military deliberately choked the Force into obscurity in order to avert any possible rivalry from any quarters. An administration which has made the revamping of the national economy a cardinal point cannot afford to leave the internal security of the nation at the altar of providence knowing full well that a country with alarming rate of insecurity such as ours can hardly attract investors.

We risk monotony in saying that the Nigeria Police is in dire need of an all-encompassing surgical operation. Not only does the recruitment policy need proper examination, the administration, operations and control vis-‡-vis intelligence and investigative capabilities of the Force must be critically re-appraised. The pragmatism and urgency expected of the Yar’Adua administration in dealing with the problems of the Police were somewhat delayed. Since the transition to the current dispensation in May, last year, chilling accounts of mayhem unleashed on the people by men of the underworld have become a dominant issue in the media. During this period Nigerians have seen lawlessness and disorder displayed by these criminals in a brazen manner.

More than 200 policemen have been mowed down by armed robbers in the past few months. The blood-thirsty robbers employ a combination of cluster attacks and a touch of terrorism which they religiously observe as the maniacal fury that characterises all their attacks. To ensure their free reign on banks, churches and petrol service stations, these criminals strive to render the police weak physically and psychologically.

But what is most appalling is the ease with which the robbers kill and even disarm their preys. A combination of bestiality and drunkenness has overtaken the land. Yet the first test of any well-governed society is seen in the security of the citizenry. What happened to the Marine and Air Wings of the Force which could have been used to fight urban crimes and criminality by hoodlums in the creeks who call themselves militants?

While we salute the courage of the President in admitting that Nigeria has no functional policing system, we insist that the country deserves a better structured policing arrangement than we have had since Independence. A federation this large will hardly function optimally with this huge, centralized Police Force. In short, the country must be returned to the policing formula that recognizes the imperative of federal, regional or state and local government police formations. We therefore counsel that it is incumbent on the panelists some of whom presided over the fall of the Nigeria Police, to leave no stone unturned until the Force is returned to its halcyon days when it earned its deserved respect from members of the public.