On Police Partisanship and Threat to Democracy
Sequel to widespread allegations of partisanship against the Nigeria Police, there have been calls for the reform of the force, with the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria as one of the leading voices. Sunday Ehigiator reports
Constitutionally, the primary reasons why the police exist are to serve and protect the citizens. This is a global practice. But in Nigeria, the reverse is sometimes the case. Decades of rot without deep reforms has tended to turn the police into a bulldog for its master. For the Nigeria Police, it's simply a case of whoever pays the piper dictating the tune.
The police have been used as a political tool for unleashing violence on perceived enemies. In recent times, from Ekiti to Rivers and Osun, the story has been the same, and there is no end in sight. In subverting the rule of law, the police hardly give thought to the fact that their actions undermine democracy and create instability.
The blatant display of partisanship by the police has in the past two years been on the increase with recent incidents playing out in the National Assembly as well as Benue, Ekiti and Rivers states. It has also brought to the fore the danger inherent in centralising operational control of the police in the hands of the president.
To many Nigerians, the police seem to be systematically interfering in politics across board. This is perhaps more scary in the face of the forthcoming 2019 general elections. Already, with the police failing the several litmus tests, many are of the opinion that what is playing out is merely a dress rehearsal in the use of the police as a political tool to distort the forthcoming elections.
It does not forebode well for Nigeria because in some circles, the police have been described as the attack dog and the armed wing of the ruling party. As rightly pointed out by many political analysts, the undue involvement of the police in conducting elections will only serve to heat the polity, thus, making the force lose its credibility.
Police Reform
Police partisanship and reform of the force were the thrust of a recent conference organised by the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN). According to its National Coordinator, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, democratic policing experts distinguish between two patterns of policing: regime policing and people-oriented or democratic policing.
As the words imply, regime policing refers to a pattern of policing that serves regime interest rather that public or popular interest. The regime police work towards protecting the interest of the ruling party and powers against the people. Regime policing means that the police are protectors of government, rather than citizens. It often exhibits a focus on the maintenance of law and order, without any reference to the protection of human rights.
Democratic Policing
Nwanguma said democratic policing was the alternative. He said, "It is rooted in the idea of accountability. A democratic police organisation is one that is accountable to the law, and is not a law unto itself; is accountable to democratic structures and the community; is transparent in its activities; gives top operational priority to protecting the safety and the rights of individuals and private groups and protects human rights; provides professional services; and; is representative of the community it serves."
Quoting the United Nations International Police Task Force, he asserted, "In a democratic society, the police serve to protect, rather than impede freedoms. The very purpose of the police is to provide a safe, orderly environment in which these freedoms can be exercised. The police force of a democracy is concerned strictly with the preservation of safe communities and the application of criminal law equally to all people, without fear or favour."
He also said, "The police ought to stay out of politics and support democracy. When police descends to the murky arena of partisan politics to become bias, professionalism is thrown overboard. When the police pander to the political interest of the political party in power and offer itself as a tool of harassment, oppression and intimidation of opposition and those who express critical or contrary opinion; when it becomes a tool in the hands of the ruling powers to impede the enjoyment of basic freedoms it becomes a threat to democracy.
"The increasing willingness and the frequency with which the Nigeria Police harass opposition and break up citizens’ assemblies is consistent with its inherited colonial character as a ‘regime police’ nurtured to serve regime interest rather than the public interest. Yet, Nigerians are the employers of the police and it is from the people’s tax and commonwealth that the police are paid to serve and protect them."
NOPRIN's Concern
In November 2014, nearly four years ago, and with the approach of the 2015 general elections, NOPRIN had sounded an alarm about the dangers inherent in the partisanship of the Nigeria Police. NOPRIN expressed serious concerns about emerging developments in Nigeria at the time which diminished the prospects of the likely conduct of peaceful and credible elections in 2015.
According to the organisation, serial acts by politicians exhibiting intolerance and desperation; misuse, or abusive use, of the police, resort to authoritarian tactics, unrestrained egregious assaults on constitutionalism and the rule of law and brazen display of partisan excesses by the police and other security agencies were among some of the deleterious developments which constituted grave threats to credible elections, socio-economic and political stability and the survival of Nigeria's fragile democracy.
It was also on this premise that Jibrin Ibrahim in a newspaper publication on the “Dangers of a Partisan Nigerian Police” (in his Deepening Democracy Column) lamented the breach of the rule of law by the police in a bid to satisfy their paymasters.
Fresh Alarm
Just as it was then with the 2015 general election’s approach, so it is currently as the country approaches the 2019 general election. History is simply repeating itself in Nigeria, rather tragically. This underscores the fact that the police still retained its colonial character as a regime police, which primarily serves the interest of the government (the political party or regime) in power.
In this case, the IGP is singlehandedly appointed and can also be fired- by the president and will therefore, do anything to please the president in order to retain his position. His loyalty is only to his appointer rather than to the law and to the people.
Jibrin had also noted that it was imperative that we insulate the police from partisan political control and engender operational independence. To achieve this, he said we must continue to insist on a constitutional amendment to decentralise the powers of appointment and removal of the IGP, remove operational control of the police from the president and guarantee fixed and secured tenure for the IGP.
Today, NOPRIN sees it as a point of duty to once again sound a fresh alarm about similar
The increasing willingness and the frequency with which the Nigeria Police harass opposition and break up citizens’ assemblies is consistent with its inherited colonial character as a “regime police”nurtured to serve regime interest rather than public interest
threats to free, fair, credible and peaceful elections as we approach 2019. Nwangwuma noted that just as it was with the approach of the 2015 election, partisanship by security agencies and the wrongful use of security agencies by the ruling party against the opposition is the greatest source of threat to the 2019 general election and the institutionalisation of democracy in Nigeria.
He said, "NOPRIN is concerned about the dangers inherent in the increasing political intolerance and political desperation which currently characterise political contestations. These acts of intolerance and desperation are more manifest in the use of the police, the SSS, the EFCC and other security agencies as willing tools in the hands of the executive and the ruling party to continuously harass, hound, intimidate and victimise political opposition and critical voices and to stifle basic freedoms guaranteed under Nigerian laws. Stretched beyond elections, there is a clear and present danger to the survival of our hard-won democracy.
"Recent activities of the Nigerian police, the SSS and the EFCC- from Rivers, to Osun and across the country, are in dissonance with the principles of institutional integrity, impartiality and professionalism in the performance of law enforcement duties; the police and other law enforcement agencies must stop subverting the rule of law, undermining democracy and creating the enabling environment for chaos and instability.
"These are all very evident in the following incidents as experienced by Nigerian Democracy in recent times. First, attack on National assembly. The same show of shame and brigand displayed at the National Assembly by the police and other security agencies in 2014 has all been repeated in 2018.
"In 2014, the Presidency deployed the police and operatives of the State Security Service to invade the National Assembly in a Gestapo fashion. In clear exhibition of government’s desperation to gain partisan political advantage, it ordered the withdrawal of security details attached to some public officials in the opposition. The same happened under this government.
"In 2014, the then president requested the Speaker of the House of Representatives to reconvene the House from recess to consider an urgent matter bordering on security only for the same president to order an ambush for the speaker by deploying security agents to besiege the National Assembly, block the entrance to the gate and deny the speaker and loyal House of Representatives members access to their chambers - in a bid to impeach the speaker by hook or crook for defecting to the APC.
"In 2018, this same scenario played out when the Presidency urged the NASS to reconvene from their recess to consider the budget for INEC, but the NASS refused on the suspicion that the Presidency was using a familiar tactic with the grand plan to impeach the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representative over defections of some members of the ruling party to the PDP.
"At the early hours of Tuesday, July 24, 2018, the police and SSS operatives simultaneously laid siege on the residences of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu. It was a clear repeat of the same reckless abuse of power and outright brigandage witnessed under the previous regime.
"Again, is the police involvement in volitical violence in Rivers State and the Framing charges against opposition; a subterfuge, as evident in the alleged certificate forgery levelled against Senator Ademola Adeleke, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate in the September 22 Osun gubernatorial election; barely two days to the election. The failure of the president to address these allegations is damaging to morale and discipline in the NPF and makes his anticorruption agenda questionable."
Questionable Promotions
According to Nwanguma, one of the burning issues in the police is the questionable promotions given to officers, even when they are not due for one. He said, "Police officers themselves have been grumbling and expressing their grievances through petitions over what they describe as irregularities and favouritism in police promotion which have seen many of them stagnate on the same rank for as long as 10 and more years, while their mates and even juniors are promoted, sometimes two or three times over them. It also has grave implications for public safety and security as disgruntled police officers are predisposed to taking out their frustrations on fellow citizens becoming predators rather than protectors and undermining national security.
“While NOPRIN calls on President Buhari to live up to his constitutional responsibilities and demonstrate commitment to genuinely fight corruption in the country by supporting efforts to get to the roots of the grave allegations against the IGP and the Chairman of the Police Service Commission and to ensure that they are appropriately sanctioned in accordance with the law if they are found culpable has been ignored."
Way Forward
Nwanguma said majority of democracyloving Nigerians were concerned that Nigeria’s democracy was under serious threat and now sliding dangerously back to autocracy.
He noted, “Unless Nigerians rise up and the International community intervenes urgently, Nigeria’s democracy may suffer a tragic reversal and the hard-earned gains achieved at great price with the return to democracy in 1999 after nearly 17 years of military dictatorship may be eroded. This forebodes grave consequences, not just for Nigerians but also for citizens of neighbouring countries in the sub-region.
“Hence, as a way forward, NOPRIN suggest that the National Assembly should push through with the Constitutional Amendment to insulate the police from political control. The on-going effort to amend the Police Act and relevant sections of the Constitution to, among others, remove operational control from the president and make the police accountable to multiple constituencies, must be followed through. And also, since it is clear that President Buhari has no regard for public opinion and the rule of law, and is more interested in using security agencies as repressive tools to achieve his desperate political interest instead of prioritising national security and the progress and development of Nigeria over his personal political ambition, Nigerians must take their destiny into their hands."
Unless Nigerians rise up and the International community intervenes urgently, Nigeria’s democracy may suffer a tragic reversal and the hardearned gains achieved at great price with the return to democracy in 1999, after nearly 17 years of military dictatorship, may be eroded