FRANK ODITA has informed insight on Nigeria’s security system. He has observed it as a young police officer during the pre-colonial era, watched it compromised by the military, and neglected by successive administrations. These experiences, he shares with News Editor, ISHAYA IBRAHIM, in this engaging interview.
Managing our security architecture since independence
First and foremost, what is security? Security by my definition is freedom from threat, intimidation and anxiety. Any environment that guarantees you freedom from threat, intimidation and anxiety, means that environment is secure. Nigeria is an environment, and if Nigeria cannot provide you that guarantee from threat, intimidation and anxiety, then there is a problem.
Luckily, I was in service at Independence. I became a police officer in 1958. In 1960, I was already two years old as a police officer. When the colonial masters handed over to us, everybody celebrated. We were very happy. Nigerians were all happy. At that period, we didn’t have security challenges. Reason, there was job for everybody. Nigeria was operating a federation. The federating states were more powerful than the centre. So, all the regions were then the federating states, and there was healthy competition among the Regional Premiers. Ahmadu Bello held sway in the North. Nnamdi Azikiwe held sway in the East and Obafemi Awolowo held sway in the West. And later, we had Dennis Osadebey who came in when Mid-West was carved out from the old Western Region.
These federating regions did not have any issues with anybody because they were managing their own resources. They were in charge completely. Some of them had their own security outfits – the Local Government and the Native Authority Police.
The Nigeria Police then were carrying out supervisory role over these local government and Native Authority Police. And everything was okay before the Army struck in 1966. When the Army struck in 1966, we started having issues. The military became prominent. The Nigeria Police that was the mother of all forces became neglected by the military. I can tell you without fear of any contradiction that the police were the envy of all other organisations, including the military, because the Police were very well equipped. They were highly respected. They were trained. Very well motivated, and they were okay. Nigerians respected the police officers. And at that time, when children missed their way, and they had nowhere to go, they would go to police station. And the police would take care of them. If children got lost, parents went to the police. Within a few hours, they would be found. We didn’t even have the communication we have now. But we would get result.
Police was in charge of Immigration. Police was in charge of Customs. Police was in charge of fire service. Police was in charge of vehicle inspection. Police was in charge of Licensing. Police was in charge of Narcotics. Police was in charge of Special Branch.
Balkanisation sets in, NSO, NDLEA, others created
Later, they started excising. They removed the Special Branch and call it National Security Organisation (NSO). They removed the narcotics and call it National Drug Law Enforce Agency. They remove the Fire Service and call it the National Fire Brigade. You are removing these parts of the body, and then you leave the skeleton, and you are no longer rebuilding it so that it can become strong again! Finally, our head of state then, General Olusegun Obasanjo, legalised illegality: created a parallel force in the name of National Civil Defence Corps. So, you will discover that the job of the policeman became multiplied, even though this manpower has been taken away. Fine! Nobody is grumbling about that. It has created jobs for more people. If I am the mother, and I gave birth to many children, it is expected that the mother will be properly taken care of by the children so that the mother does not die. But that is not the case with the Nigeria Police. Even the Road Safety was the Federal High Way patrol of the Nigeria Police. So, these people have now been made to look as if they are of the same status with the Nigeria Police. But the law says there shall be only one police force called the Nigeria Police Force. That is why the Inspector General of Police is a Service Chief.
The Police and stagnancy
Every other organisation has its operational capacity located in certain areas. But it is only the Nigeria Police that has the entire country as their personal areas. But this police force remains stagnant in one place, while you are creating states. You are creating local government areas. The police are not concomitantly expanding with the creation of the states. We now have 36 states and federal capital territory. But how is the strength of the police compared to the demands of the states? For the Nigeria police, the only expansion it has had, is that it has to get the components that make-up the police headquarters in the states. At the headquarters, the police are there, the commissioner, his deputy, and all the management team. Then other ranks are removed from operations and posted to headquarters. And so they are in the states. Then the other few that are left are VIP escorts, VIP guards, VIP this, VIP that. So, you don’t find the policeman on the street.
Policing in pre-colonial era and now
In the pre-colonial era, police had a lot of recognition. Training was always there. All the security apparatus were under one head. There was no issue of loyalty. Loyalty was straight to the Inspector General. As at today that we are celebrating our 60th anniversary as a country, the question that comes to everybody’s mind like you asked, how far have we fared in our security arrangement? Security is sits on a tripod. One, the government; two, the people; three, security agents! Any time any of these three legs wanes, the pot which is the security will drop. So, that is what we are having now.
One, how security conscious are Nigerians? Are they playing their role as Nigerians? Two, is government providing the wherewithal for the Nigerian police which is the premier security agency of the country to thrive and perform their duties without let or hindrance? Three, how is the Nigeria police itself coping with its inadequacies – lack of manpower, ill motivation, ill training and capacity building, and how are they winning the public confidence in performance of their assignment? A hungry man is an angry man. A policeman, who is happy, contented, well motivated, well taken care of in welfare and everything, will be focused to do his service. He will be friendly with his public because the slogan of the Nigeria Police is ‘Police is your friend’. But how do you cultivate friendship with a man who sees himself as not being cared for, nobody bothers about him? The officers may tell you ‘yes, we are fine, everything is okay’. But that is not the case.
During our days, policemen were recruited purely on merit. Now, policemen are recruited based on federal character. Whether they are qualified or not, they must fill the vacancy of their various states. If we use federal character to bury meritocracy, then you cannot have efficiency.
The analogy you provided with the tripod, it appears that in our own case, the pot has fallen.
Yes. The public is not doing its own role because the members don’t even have confidence in the police. What is the proof? The proof is that states are now beginning to create their own security arrangement because they do not see the Nigeria Police coping with the security demands of their respective states. Yes, because the governors are using the security votes allocated to them to look after the police in their respective states. That is, those of them who are good. Those of them who are not good, would say it’s a federal issue. It doesn’t worry them.
For instance, Lagos, starting with Bola Tinubu, made policing its number one project. That is why the state government made all necessary provisions to ensure that policemen are functional. What did they do? They created security trust fund, got every stakeholder in Lagos to contribute to it. Through the security trust fund, they bought vehicles, patrol cars. They created Rapid Response Squad in the police. So, every place you go in Lagos, you will see police. So, police presence in Lagos makes Lagos the safest city in Nigeria. Anything that happens in Lagos, within a few minutes, policemen will be there. If it is fire, before you say Jack Robinson, fire brigade is there. So, Lagos is very organised. Lagos has double advantage. Lagos used to be the capital of Nigeria. So, federal structure that were here before, were left behind when the federal government moved to Abuja. The structure that were there, were followed up by the state governor.
We used to have street urchins in Lagos. We no longer see too many street urchins in Lagos because they have created job for them. Some have become members of Kick Against Indiscipline ( KAI) Brigade. Some have become members of Lagos State Transportation Management Authority (LASTMA). Some have become officials of Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA). Very recently, they created Neighbourhood Watch, The Bus Rapid Transit ( BRT) drivers, those who sell tickets. They’ve created jobs. And when you create jobs, then you have removed idle hands from the road because an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. So, the Lagos state government is playing its role as a government. But this role is not being replicated by those who have the original role, the federal government because the constitution says that the reason for any government is to cater for the security and welfare of its citizens. And if you cannot provide this, then the reason for a government becomes nonexistent.
Government not investing enough in security?
Security like I explained to you with the tripod, is not alone with the policemen. You can have fewer policemen if everybody is busy. If every man leaves his house and goes to work, when he comes back in the evening, he is looking for a place to lay his head, not to be looking for crime to commit. But when he sits in the house from morning till night, he doesn’t know where the next meal is coming from, somebody can tell him my friend why are you wasting time here, come and join us let us rob a bank and make money, and he will buy into it. And that portends danger for security.
The United Nations ratio for policing is one policeman to police 400 citizens. Are we maintaining that ratio? The answer is no. When one VIP will carry ten policemen for himself alone, that cannot be attained. And if you multiply 10 policemen by 400, then you’ll see how citizens in the country that are losing the services of the policemen.
Why can’t that change?
We lack the political will. The reason? The IG himself is not independent. He is appointed by the politician.
Was there a time an IG had ever been independent?
Well at least during the colonial days, and immediately after the colonial days because they were a federal service. The politicians did not have too much power over them because they were operating from the centre and realising that the centre was only playing a supervisory role over the regions. So, there was no such pressure on the policemen. They were allowed to do their jobs, and before any decision on security is made, the Inspector General and other people involved on security, would hold a meeting and agree on what to do.
The Special Branch of the Police used to be very effective in its job of intelligence gathering. They were even reputed for having foreknowledge of coups before they happened. Why is the DSS not reflecting that kind of intelligence gathering capacity to help us deal with the kind of security challenges we are no having?
