The Opposition Under the Yoke of Partisan Police
Police’s alleged complicit in some of the reported malpractices that characterised a recent bye-election in Rivers State has exacerbated fears about the management of next year’s general election. Although the two major parties – the Peoples Democratic Pa
Constitutionally, some of the primary reasons the police exist are to serve and protect the citizens. This is a global practice. But in Nigeria, the reverse seems to be the case. Decades of rot without deep reforms have turned the policing outfit into a bulldog for its master. As the cliché, ‘he that pays the piper, calls the tune’, might sound, it also holds true for the Nigeria police. From time immemorial, the police have been a political tool for the taskmasters to unleash on their perceived enemies. From Ekiti State to Rivers State, the end is seemingly not in sight for police partisanship and cover for its paymasters. In subverting the rule of law, the police do not give recourse to the fact that their actions are undermining democracy, and also create an enabling environment for instability and chaos to reign supreme.
The often brazen 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, Benue, Ekiti and recently, Rivers States. It has also brought to the fore, the danger inherent in centralising the operational control of the police in the hands of the president.
This also explains why the clamour for a multi-level policing has always hit a brick wall, because the arguments, both for and against have always been defeated by the habitual unprofessional disposition of the force, which derives from their helplessly complicit leadership.
Truth is that the police have always been like this with an average Nigerian nursing little or no confidence in them. However, this time, they have gone totally nuclear, crossing without circumspection, the threshold of professional expectations.
The Police and Elections
Nigeria is the only jurisdiction operating a federal system, where the President holds absolute control of the police and easily manipulates them to achieve his political interest and advantage. The extant legal framework ensures that the NPF remains partisan and accountable only to the president, who appoints and can, at will, fire the IGP. This, not only destroys police professionalism and effectiveness, but also undermines the principle of separation of powers.
It was this hold on the police that played out in the recent Rivers State election. The fixed bye-election into the Port Harcourt Constituency III, Rivers State House of Assembly on August 18, 2018, was aborted midway. Trailed with tales of violence, partisanship by the police and ballot snatching, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Obo Effanga, was forced to suspend the bye-election.
The seat became vacant when Hon. Victor Ihunwo, a member elected from the constituency, became the Executive Chairman of Port Harcourt City Local Government Council. However, what was supposed to be a smooth process turned out to be a show of power, resulting in unmitigated violence.
While the All Progressives Congress (APC) blamed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for intimidating their party supporters and agents with hoodlums, the latter in turn, accused the APC of colluding with the police and military to perpetrate election irregularities.
They particularly accused the APC of using the police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to intimidate members of the PDP. Many analysts have noted that what happened during the bye-election could best be described as impunity, because according to them, the partisanship of the operatives of the Nigeria Police came to fore, despite their attempts to deny it.
The PDP, in a statement, said the use of security forces, including special police and military units, in such a brazen assault on the will of the people, particularly as witnessed in the bye-election, was completely provocative, incendiary and has an unlimited capacity
to elicit violent resistance from the people and derail the nation’s hard-earned democracy, especially as the 2019 general election approaches.
Despite initial assurances by the state Commissioner of Police, CP, Zaki Ahmed, that the bye-election would be free, fair, credible, and devoid of violence, the exact opposite happened with the deployment of 1,500 police operatives for the election.
Expectedly, as the chief executive of the state, Governor Nyesom Wike had taken umbrage at the police for their unprofessional conduct during the bye-election. He claimed the consistency with which the police interfered with the electoral process in the state was a declaration of war on the people.
But the police in their usual defensive style have denied shielding any political party in the aborted bye-election. The CP said a level playing field was provided for the political parties, in line with Police Standard Practice, for a hitch-free bye-election.
But before the Rivers election, there was the Ekiti election. As shocking as it might seem, about 30,000 policemen were deployed to the then tension-soaked state for the election. Although it was adjudged successful in some quarters, the underbelly of the election – stank of vote-buying, police alleged harassment and undue interference – happened despite the threat by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to dismiss any errant policeman found hobnobbing with politicians or acting in a way that could vitiate the July 14, election in Ekiti State.
He went on to stress the obvious that the police have no business being partisan, rather, they were to provide security for the electorate, election observers and ballot materials on the day of election and nothing more. What was later alleged to have played out was the antithesis.
While not dismissing the role the police played in the recently held Ekiti election, social media influencers would rather declare it tit-for-tat. According to them, the PDP under former President Goodluck Jonathan had enacted the same scenario of using military and police power to subdue APC in the election that saw Governor Ayodele Fayose emerge winner.
