An Open Letter to the IG of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar – By Dr. Philip Ikomi

Posted by admin Articles, Columnists, Nigerian Police, NNP Columnists, Philip Ikomi Friday, May 18th, 2012

May 17, 2012

Mr. Mohammed Abubakar

Inspector General of Police

Force Headquarters

Kam Salem House

Abuja, FCT, Nigeria, W.A.

Dear Inspector General:

I am dismayed by your alleged utterance on the occasion of the inauguration of the Police Savings and Loans Board at the Force Headquarters in Abuja reported in the Punch newspaper on-line on May 17, 2012. You were quoted as saying the following, “The worst are those who died in active service as their families are generally ejected from either rented or official abodes before the end of their mourning period.” This was said in regard to your observation that the officers , men, and women of the Nigeria Police Force are corrupt and immoral. This is a very sad day for me as a Nigerian. I say this because you have just indicated that you will now do nothing about the corruption and immorality of your officers and the rank and file because you have given a reason for them to be corrupt. If I were the President who appointed you, you will be history the moment you finished the statements you made at that inaugural. I will then start to get another IG who will not capitulate to corruption and immorality but would try his or her best effort to stamp the vice out of the Force.

Since the President will not do what I just said I would have done, let’s see why it was wrong for you to have said what you said and why I would have summarily removed you from office. For one thing, it is fine to admit openly that the officers, rank and file are corrupt but you do not follow up with reasons you think they are corrupt. Once you do that you are, in other words endorsing the corruption. You are giving all those who are corrupt the reason they should continue and actually intensify the corruption because it is, according to you, their supreme head, what they have to do since they are not being properly catered to by the government, your employer. Where in the world would you remain with an employer while you are pointing accusing fingers to the employer that they are not paying you enough and so you have to do illegal things to make ends mee?. What you are doing by accusing the government of not taking proper care of the police is saying that the government, which still employs you is not doing enough for your welfare and you are angry with her. If that is the case though, you should not be in that organization. Therefore, President Jonathan should ask for your immediate resignation since you have openly given the government a rejection of the terms of your employment with her. Another consequence of your speech would be that the general public would now feel completely vulnerable and unprotected from police brutality, extortion, false arrests and imprisonments, illegal beatings, summary extra judicial executions, illegal dispossessions of personal property and beatings. The police would now have your endorsement to continue to give false testimony in courts and to take bribe from members of the public in order to falsely accuse people who do not give the police the pay offs. In addition, you can expect a reoccurrence of the notorious road blocks where many Nigerians you swore to protect have met their untimely deaths in the hands of corrupt men and women of your police organization through such nefarious practices as “accidental discharge” of their Force issued firearms. These are just some of the ways corruption and immorality manifest themselves; and you have just made the police officers and their rank and file a bit more comfortable as they carry on with their outrageous and illegal behavior.

I think you should be told that the burden being borne by your officers and rank and file as it concerns the Nigerian nation is not limited to the police alone. The majority of Nigerians are employed by the Nigerian governments—federal, state, and local. The practice of not looking after the people in the Force is equally applicable to all federal, state, and local government employees. Harrowing tales of non-payment of retirement benefits are not limited to members of the Nigeria Police. As I mentioned earlier, the majority of Nigerians are in the same predicament as all branches of government in Nigeria subject their workers to this dire situation. So, does that justify Nigerians to be corrupt? Besides, the rest of Nigerians fend for themselves as truck pushers, road side mechanics, market traders, street traders, carpenters, private bus and taxi drivers, artisans, and others who are mostly self-employed and make very little money to feed from day to day. These people include those that are homeless and sleep under the bridges at night. In their corrupt practices, the police go and pick up these individuals and lock them up or parade them as armed robbers when they feel like showing off their heroism and sense of duty to the public. What should such people say about the government if the head of the police force should say that the government is not taking care of them enough and so they are corrupt? I bet you think they don’t count. I think you should know that as a police officer or rank and file member of the Nigeria Police, you are the lucky ones in Nigeria. You should not cease to celebrate your luck by giving thanks to the government for taking care of you and paying your salaries.

There are millions of Nigerians working like you in government as civil servants and millions more who fend for themselves and do not receive pay from the government but have to stay in the sun or rain , on the streets and farming fields of Nigeria trying to make a little something because the government seems not to realize that ALL Nigerians are to be taken care of. You should not fail to take these latter Nigerians into consideration when you try to justify the unjustifiable corruption in the police force. Because Nigeria had been ruled by the armed forces for the larger part of the Nigerian existence as a nation, the government devotes quite a disproportionate part of its income to the armed forces and the police. The police was made a part of the armed forces under the government of General Yakubu Gowon and they are still being regarded as such today even though there is a police service commission and the pay is so harmonized. The armed forces and the police are not the only government entities in the country. There are also the civil servants and the people who serve in the parastatals. The police should not be allowed to give some flimsy excuses for poor performance of their primary duty which is protecting life and property of Nigerians in all walks of life. For a police force that should be protecting the rest of the country to say that they have to be corrupt and immoral because they are not getting their dues from the government smacks of irresponsibility and sheer disdain for the high position of the IG. The IG should be looking for ways to reduce corruption in the force, not encouraging it.

There are several obvious ways to supervise and ensure that police men and women are corruption free in Nigeria. It seems that the IG does not think of any of those ways. For instance, how many plain clothes police officers have you heard of arresting police who have falsely arrested an Okada driver ? Many Okada drivers have been falsely arrested every day since the road blocks were removed in Lagos so that the police could continue their extortions from the motorcycle drivers. What about plain clothes police officers arresting police who have beaten up somebody for not giving them money at various locations where police have been posted to oversee the conduct of various government businesses? If police men and women know that there are consequences for their actions they will not feel like they have the authority to make or unmake as they now feel and with impunity too. Immediate accountability is sorely needed in the Nigerian Police Force, not more excuses for corruption and immorality. Serious crimes like murder are openly committed but remain unsolved because individual police have no one looking over their shoulders. Each one and his or her supervisor become friends to share the booty. What is the IG doing about this? He should be able to come up with creative and innovative ways to ensure that crimes are solved quickly and fairly. Police men and women use the police powers in personal ways to solve personal disputes, to arrest, judge, and punish. This should not be the case. The police should only make an arrest and present the person arrested at the court. They are not authorized to beat up an individual or release an arrestee before they are presented before a competent judge or magistrate. However, they do this all the time. What is the IG doing about this practice. The members of the public need to be educated on some of their more obvious rights under the Nigerian legal system so that they can recognize abuse by the police when it arises. This is a very important part of the job of the IG in the highly illiterate Nigerian society where many market women and men look at the police with awe and unwittingly give them the opportunity to lord it over them. Nigeria and Nigerians deserve a better police force and IG.

Sincerely,

Capt. Philip A. Ikomi, Ph.D., is a retired airline captain and retired Professor of Psychology. He is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist.
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Posted by admin on May 18 2012. Filed under Articles, Columnists, Nigerian Police, NNP Columnists, Philip Ikomi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry