When Soldiers Do Police Work: Disaster
If anyone is looking for a perfect illustration and confirmation of the “coming anarchy” in Nigeria, that person needs not look farther than the on-going conflict and crisis of mutual distrust between the Nigeria Police and the Nigerian Army. Turn away, for a moment, from Boko Haram (Nigeria is still unable to find a solution to the menace of terrorism), turn away from bandits and kidnappers (it is sad that the state seems to be aiding and abetting criminality and impunity due to its incompetence, negligence, and impotence). But you can not turn away from the crazy drama being enacted by the Nigeria Police and the Nigeria Army, two strategic security institutions assigned the responsibility of safeguarding lives and property of Nigerians and the sovereignty of the country itself. Both institutions have been in conflict in recent times. I argue that this is disturbing.
It is as follows: Nigerians woke up the other day to hear the sordid tale of how in Jalingo, Taraba state, soldiers from the 93 into thin air. The soldiers also vanished, Battalion in Takum, Taraba state killed three leaving “blood on the grass.” policemen and three civilians, who had gone The police are rightly outraged. They to arrest a notorious kidnap kingpin, one have since issued statements and have gone Alhaji Hamisu Wadume. The three policemen on a twitter rage, to question the conduct were members of an elite police squad, the of the Nigeria Army. They are angry that Intelligence Response Team (IRT), and they despite the police identification of the slain had been involved in many operations in policemen as officers on lawful duty, the which they distinguished themselves namely Nigerian Army chooses to refer to them the arrest of 22 kidnappers involved in the as “suspected kidnappers”. The police are abduction of Chibok girls, the arrest of asking the army to hand over the soldiers Evans, the notorious Lagos-based kidnapper who pulled the trigger, effectively marking and the rescue of the Magajin Garin Daura, them out as cop-killers. They have also raised the traditional head of President Buhari’s five questions for the Army Headquarters village who was abducted earlier in the year. to respond to viz: “Where is the notorious These same policemen and their colleagues kidnapper, Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume had been working on the Wadume case. “rescued by the soldiers”?, (2) How could They had investigated him and tracked a kidnap suspect properly restrained with him down. handcuffs by the Police escape from the
With the help of three civilians who hands of his military rescuers? (3) Why volunteered as informants and guide, were the Police Operatives shot at close the police sent the crack team to go after range after they had identified themselves Alhaji Wadume. When they got to Jalingo, as Police Officers on legitimate duty as the policemen reported at the police state evident in the video now in circulation? headquarters and documented their mission. (4) How and why was Alhaji Hamisu Bala They then set out and arrested Alhaji Wadume released by the soldiers? (5) If Wadume and put him in handcuffs. The Alhaji Wadume is a “victim of kidnap” as next step was to take him in and interrogate claimed, and properly rescued by soldiers him in line with standard procedure. Mission why was he not taken to the Army base for accomplished? No. In Nigeria, the unexpected documentation purposes and debriefing in is known to happen, nothing is ever certain. line with the Standard Operating Procedures Just as the police were busy tracking down in the Nigerian Army?’ These questions the alleged notorious kidnapper, the Army are pertinent and there are many more in Taraba reportedly got a distress call that should be raised. reporting that kidnappers had abducted The Nigerian Army has not been able one Alhaji Wadume, and asking the military to respond to any of these questions; their to come to the rescue. As it turned out, only close-to-intelligent response has been the 93 Battalion sent out a team to rescue the self-indicting explanation that the whole Alhaji Wadume. The dispatched soldiers incident is due to lack of co-ordination gave the police team the chase. The police and communication between the army and version of the story at this point is that the the police. It is sad to hear that. If there police men identified themselves and told is rivalry, conflict, lack of co-ordination the soldiers that they were carrying out a and communication among the various legitimate duty, and that Alhaji Wadume law enforcement and security agencies who was in handcuffs was the suspect. But in Nigeria, then the average Nigerian is instead of the two teams to co-operate and in serious trouble. The country itself is work together, in line with the principle of in danger. The utter vulnerability of the “esprit de corps”, the soldiers opened fire on average Nigerian is show-cased by the fact the policemen, at close range, killing three that whereas the army and the police have of them instantly. They also gunned down been trading brick-bats in the Taraba matter, the three civilian-informants. By the time no mention has been made so far of the the dust settled, the arrested suspect, who identity of the three civilians who were had been put in silver ware, disappeared murdered by the soldiers. The police seem
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to be more concerned about their men. The Army are more concerned about protecting their men too. To compound the situation, whereas a joint investigating panel has been set up, the army and the police are at best working at cross-purposes.
