With four attempts in three years, Nigeria has been unsuccessful in its quest to reform its police force, a situation that has pushed many Nigerians to the streets in pursuit of justice as many now feel threatened by the security agency that was established to protect them.
Since 2017 when the first advocacy campaign was steered on social media to demand the end of police brutality, mostly perpetrated by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), the story has remained the same as the outcry from Nigerians have increased following the human right abuses, illegal stop and search, illegal arrest and detention, extrajudicial killings, and sexual harassment many have suffered till date.
“The motive for the so-called police reform is totally deceptive, there is no will power on the part of the those (government leaders) that are pushing to execute the reform,” Rights advocate and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun -Olu Adegboruwa, said.
According to Adegboruwa, another reason why the police reform has not been successful is because of the issue of collusion between the executive in using the police to “extort and oppress people.”
“It is in the interest of the executive that the police are brutal, and a police that is oppressive because that’s the only way they can continue to subjugate the masses,” he said, adding that If the police are refined impunity will come to an end.
In 2018, Vice president Yemi Osinbajo ordered the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris to carry out reforms in the police but only a handful of the reforms were implemented. Among the reform measures implemented was the change of name for the unit of the police force, from SARS to FSARS (federal special anti-robbery squad).
Following the name change, the voices pushing for police reform died down and the hashtag disappeared. But in 2019 when Ibrahim Idris was succeeded by Mohammed Adamu, it became more obvious that the reform measures apart from the new name – FSARS were rescinded. The SARS officials terrorised people and the outcry began once again.
Even though the anti-torture legislation was passed in 2017, to prosecute bad police officers and provide justice to Nigerians that have been brutlised, no police officer has been prosecuted for the torture of a Nigerian citizen.
The abuse and extrajudicial killings by SARS continued but it wasn’t until
a video of a SARS officer who shot a young Nigerian in Ughelli, Delta State started trending online, that the latest round of protests against the excesses of the dreaded unit resurfaced as Nigerians commenced a nationwide protest on October 8, 2020.
With the hashtag of end police brutality and end SARS, Nigerians’ demand for police reform became the global trending topic on Twitter.
After three days of nationwide protests on End SARS and more than two weeks of outcry and anger with videos and pictures showing police brutality, harassment, and extortion in Nigeria, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, on October 11, bowed to pressure and disbanded the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
Even though the government has assured protesters that the police unit responsible for the alleged killings and assault have been scrapped, protests have gotten more vicious as they pushed beyond the demand for police reform. Blocking major roads that lead to government houses, airports, and other commercial hubs, predominately young protesters are now demanding good governance and better Nigerian free of injustice.
“When we are done with the end sars protest, we move to the next phase of what is lacking in the country like bad governance and so on,” Yele Bademosi, Founder of Bundle, a social payment app for cash or crypto said.
“End SARS, end police brutality, end hunger, end poverty, end insecurity, end nepotism and end bad governance, this is what the youths are saying, anything less is not representative of our demands, ” an activist at one of the protest centres in Lagos said.
According to the former Chairman, Network on Police Reforms, NOPRIN, and founder of Rule of Law Accountability Advocacy Centre
Okechukwu Nwangwuna, underfunding of the police is one of the reasons police officers rely on complainants and accused persons for funds to carry out basic investigations.
”This creates the opportunity for extortion, torture, and extrajudicial killings. The new Police Act, which repealed and replaced the Colonial Police Act provides a funding framework for the Nigeria Police which attempts to address the police budget process and the management and accountability for police funds. There is also the Police Trust Fund which fills the gap in police funding. Lack of security of tenure and operational autonomy for the IGP has been a major bane of leadership stability and long-term visioning and planning, ”Nwangwuna said.
The recruitment process of a police officer is another reason cited by analysts as one of the key factors responsible for the reform failure.
”The recruitment process of police officers is compromised by corruption and political interference. The recruitment process needs to be fixed to ensure that candidates who lack the basic qualification and are unsuitable are not recruited, an analyst who asked not to be identified said.
According to him ”when un-trainable candidates with criminal mindset are recruited, it makes training useless and ineffectual. It is such candidates that constitute the bulk of rogue elements that commit the atrocities that discredit the police which, otherwise, boast of excellent officers.”
Narrating how most officers are recruited into the SARS unit of the police force, an officer who has served in the Nigerian police force for over 10 years said most of them bribe their way into the unit.
“A colleague of mine that joined the police force with me some ten years ago told me he paid over N200,000 to get a slot in SARS and since he moved to that unit he has gotten a car and is now currently building his house, ” he explained.
The officer said he is confident that most SARS officers acquired their ill-gotten wealth by extorting money from young Nigerians. ”Many of us in the police force is actually jealous of SARS officers because they get more money than we do. Most of us are actually hungry because we earn peanuts our small salary,” a police officer who
On whether the recent nationwide protest will push the government to actually reform the police force and deliver better governance, Adegboruwa said he is pessimistic due to the nature of the country’s leaders.
”I don’t see this current push for a reform becoming successful. All these efforts by the government are just being made to calm the protest, there is no meaningful desire to reform the police, ” he said.
