[EDITORIAL] The Need For More Police Personnel

The endless uncheering  news that Nigeria with a population of about 200 million people are policed by about 350,000 officers and men, resonated once again last Saturday.  It was  at an event organized by a group of journalists who took bold steps to appreciate some men of the Nigeria Police who died in the course of duty. Their families were given some cash gift as a way of telling them that the labours of their husbands and fathers to their father land were not in vain.

In his lecture as the Guest Speaker at the evening event, a former Inspector General of Police, Dr. Solomon Arase had pointed out some of the challenges facing the Nigeria Police as an institution.  One of them is the inadequate manpower with over- stretching of the available personnel.

Mathematically speaking, with the current estimated population of 200 million and about 350,000 police personnel, it means Nigeria has a ratio of 1: 542 as against United Nations approved global standard of 1:450. What it means is that one Policeman has the responsibility of protecting or guarding 450 citizens.

Regrettably, as many concerned Nigerians know and as re-echoed by the former police boss Arase, greater percentage of the 350,000 police personnel are not assigned to core policing duty on the streets but assigned to political office holders.

The lawmakers at national and state levels, governors, their deputies, ministers, ministers of state, state commissioners, heads of government establishments and so on are all given special protection by the police.

With a greater number of police personnel drafted to special protection activities, the remaining personnel are left with the burden of chasing armed robbers, kidnappers, cultists, ritualists, assassins, internet fraudsters and all manner of criminals.

Regrettably also, is the fact that the available personnel charged with the responsibility of policing the streets, are not properly equipped to do the job of investigation, arrest and prosecution of suspects. Apart from poor salaries and other welfare packages, the personnel work for longer hours and ultimately become overstretched. The result invariably becomes low performance.

If Nigeria with its inadequate police manpower has what it takes in technology to do the work, one can heave a sigh of relief. But here we are, operating in a system that largely depends on analogue policing in a digital age. The pace of our development technologically speaking is slow.

Though, President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has given approval for yearly recruitment of about 10,000 personnel as a way of increasing the work force and replacing those going on retirement, yet given the current state of insecurity which is a departure from the norm, we make bold to say that the 10,000 recruitment is grossly inadequate. We need to beat the United Nations ratio of 1:450 to at least 1:200 because ours is an abnormal situation where life has become beastly due to the predominance of criminal elements.

The alternative to increasing the manpower strength of our police personnel would be to seriously address the issue of unemployment which has led many people into crime. Let there be a strategic replanning of our economy in a manner that more people are gainfully employed in the private sector, with more realistic assistance to those engaging in self employment.