What has happened is unacceptable. Those who argue that the police should not complain because it is Karma at work, the police having a notorious reputation for the kind of brutality that has been inflicted on their men by the Army, are simply unfair. No human being deserves to be killed in such brutal fashion. It is also unacceptable that the three civilianinformants who were murdered have not been part of the story. In the course of the fight against terror and crime in the country, both the President and the service chiefs have always advised that the battle can only be won if the people themselves assist the security agencies with information. The death of those three informants in the hands of the Nigeria Army will certainly discourage every future informant! In the past, the Nigerian military used to attribute every act of impunity committed by soldiers to a certain “unknown soldier”. Under military rule, particularly, the unknown soldier could do as he wished. The Nigerian soldier was above the laws of the land. But the times have since changed. The Nigeria Army certainly cannot claim not to know the soldiers who committed murder in Taraba State. As the police have demanded, those men and the officer who gave them unlawful orders, if that was the case, must be named and made to face the full wrath of the law. The six victims of that Taraba massacre and their families deserve justice. In a democracy, an army of occupation, a gun-totting military on the streets of the nation, turning its guns on innocent persons is an aberration, and a threat.
But this is the price Nigerians pay for giving the military police work to do. The military and the police have two completely different training manuals and operational orientation. The primary job of the police is to ensure peace and safety, and to protect and serve. Soldiers are trained by their drill sergeants to shoot and kill the enemy: “One shot, one kill”, at close range. The culture of restraint at the heart of police training is unknown to the military. This is why it is dangerous to involve soldiers in the kind of police work that they have been doing in Nigeria. In the 70s, Nigerian soldiers lived in the barracks, usually located out of town. When they came to town, they were rare sightings. But that was until soldiers began to mix with civilians and soon got involved in politics. Gradually, Nigerian soldiers began to behave like those they call “bloody civilians”. It was Alozie Ogbugbuaja, a police man who once drew attention to this when he complained that Nigerian soldiers had become “pepper soup drinking soldiers”. The metaphor was so apt; it drew the ire of the state. Ogbugbuaja was punished for his effrontery.
If anybody were to say the same thing today, however, I guess the person will be hailed for saying the truth. Soldiers are now so involved in “pepper soup” work it is terribly ridiculous. The other day, some soldiers assigned to escort money (N400m?) belonging to an officer were accused of having escaped with the money. The said soldiers are still at large. Whoever reported a case of kidnapping to the Army in Taraba, assuming that was true, had no business calling the Army. The call should have been directed to the police. When Governor Nyesom Wike wanted a notorious criminal called Bobrisky arrested in Rivers State, he didn’t call on the police. He called the Army. In Abia State recently, a soldier reportedly killed a motorcyclist who refused to give him bribe. Once upon a time in this country, nobody would dare offer a soldier a bribe, and no soldier will ask for it. Today, soldiers now mount check-points where they collect tolls like the police.
It is absurd. The excuse that Nigeria is under-policed and therefore the police need to be supported by the military overlooks the difference in the orientation of the two teams. The result is the disaster we are witnessing. During the recent general elections, the Nigerian military was accused of having perpetrated violence in parts of the country. The militarization of open spaces violates Nigeria’s democracy. In Zaria in 2015, Nigerian soldiers trying to clear the road for their boss gunned down about 348 members of the Shiite movement! Our military should concentrate on their professional duty of protecting Nigeria’s territorial integrity, while the police should focus strictly on their mandate. Isn’t it curious that in the light of the Taraba incident the military is now advising Nigerian soldiers, travelling on pass, to hide from the Police by wearing mufti? Is that the end of police/army collaboration? If the police are overwhelmed by the crisis in the country, and unable to function efficiently, the leadership elite should think more creatively beyond the current resort to hollow rhetoric and ad-hoc measures. More police men can be recruited. Better training and equipment should be provided. Police stations should be rebuilt and made to wear a human look. Bad eggs within the force should be identified and flushed out, honest and hardworking police men and women should be encouraged and supported.
Perhaps the time has come for Nigeria to consider the establishment of a National Guard, to serve as a bridge between the police and the army. Where there is any incident that is beyond the capacity of the police, the National Guard can be called in. In the United States, the National Guard is a cross between the police and the military; its members are basically civilians, but with enough training as both police and soldier. For a start, the proposed National Guard should not be a regime-protection mechanism, the type that was introduced briefly in 1993. It can be a merger of the National Civil Defence Corps and the vigilante groups in various states, trained differently and empowered. To set up a National Guard in Nigeria however, there must be a thought-driven review of context: who will control the National Guard? How will it be deployed? What kind of Nigeria can accommodate a National Guard: a truly federal system, a restructured Nigeria or a completely new Nigeria?