What Nigerians have to say.

The Nigeria Police Force from inception has never been a bed of roses (‘Sick! Why The Nigeria Police Is Not Effective,’ TheNEWS, 4 February 2008 edition). They have never been favoured in terms of welfare by successive governments since the colonial times. It has been a story of gradual but steady slide into the present degradation.
Until they are accorded the decent treatment worthy of custodians of the law, expecting anything decent from them would be mere wishful thinking.
Ayodele Bamidele,
Lokoja.

A visit to any of the police barracks in Nigeria is sure to evoke pity from the visitor. Even some of the worst slums in the country are far more habitable that the eyesore regarded as homes for the junior police officers.
How can we expect optimum performance from people who are treated practically as second class citizens by successive uncaring governments?
Nafiu Mohammed,
Kano.


The recent jacking up of the salaries of police personnel announced by the federal government appears to be a good development. One only hopes it would be implemented as promised.
This development should check the greed of officers, and restrain them from highway extortion and other vices for which they are currently notorious. They will also be empowered to take adequate care of their welfare as well as that of their family.
Omolola Ojo,
Ikorodu.




http://www.thenewsng.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4200

mamajama,
from the thread topic to the content, is it possible that people will just go to the page of a newspaper and copy verbatum and paste here in the name of posting a topic?
all in all, there is nothing about u concerning what you have just posted.
what is your take in the post?
it will be an advance level of madness if you do not contribute anything yet you have posted a topic. you must be ready to add something no matter how small atleast we will know your position and i pray that the anti piracy commission will soon cacth u for copyright

The clock is ticking; Ehindero is going down!

Mamajama, write it down!

@chidichris my friend please simmer down quoting BIGB1.

I will contribute at the perfect time.


At least 11 persons were killed yesterday when a 10-man robbery gang stormed a new generation bank in Afikpo, Ebonyi state, carting away more than N15 million.

An eye witness said that the robbers arrived the bank about 10.30 am in two V-C land cruiser jeeps, and shot indiscriminately, apparently to scare people away.

About 20 persons were wounded in the operation that lasted till noon.

Among those wounded are students and teachers who were inside the bank, when the armed robbers came, while most of the staff escaped.

The robbery gang included, two ladies, with one of them manning the steering



http://www.champion-newspapers.com/news/article_1.htm

The issue with Nigerian police is not leadership. I’ve been saying this over and over again., Not until they are well equipped, trained and provided with better housing, we will continue to have this senseless robbery killing and lawlessness in Nigeria.

How do you expect a man to feed his family of 4 with less than #10,000 naira a month?

The issue with Nigerian police is not leadership. , not until they are well equipped, trained

You are right and you are wrong. Yes, they should be trained. Yes, they should be equipped. But who is going to do it? The leaders. Also, it has been observed that apart from the low pay the officers on the road are entitled to, they are also required to pass along certain amounts of money to their leaders regularly. They have to settle their bosses. And how will they do that if they do not extort money one way or the other? And once a public officer is initiated into the habit of corruption, he/she is tainted for life. Every time he is broke, that will be the first thing that comes to mind.

True but corruption is embedded in every parastatal organization in Nigeria, not just the Nigerian police. How do you expect the leaders to lead when they are poorly paid and not motivated? We knew what the problem was with the Nigerian police, but the Federal government has not been responding or taking good initiative to rectify the problem since the inception of the Nigerian Police. The rampant political killing, robbery and mercilessly killing of the police personnel, is making the government tick

I think the problem with the Nigerian police force goes beyond under equipment, i think the major problem is that they don't know the roles they are supposed to play in society. They don't understand that they are there to protect Nigerians and uphold the law. Upholding the law is more than stopping armed robberies. I remember the story someone used in article as an insight into the Nigerian police force. She told a story of a LATSMA official in lagos who was pursued by some police officers in their police van and beaten up in his bosses compound where he went to seek protection. Do you know why he was beaten up? He was conducting traffic and the police van disregarded this and just drove anyhow they wanted, making traffice worse, when he querried and questioned this, they chased and seriously beat him up. I guess they probably couldn't believe the audacity he had to question them for being in the wrong. Most people in Nigeria are even scared of the police and rightly so. My cousin and some family members even informed me that in Port Harcourt sometime last year (might have been longer) a police officer from a group off them that were collecting bribes shot at a car and the bullet passed through the guy and also hit and killed a pregnant woman. Why did they do this? The man did not want to give them twenty naira bribe. And by the way, this was in broad daylight and i am sure the bullet used was worth more than 20naira. So what has this, especially the beating up of the LATSMA official in lagos got to do with not being paid well enough? And by the way, these are just examples of things that happen in everyday Nigerian life. The Nigerian police just don't fully understand what role they are supposed to play in the society, so how would just increasing their pay change this? I think there is so much more to it than that.

@ Sky Blue nice analogy but i disagree with you, the most of the policemen knows their role and what is expected of them. The Nigerian society is corrupt and some of the issues confronting the Nigerian police superseed the force. How do you explain a molue driver or an Okada Driver driving on the wrong side of the street? knowing he is breaking the law?

We can not expect the policeman to perform their official duties, when Military boys who broke the law by driving on the wrong side of the road can not be rectify. Nigerian culture need to be re-examine.

What has an okada or moloue driver driving on the wrong side of the road got to do with the police beating up a LATSMA official for telling them that what they were doing was wrong and disorderly and going against what they (the police) should actually stand for (law and order)? How does increasing pay improve the character and principles of the police force? I do believe taking better care of the police force financially is a good step, but i just don't agreee that it is what is needed to revolutionise the police force. How does increased pay stop them from cutting through filling station queues to get petrol for free? I just don't see it. The Nigerian police seems to be a paradox in itself. They are the police that are meant to be maintaining law and order which i continue to insist is much more than catching armed robbers, yet they are among the most disorderly and indisciplined in the society. How would increased pay change that? They might stop asking for twenty naira bribes, but how does that improve the character, principles and values of the force? They need to understand what role the police should play in the society. How ironic that Nigerians are actually scared of there own police force.

they are an incompetent sorry excuse for security. They shld go to the US or something and learn a thing or two from their foreign counterparts

very Good read and good inputs.

The history of the Nigerian Police force is all about Brute force. The intelligence they use is adversarial. When you spend less on training and retraining this is what you get.

You Need to over haul the police FORCE It should be the POLICE SERVICE

Set down Rules

Men of the police force must go to Police college for 4 years after secondary school.
They must be physically fit.
There must be husband of one wife.
Must speak 4 nigerian languages to proficiency

This will be the code of allow any man into the police service that will be operated by a Federal intelligence police.

Any state that must have a police service that will provide the following

housing mortage for a state police officer
Car and car loan
Salary of state police will be paid by state 70 and 30% by federal

The Federal Intelligence police will consist of the Army Navy Airforce and customs

Their job will be to

1) Monitor Police and ground intelligence
2) Equip Police
3) Regulate police standards
4) Prosecute police officers

The issue of Morality must be the bain of the police service.

You cannot take away morality from service.

The police must be seen to be Moral because they are the Highest civil authority given to man.

Why?

A police man will lay his life down to save another Life

A police man will lay his life down to save your property

Apolice man has the right to take life wrongly or rightly

Because police is Useless now it is now a tool in the hands of some people that want to make quick money.

The Police Service is supposed to be the Example to the People. no to the other way round mamajama

The people may be corrupt but if the police man is not corrupt the people will not continue in corruption.

The people have the right to be or not to be corrupt and there will be fear of the police ( i have seen this in Ghana and Singapore)

The police have no right to be corrupt.

You as a government must protect the police.