After listening to Iyawo's show this morning I felt it was time for one person to actually stand up and defend the much maligned NPF. Now to some this might be a sacrilege as the current perception of the said Force is of corrupt gun toting buffoons and hooligans. This is based on the fact that they are either putting on a ridiculous comedy act to acquire loose change from travellers at the nationwide "illegal" road blocks or they are resorting to more vigorous means in order to extort said loose change. This can sometime result in the untimely passing of an innocent member of the general public which is totally unacceptable.
However lets put things into perspective. Let's use another example of another group of public enemies - the 419ers, Yahoo Yahoo boys or whatever other name they are called. There is a worldwide perception that "nigerians" are all involved in this trade. Therefore as long as you are a Nigerian you must be involved. In reality I doubt if out of the 140 million Nigerians today that there are up to 50000 Internet fraudsters. This is based on some loose facts. The reason I raise this is that for the same reason we cannot continue to brand the "whole of the NPF" as hooligans. There is perception and then there is reality and sometime the two do converse as seems to be the case here.
True there is a hardcore element that has been allowed to get out of control basically because of weak leadership. Don't believe all that rubbish where the IGP says he has ordered his men to remove the roadblocks even as you are sitting in front of a roadblock. That is mere propoganda. No Policeman wakes up and goes to the station to report in and then disappears for the day with his rifle and four other similarly armed colleagues in a police vehicle without his stations manager's knowledge or approval. And the station manager's approval comes from the area manager who has the regional commander on his neck to provide a bag of N20 notes every day or else.
But even despite this is a clear majority of Policemen that have a pride in their uniform and their duty and go about it quietly and diligently. We never hear of these ones of course just as we never hear about the university students that only use their laptops for research and studies.
I do not hide the fact that I grew up in a Police family and I have seen both sides of the coin but it seems to me that we are getting to a tipping point where all Policemen are getting tarred with one brush. I know how it feels when I go abroad and the minute it is known I am Nigerian I can see the lightbulb flicker and the spotlight of 419 er pointing my way. It is not fair to me and it is not fair to them.
I heard today that there had been another change of command. Good. For me the last IGP was extremely ineffective and did the view of the NPF no great favours by claiming he was not aware that Niyi Rubadu had been into the country for Gani's funeral despite the visit having made both TV and newspaper headlines. Hopefully the new one will instill a sense of pride, discipline and honour that has been slowly ebbing out of the force helped by unscrupulous leaders and politicians.
Long Live the NPF.
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9 comments:
Your disclaimer should be bolder :)
I've had one too many guns pointed at me to see the reason in this post...
@Dapxin I hope people pick up on it loud and clear.
@chxta I feel you. Coming from a police family does not make me immune from the cold harsh reality of the daily shakedown but please remember this is the bottom of the food chain and even there not everyone is bad.
Seriously sha, more than @anytime in d past, I suppose this is time to keep hammering the top brass of the namespace...
maybe maybe just maybe they can begin to translate the urgency of now into realtime +ve thinking for the Nigerian police.
Hmm like Chxta, I've had too many guns pointed at me for not having paperwork that I don't need.
Too much first hand experience of issues being resolved by the "police" based on who is settling who and who knows whom and this is at the top being done by AIG's including a good friend.
Too much of the above to defend them despite the dangerous underpaid job most of them have. Sorry my brother you are a minority.
@Babatunde that is the basic perception of the force unfortunately. It is going to take a lot of work from the top down to change it. I concur that the top has been very feeble of late and until that changes perception will continue to be reality. thanks for your comments as always.
Was just having a conversation with a few [people a few days ago about the absence of discipline in the NPF. Why would there be really? The good officers you speak of are rendered useless on the daily by some godfather of the bad officers.
Take MMA for instance, a top shot comes in and under the regulations he should be scanned as well as his bags. You think some goodie two shoes officer will risk his career arguing and wanting to force Mr. Topshot into the scanner when all mr topshot will do is call the officers boss with a wad of naira notes. It is sad that a 5 yrs old kid in nigeria cannot stand with his head raised high and say I wanna be a police officer. His parents have bad mojuthed the police enough.
Oh well. Nice write up.
"great favours by claiming he was not aware that Niyi Rubadu had been into the country"
Afi Niyi Ribadu naa. You cant blame him I think he was looking for the Nuhu, Niyi's brother. :)
@BMC I agree. It was his cousin Niyi he was looking for using all the intelligence at his disposal.
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