By Okey Nwanguma
Section 14(2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution mandates that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” Partly for this purpose, the Constitution establishes the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in Section 214 as the principal agency charged with the responsibility of internal peace and security of the country.
Enormous powers are given to the Police to enable it to perform its duties as spelt out in the Police Act. The Constitution provides that there shall be a Police Force, and subject to the provisions of the constitution, no other police force shall be established for the country. Section 214 clearly states that: There shall be a Police Force for Nigeria, which shall be known as the Nigeria Police Force, and subject to the provisions of this section, no other police force shall be established for the Federation or any part thereof.
Subject to the provisions of this constitution-the Nigeria Police Force shall be organised and administered in accordance with such provisions as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly; the members of the Nigeria Police Force shall have such powers and duties as may be conferred upon them by law.
In line with the provisions of the constitution, the powers and duties were conferred on the Police by the enactment of the Police Act (Cap 359) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria which empowers the Police among other things with the duties of 1. Prevention and detection of crime;2. The preservation of law and order;3. Apprehension and prosecution of offenders4. Enforcement of all laws 5. Performance of military duties within or outside Nigeria as may be required by them or under the authority of the act or any other act and6. Protection of life and property.
The New Police Act 2020 has expanded the duties of the police to include protection of human rights and service to the community which were not part of the duties in the repealed Act.
The Nigeria Police is a vestige of the colonial police, a heritage of colonialism. The colonial police force was established with the colonial vision and mission of conquest, subjugation and exploitation of the colony. The colonial police force was set up as a tool to advance the colonial political and economic interest of Britain, to subjugate the local population and quell their resistance against colonial incursion, occupation and exploitation.
The colonial Police Act was promulged in 1943 – predating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)- and did not benefit from any comprehensive review before the new Police Act 2020 was passed by the national assembly and signed into law by President Buhari in September 2020.
At Independence, Nigeria inherited the institutions and culture of the colonial police. Nearly 17 unbroken years of military rule interrupted and impeded the growth of democracy in Nigeria.
The Police was an integral part of military authoritarianism. The police were used as tools of repression, to suppress basic freedoms and brutalize, intimidate and oppress the citizens.
Nigeria’s return to civil rule in 1999 was immediately followed by widespread and strident calls for urgent police reform to reorient and transform the police from a colonial and militarized force to a service-oriented, people-friendly and accountable police, fit for policing in a democracy.
Efforts at police reform commenced but the process was initially driven mainly by the government. Initial measures taken by the government included recruitments to make up for the shortfall in personnel strength. Throughout the period of military rule, there was no recruitment whereas many police officers retired or died in service. President Obasanjo had ordered a five-year recruitment drive from 2000 to 2004 but this process was halted by Obasanjo who had to order a moratorium on further recruitment after the first exercise in 2000 owing to the finding that the process had compromised allowing criminals and misfits to find their way into the police.
The government also carried out promotions and increased salaries, although the increase in salaries remain marginal, and not adequate enough to address the basic needs and grievances of personnel, fueling corruption and violence. The promotion itself has remained a contentious issue in the police with allegations that Police promotions are sold and Junior officers promoted above their seniors fueling indiscipline, bad blood and demoralisation of officers who feel shortchanged and left behind.
The government has also set up many presidential panels and committees on police reform, but fail to implement the key recommendations of the various panels and committees.
In 2006, President Obasanjo set up a Presidential Committee on Police Reform headed by MD Yusuf, a retired Inspector General of Police. The committee travelled around the country, conducted public hearings, received memoranda from various stakeholders and wrote reports which made far-reaching recommendations. A white paper was produced but the government did not implement important recommendations, Focus was mainly on recommendations that involved procurement, a major source of corruption in Nigeria.
In 2008, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua set up a Presidential Committee on Police Reform headed by Danmadami, a retired DIG. The committee also went round the same circle as the previous one, submitted its report and government shelved it.
In 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan set up yet another Presidential Committee on Police Reform headed by Parry Osayande, a retired AIG, and then, Chairman of the Police Service Commission. It also submitted a report that made references to, and reiterated most of the recommendations in reports of previous committees.
In 2007, an Electoral Reform Panel set up by President Yar’Adua and headed by retired Chief Justice Uwais also made recommendations on police reform
The 2014 National Political Conference set up by President Jonathan and headed by retired Justice Karibi Whyte also made recommendations on police reform/.
Setting up committees became an avenue for government to evade responsibility. Committees are actually avenues by which government distribute political patronage. It is said that in Nigeria, government sets up a committee when it does not intend to do anything about any problem.
Civil society has been actively participating in police reform efforts including participating in public hearings and sending memoranda to the successive government committees. In 2012, civil society decided to engage the process differently and in a more proactive way, by setting up a parallel but complimentary panel with the same terms of reference as the ones given to the government panel that year. The Civil society panel focused on aspects of reform that government panels do not usually focus on but which are key to achieving meaningful and far-reaching reforms.
Civil society has also been part of interagency efforts since 2004 to review the colonial Police Act. It was a slow process with little progress until 2020 when the new Police Act was passed and signed into law, repealing the colonial Police Act of 1943.
International development partners and foreign governments have also been providing technical assistance and training (the US and UK govt), providing equipment and funding certain aspects of reform. The Swiss government supported the review of the Police training curriculum (which is still not in use in police training colleges) and the Force Order 237 (on the use of force), which the police are not complying with.
Efforts to review the Police Act involved the balancing of interest and compromises. Different stakeholders and interest groups had varying ideas and took opposing – sometimes, hardline – positions on certain provisions. One of the most controversial provisions was on the procedure for the appointment of the Inspector-General of Police. It was owing to these differences in interests that the Bill passed at the senate in 2019 but failed at the House of Representatives and the process had to start all over again in late 2019 culminating in its eventual passage, for the first time, in both chambers in 2020 and was signed into law by the President in September 2020.
