Starting a column on a sad note can be very devastating. Especially when the vibes that get to you are not very promising. It’s rather unfortunate that the talk around the country since this administration ascended office has been the issue of insecurity and the falling living standard of ordinary Nigerians. The situation has built up to a frenzy peak with the gruesome killings of innocent Nigerians either in their sleep or in the farm or on the highways. Others who escaped are left maimed to narrate their harrowing ordeals.
Insecurity is simply a product of inflicted poverty in any society. When the people are hungry there is evidential possibility that they will resort to criminality.
More painful though, is that the security apparatus that are in place to handle the escalating insecurity around the country are themselves ineffective and seems directionless because of leadership problem.
Same with the security personnel who, ab initio, are grossly shortchanged with no commensurate remuneration and are left helpless for politicians to make mince meat of their unfortunate situation.
A time was in this country when Nigerians believed in the police and the military, the story has drastically changed as the aggrieved members of the public find it hard to provide necessary information to the police due to strained relationship. On its part, the military has cleverly used the conquest of the Boko Haram terrorist to worm themselves back to the hearts of ever critical but ever-forgiving Nigerians.
As for the Police, leadership problem and recruitment of the dredge of the society into the police has further complicated its posture. If there is no attempt by the police leadership to restore public confidence back, every of its activities would always come to naught. It is true that internal insecurity is prevalent in many countries of the world , however, it has been noticed that each of these affected countries either has democratic dictators who appoint their stooges to handle the security of their country and additionally, such countries suffer from severe economic mismanagement which results into low living standard. It is a situation where the rich becomes richer while the poor remains poorer and increases in their flanks.
Lawlessness, which gives birth to insecurity and criminality, knows no brother or sister. All that it achieves is to increase in proportion or overwhelm the security personnel constitutionally engaged to handle insecurity. The question therefore is, how has our security agencies especially the Army and the Police fared in combating insecurity and restoring hope to disappointing and desperate Nigerians.
To evaluate by assessing these security agencies, four departments of their activities must be the area of focus. Training, logistics, remuneration and quality of leadership. The military, to a large extent, has lived up to expectation despite its frequent low scoring by the international poking agencies, that sometimes leave the issue and dwell more on irrelevances. In other countries where terrorists struck, like in India, United Kingdom’s lRA , El- Shaba in Somalia and others, those countries wasted more than three decades fighting terrorists groups.
In our case, the military has been able to clip the wings of the Bok Haram terrorists who now attack sparingly on soft targets. Such feat should be commended.
The military, despite tackling he insurgency, has grabbed the mantle of internal insecurity, a purview constitutionally handed to the police. One thing is clear, the recorded successes of the military is connected to the administrative and operational efficiency of its leadership. Security commentators and analysts , political gladiators and observing Nigerians are in consensus that the present police leadership has failed in every aspect of evaluation.
First, the police leadership failed in morals.
Secondly, the police leadership failed in operational inconsistency when he severally failed to stem the ravaging herdsmen who were killing innocent farmers and villagers. Also, the police leadership failed to effectively secure the highways around the country.
Operationally, it has been a fire brigade approach instead of a proactive and well planned out security strategies. A plan-less police is a tragedy not only to members of the public but to its personnel and a burden to the government. This need is a worrisome situation we are all facing in the country today.
(Ends)
Adieu, Ibrahim Coomassie
For over three decades, he was my most valuable friend. Our friendship grew into a close family relationship. Last week his death came like a thunder bolt, jolting me into deeper reality of what death is all about. Alhaji lbrahim Coomassie my police friend is gone. Here was a friend I met on the crime beat while he was the Deputy Inspector General of Police in-charge of police operations at the Kam Salem building , Obalende, Lagos, which used to be the police headquarters.
Our friendship became closer when he would call me and hand exclusive crime stories to me. It got to a stage, when he became the Inspector General of Police and had to move to Abuja. He would invite me to Abuja and grant my newspaper – National Concord, exclusive crime stories that usually led the front page of the newspaper.
Coomassie was a disciplined and straight forward police officer. After his retirement, as the second longest serving IGP, he must be remembered as the man who conceived and saw the construction of the seven floors, Louis Edet building , Force Headquarter in Abuja. Coomassie tried to write a memoir of his activities as the IGP under whose tenure many political incidents happened. Once, he had invited me to his Asokoro private residence and discussed many issues but regret that the official secrecy act would not permit him to write his memoir. Today, my friend died without letting Nigerians know the part the police played during the dark days of politics in Nigeria.
Adieu, Coomassie!