Police’s Culture of Indiscipline
With all these allegations of partisanship, the blame rests squarely on the topmost echelon of the force. The reason, again, is not far-fetched. For a security force that should thrive on discipline, a break in chain of command often ripples down the ladder, with the resultant effect being a chaotic organisation. Little wonder the indiscipline that reigns supreme in the force.
Many industry watchers have put the blame squarely for the blatant partisanship the police leaves in its wake, on the doorsteps of the IG. After all, the buck always stops at the desk of the head. Their reasons are not far-fetched: from the IG’s outright disregard for presidential orders, to being tone-deaf to the many atrocities of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) nationwide, running battle with the National Assembly, gaping ignorance in the face of the Benue crisis, allegations of misdemeanor, and of recent, undue interference with elections.
Tagged in some quarters as the ‘most controversial IG’ to ever occupy the Loius Edet Force Headquarters, Idris has been fighting on all fronts, a strategy many opined is bound to fail, given that a warrior or security strategist must always protect his flanks.
Charity, they say, begins at home but to many, this IG has been anything but charitable to those he was constitutionally charged to protect. As a former peacekeeper to foreign nations, having spent many years on peacekeeping in different countries across the world, where he would later lead one of the commissions as an acting commissioner of police, many thought he would bring this skill to bear in policing Nigerians. Sadly, that aspect is yet to be seen.
Politics of Idris’ Emergence and His Many Gaffes
Perhaps, it would be fitting to go back memory lane to all the drama that happened with his appointment and the subsequent action he took that heat up the polity. Skipping all those who were gunning for the topmost echelon of the police job, Buhari had picked Idris, leading to the mass retirements of some eggheads in the police.
Soon enough, he was bugged down with allegations of his past misdemeanor, purportedly ranging from cowardice during a Boko Haram raid in 2012 in Kano, where he locked himself up as the terrorist group maimed lives, his alleged affairs with subordinates,
and even his alleged role in the 2015 election in Kano. All these allegations were never answered when he assumed office as the 19th indigenous IG.
Soon after his appointment, his first missile was targeted at his seniors and course mates. In promoting him, the presidency had skipped over 12 other senior CPs, over 22 senior AIGs, and of course over the seven most senior DIG police officers. THISDAY had exclusively reported how he wrote to the presidency to terminate their appointments. His second salvo was at his predecessor, Solomon Arase.
He had alleged that the former IG went away with 22 vehicles including two seven series BMW, an accusation that Arase did not take lying low. For weeks unending, the duo threw accusations at each other. It was later alleged that his attack against Arase was based on the four administrative queries given to him over his purported incompetent showing as CP.
Those initial actions by Idris soon set the pattern for his administration; controversy upon controversy. While he sometimes might not be in the middle of a controversy, his men were, as they put their foot one after the other in their mouth.
The Onslaught on National Assembly
Shortly after that dust settled, it was straight to another fire, this time it was a dirty fight with Senator Isa Misau. The lawmaker representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, had accused the IG of misdemeanors, which ranged from corrupt practices and misconduct, nepotism in appointments, his alleged “secret” marriage to a serving policewoman, which is against the public service rule, the special-promotion-for-a-fee for selected officers, and the deployment of policemen to guard VIPs and corporate organisations, which he pegged at an income of N120bn annually.
In his response, Idris had branded Misau a deserter. Thereafter, the federal government, through the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, filed two separate sets of charges against Misau on the grounds of injurious falsehood against Idris and the force at large.
For a long time, the Senate requested of the IG to appear before it and answer to some of the allegations in the spirit of accountability. First, he avoided the Senate summon and when it became embarrassing, he sent a representative and when this would not suffice, he ran to the court, praying not to be probed by the Senate.
And since the Buhari administration appears to be averse to accountability, he eventually got away with the purported probe and instead, became very hostile to the National Assembly members in the name of ‘doing his job’.
The Herdsmen Politics
Idris, again, shot himself in the foot with his gaffe about the Benue attacks on New Year’s Day, which claimed about 73 people. Given the wide-scale killings over the seemingly intractable clashes between the farmers and the herdsmen, the IG had in a seeping remark declared that the New Year’s Day attack was a mere communal clash between communities and not herdsmen attacks as widely believed. According to him, “Obviously it is communal crisis. Herdsmen are part of the community. They are Nigerians and are part of the community, are they not?” But with the condemnation that followed his statement, he later backtracked, blaming the media for misunderstanding him.
Many security analysts had blamed the IG’s body language by not exerting a firm hand when the fresh crisis broke out recently in Benue. His flagrant disregard for presidential orders in the Benue crisis also merited no punitive measure.
President Muhammadu Buhari had directed the IG to redeploy to the area like he ordered the military three years ago to redeploy to Maiduguri, when the reign of Boko Haram intensified.