Successive governments have failed to muster the political will to implement far reaching reforms. The Nigerian government has also consistently failed to fulfil its obligations under domestic laws and international huma rights standards by failing to ensure effective investigate and prosecution of unlawful killings and abuses and ensuring accountability and redress for victims.
Human rights violations in the context of law enforcement remain widespread with perpetrators enjoying impunity and victims denied justice. Several reports by local and international human rights advocacy organizations and foreign governments exposing and denouncing human rights violations and recommending reform measures have been ignored by the government. It has also failed to fulfil its commitments made during its Universal Periodic Review circles at the UN. At best, the government denies the acts reported in various human rights reports and promises – but always fails – to investigate the allegations.
Police internal control and disciplinary systems are weak and ineffective while external oversight and accountability are also ineffective. All these combined to create an atmosphere of impunity which remains the single most serious obstacle to police reform.
This was the background to the public resentment, anger and total loss of trust in the police and other security agencies which cumulatively built up to the#EndSARS protests in October 2020.
The #EndSARS protests were foreseeable. #EndSARS was a logical consequence of the unrelenting and intolerable assaults on the human rights of Nigerians, especially by the notorious and loathed operatives of the disbanded rogue police unit, SARS.
#EndSARS was a foretold cataclysm waiting to happen. It validated the provision in the preamble to the UDHR which states that ‘it is essential if a man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion, against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law…’ Nigerians were held down under draconian law and by state agencies which engaged in such atrocious violations as the types that SARS were notorious for and constantly reported about across the country. It was only a matter of time for that rebellion to happen. It wasn’t surprising that it happened at all. What was surprising was that it took so long to happen, led by the young people who were the major victims of the fraudulent and predatory policing strategy that operatives of SARS engaged in over the years.
The government exhibited extreme bad faith and insincerity in its response to the #EndSARS protests. In a clear display of treachery, the same government which initially conceded that the protesters were acting within their constitutional and democratic rights to freedom of expression and dissent, acceded to the protesters’ 5-Point demands and called for dialogue, and even encouraged states to set up judicial panels of inquiry, turned around to sponsor terror attacks against the protesters. The government followed up with a clampdown on the perceived leaders of the protests. The government recruited hoodlums paid and transported them in official government vehicles to infiltrate and attack protesters. When this nefarious tactic failed, the government resorted to the more desperate and ruthless tactic of terror- the deployment of deadly force. It deployed military officials to open fire into the crowd of peaceful protesters, killing many and injuring several others.
Subsequently, the government began to freeze the bank accounts of many perceived #EndSARS promoters and key participants in the protests. They arrested, detained and charged some of them frivolously, while they stopped others from travelling outside the country and seized their travel passports.
The nationwide violent uprisings, attacks on government assets including police stations, and killing of some police officers across the country were triggered by that terror attack on peaceful protesters at the Lekki Tollgate by soldiers on October 20, 2020. Government must therefore take responsibility for sparking the nationwide violence with its ill-advised use of deadly force to disrupt peaceful protests. The same hoodlums mobilized by government to attack peaceful protesters hijacked the protests and wreaked violence across the country. Many of them were victims of police brutality who had harboured animosity against the police and seized the much-sought opportunity to unleash their bottled-up anger.
Post #EbdSAES, abuses by police and other law enforcement agencies have continued, watering the ground for yet another #EndSARS. Police officers have converted their call to enforce Covid-19 protocols as opportunity to harass and exploit the poor and vulnerable. Police killings, abuse and corruption remain on the increase. Impunity remains the order of the day. It seems that neither government nor the police have learnt any lessons from the #EndSARS protests and the aftermath.If government does not take urgent and appropriate measures to stem impunity for police violence and law enforcement misconducts, we may risk another situation which may be more serious and more detrimental than #EndSARS and its aftermath. Way forward:Government must demonstrate its expressed fidelity to democratic ethos. It must be tolerant of criticisms, dissent and alternative views. It must uphold and act within the rule of law.
Government must demonstrate good faith, sincerity and genuine commitment to police reform. It must go beyond rhetoric and sheer mantra to implement concrete and meaningful.
It must implement the recommendations of previous police reform committes and panels rather than continuing to waste public time and resources setting up new committees- which are no more than avenues of distributing political patronage.
Government must commit to implementing the recommendations of the state judicial panels of inquiry and ensure adequate compensations to victims and appropriate punishment for perpetrators. This is essential to restoring public trust and confidence in the police.
Government must lead by example. It must respect its own laws and stop glorifying lawlessness and insecurity; the decision by President Buhari to illegally extend the tenure of a retired IGP, contrary to the provisions of the Police Act he signed into law in September 2020 is a glorification of lawlessness.
Government must fulfill its obligations under national laws and international human rights standards to which it subscribes
Civil Society must create awareness on the New Police Act and push for its effective implementation. The Act provides a new legal framework to drive police reform and with which the people must hold the police to account.
Civil society mist also create awareness of other laws that underpin policing – the Anti-torture Act, VAP, ACJA, CEDAW, Force Orders etc.
Finally, Civil society must reclaim and continue to defend the civic space.
Eternal vigilance is the prize of liberty.
Thank you for your attention.
Presented by Nwanguma, Executive Director, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), at the Launch of Research Report: ENDSARS: POLICE BRUTALITY, PROTESTS AND SHRINKING CIVIC SPACE IN NIGERIA in Lagos on Friday March 19, 2021