Do you know why, they had a single loyalty? They were loyal to the Inspector General. And they were performing their responsibility. And what was the role of the Special Branch? To carry out covert operations! They were not to be seen. They could go to the hotel and mix up with people drinking. You know when you go to the bar and meet people, when they are drinking and getting high, then they tell you the things you want to hear without them knowing. The police could from there know what was going on. From there they would go to the Inspector General or the commissioner in-charge of the state they were, and file a report of what was going to happen. And because they had advance knowledge, they would carry out a proactive action, which was prevention.
But now, our secret service agency is directly under a different head. They have their DG. And their DG does not report to the IG. So, by the time a report is compiled, and the report goes to their DG, before the DG will process the report to the IG, the crime has been committed. So, what happen is that the police now react, instead of preventing. And this exposes them to what the public will term, inefficiency.
Community policing structure in some states, like the Amotekun in the South West to the rescue?
What Amotekun, and every other Neighbourhood Watch are doing is that they are telling the federal government that you have failed in your responsibility to take care of us, so we can take care of ourselves. During our days, the police had Special Branch in every division. You find them in every division because they were members of the Police Force. They would go out for their information, came back and fed the DPO who would take proactive action. After action had been taken, then the commissioner of police would be informed. That is why they are saying policemen in the past were always there, but now, they are no longer there. When you call them, they can’t come, or they will come when the robbers have left.
Have you visited a police station? How many vehicles are there? Even if you have the vehicle, is there any fuel in it. And if there is fuel in it, what happens if the tyres are not there. A lot of inadequacies have punctured the ability of police to succeed. What I do not understand, I still question is why are voices not been raised? The reason is not farfetched. The IG cannot question the president. He is appointed by the president. The issue of security in the country is our inability to keep this subject of security to stand firm.
NDLEA are doing their own. Federal Road Safety are doing their own. All these organisations are not security officers. They are public servants. And because they are public servants, they come to work in the morning, and close in the evening, and then leave their job for the police to do. Federal Road Safety, after five o’clock you close, and there is an accident. Who takes care of the accident? The Motor Service Division of the Police would have to take care of the accident, which is an extraneous duty.
Every arrest made by any of these agencies is considered as arrest by private persons, because the Nigeria police is the recognized kick starter of the criminal justice system. All cases are channeled through the police to court, unless where the state is prosecuting, then they can go straight to the High Court. But every other crime, with which the police are charged, it is the responsibility of the police to prosecute. They arrest, they prosecute. They have police station. I have not seen the police station of the NDLEA. DSS have their offices. Now, DSS are carrying out arrest. This is not known anywhere. Their business is not to be seen. Have you ever heard where they say the MI5 or the CIA carryout arrest? No. They don’t. They give information to the uniform men who will go and carryout arrest because the moment you begin to know that those who carry out covert operation are also security men, then they are endangered. They become endangered species.
So, the job of the DSS is to feed the police with information?
Purely! Get security information, process it to where it is urgently needed for action. Why do you go to carry out arrest and you want to carry people to court? Is that your job? You are carrying out a covert operation. So, they should not be seen. Nobody should know that they are so, so and so.
We have to do something about the security architecture of the country. Where soldiers are performing the role of policemen in internal security is not good. If all our troops are busy doing internal security, chasing bandits, going after Boko Haram for all we care, what if this country is attacked by a foreign army? Where do we go? They will run us over. That means we are not thinking. Everybody is in their comfort zone enjoying their lives, but nobody is thinking about security. Security is everybody’s business.
Menace of Boko Haram bandits and herdsmen
The question we should be asking is if we have been able to arrest and prosecute these people? We would have been able to know who they are and what their tribes are. I’ve not heard about a Boko Haram being prosecuted. All I’ve heard is about repentant Boko Haram members that are being reintegrated into the society, living better than those they destroyed their means of livelihood who are in the IDP camps.
Now the IDP camp people are suffering, and they are seeing those who sent them there being given a red carpet treatment. Does that not portend danger that more people will like to get enlisted into Boko Haram so that after a while, they will come back and say they have repented, and get the red carpet treatment? How are we sure that it is not the repentant Boko Haram that are becoming bandits, because we don’t know who the Boko Haram are. We don’t know who the bandits are. We don’t know who the herdsmen are.
What does it take to know the source of funding and ammunition for Boko Haram and all these groups?
That is the job of the DSS. That is their business, because that was what the Special Branch was doing, and they were doing it effectively. We had Maitasine Riot. Was Maitasine not wiped out within one month or two?
So, it wasn’t to the credit of the military alone that we defeated Maitasine?
No, it was the Police really. I happened to be in the Mobile then. I was in Bulunkutu in Maiduguri when that action was taken. That was what gave birth to establishing Mobile Training School in Gwoza.