While the service chiefs obeyed the presidential directive, not so for Idris, who visited and left same day but not without leaving a deputy inspector general of police behind. This lack of discipline and blatant disregard for authority has been partially blamed for what is playing out today. Even when his action came to the knowledge of the president, no sanction was served him.
The Politicisation of Offa Robbery
The recent vote of no confidence passed in Idris by the National Assembly, was a seeming first in the annals of the force. First, it was the Senate that passed a vote of no confidence in him, declaring him ‘unfit’ to hold public office. This was after his third refusal to appear before the Senate despite series of invitations. The House of Representatives soon followed suit in their condemnation of the IG. Rather than answer the invitations to brief the parliament, Idris went to court to challenge the declaration of zero confidence in his administration. The judgment remains to be seen.
While waiting for the courts to do the needful, Idris and the force however set plans in motion to injure the Bukola Saraki-led Senate. Like a badly written script, the police accused the Senate president of sponsoring the deadly Offa robbery in Kwara State which claimed many lives. That accusation set off a ricochet of events that linger till date.
In their allegations, the police paraded some suspects, who had allegedly identified themselves as Saraki’s political thugs and the procurer of the arms they used in the Offa robbery operation, although they said Saraki was unaware of their robbery adventure.
Saraki has since distanced himself from the accusation and has even gone as far as writing the police to clear his name. Not long after, he was absolved by the Attorney General of the Federation, a move that has since been discountenanced by the police.
Curiously, the police have not been able to produce, even on public request, the main leader of the robbery gang, Michael Adikwu, a retired police officer, believed to have been murdered by the police to blur out some of the facts of the operation.
In another move deemed treacherous to democracy, some police officers recently blocked Saraki’s convoy at his Abuja residence at the Lake Chad Crescent, Maitama. The move was said to have been planned to forestall Saraki from appearing at the Senate chambers to preside over the planned defection of some senators from the APC to the PDP.
Given the furore it generated, the police authorities denied knowledge of any deployment of its personnel to the homes of the top Senate leaders.
According to the police spokesman, the policemen seen in the video circulated on social media were those attached to the Senate President. Alleging that the siege was stage-managed, the police said they would not be deterred in ensuring Saraki faced the law for his purported involvement in the Offa robbery, adding that it might be compelled to use force on the number three citizen. Although the list of the police’s misdemeanor is endless, analysts have posited that the only way out is a truly independent police.
What’s the Way Forward?
To insulate the police from political control, NOPRIN, a network of 46 civil society organisations spread across Nigeria and committed to promoting police accountability and respect for human rights, recently charged the National Assembly to commence a constitutional amendment.
For this to happen, they noted that the National Assembly should support and pass into law, civil society’s bill presented since 2006 for the amendment of 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. Also, the director, International Human Rights Law Group in Nigeria and previously Associate Professor of Political Science at Ahmadu Bello University, Ibrahim Jibrin said for law enforcement agencies to continue to play their constitutional role, it was imperative that they were not used in a partisan manner.
He said once they are pushed into partisanship, they lose their neutrality and can easily become actors in the political game. He went on to add that the Nigeria police face a political and constitutional dilemma, because of the constitutional provisions, which place the control of the police on the shoulders of an elected executive president, who is also the leader of his political party.
Quoting Section 215 of the 1999 Constitution, he said it gives powers to the president, acting on the advice of the Nigeria Police Council to appoint the IG. On the flipside, he said under sub-section 3 of section 215 of the same Constitution, the president is also empowered to give lawful directives with respect to the maintenance of law and order to the IG and he shall comply or cause them to be complied with.
Harping on the balancing clause that the presidency often neglects, he said there is an equivalent provision in section 215 (4), which creates such relationship between a state governor and a commissioner of police, noting that in today’s order, it’s often disregarded, at least for governors that are in the opposition. Jibrin said the challenge was that the constitutional framework was being made possible, at least in practice, for the president to give an unlawful directive to the police regarding public safety or public order and the IG, who is employed by him and has power to dismiss, is likely to obey. “More likely, we may be witnessing the leadership of the police going out of their constitutional role to please a president to whom they feel grateful for their appointment. Whatever the situation, we cannot grow and consolidate our democracy, if we do not develop a non-partisan police system,” he said.
As unattainable as it might seem, the federal government, experts say, should in the interest of democracy use the police constitutionally and within the ambits of the law. For policemen, their loyalty must first be to the country and not to the president, even though the appointment of the IG was sanctioned by the presidency. It’s only when these ethos play out evenly that the unwanted and undue partisanship by the police in the political sphere will wane.
Thus, as a first step to containing the excesses of the current police leadership, experts suggest a change in leadership, because the incumbent appears not only compromised but fully descended into the arena. Yet, the question is: can Buhari sack anyone? The jury is still out...