Their uniforms and training place them in a special and unique class in the society. They were part of the society, but their patriotic zeal (except some few Judases) and desire to serve their fatherland led them to go through the hectic hug of enlistment and training exercise. They were young boys and girls in their late 20s and their love to serve became a passion. They were enlisted into all the security agencies, and society usually feels their constitutional impact to provide external and internal security for the country. To many, their establishment has been fruitful, while to a few others who are skeptics, they often use their power excessively against the people.
Today, they are the tools, the President is using to enforce his lockdown order across the country. Specifically, they are the police, Civil Defence and the military. This writeup is focusing on the Nigeria Police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
They are at the front as security personnels co-opted to enforce the lockdown nationwide. Whenever they are deployed for such national assignment, their welfare hardly occupies the front row of discussions among their leaders. Once, in 2006, this writer visited Kano State on a fact-finding assignment, when I stumbled on a rare incident, where the then state police commissioner, Mr. M.D. Abubakar, was personally distributing packs of food and water to policemen deployed to night duties around the bustling Kano metropolis in his official pickup van.
He told me that, apart from ensuring that the policemen were not distracted from their duty posts, they should be very vigilant, noting that he was trying to also boost their morale because of the high rate of criminality in the state. He also reenacted the same scenario at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, when he was the Inspector-General of Police. What a commendable example.
The present pandemic situation ought to necessitate absolute care for every policeman deployed to enforce the presidential lockdown. Unfortunately, none of the security agencies that deployed their men took time to educate them on the deadly disease called COVID-19.
Like sheep without a shephard, they were deployed to the roads, unaware of the seriousness of the assignment, neither was any welfare arrangement in place for them. All they have is their official firearms and, of course, they are to put on their uniform, as if that was enough to insulate them from the ravaging virus.
Concerned members of the public quickly noticed that their policemen were virtually exposed to the unseen killer disease. They arrest without obeying the spacing rules. They detain, not sure if their suspect is a carrier of the virus.
The carelessness they display calls for serious caution. No wonder the people are questioning the rational behind posting policemen to the roads without either face mask or hand gloves. To an extent, we shouldn’t blame them.
After all, even the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Muhammed Adamu, hardly wears a face masks while briefing journalists during the COVID-19 press briefings.
The policemen have been behaving as though they were immune because they were carrying out a presidential order. Two weeks into the presidential assignment, the first police casualty was announced. According to Mr. Paul Yakadi, Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 5, Benin, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 5, Benin, Zonal Criminal Investigation Department, Mr. Francis Atim Bissiong, died after contracting the deadly coronavirus in the course of his daily duties. He was said to have died in his official quarters.
Also, a police officer, who initially tested positive in Lagos but travelled to Ondo State while awaiting the results, was picked up, so disclosed the Ondo State Governor, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.
The shame and stigma associated with the disease may be responsible for those in uniform presently infected not owning up immediately to be tested. This is the result of lack of adequate enlightenment about the coronavirus. Despite these flaws, these patriotic men and women need to be protected and provided for while on national assignments such as this.
Those that have signalled that they have contracted the virus should be medically catered for and not jestitioned for any reason whatsoever. It is pertinent to query why uniformed personnel should not be educated and adequately provided with protective gear and food. These are the marks of good leadership, when personnel lack nothing for staking their lives for the people and the country.
Readers’ right of response
Mr. Okezie, your column “Police hostility and COVID-19 influence” published April 16. 2020, was quite apt. Vintage you. The killings across the land remain condemnable. As for Abia State, while the state government has done well in checking the spread of the coronavirus, police recklessness has a long history here. Before this pandemic, it is only in Abia that you’ll get police checkpoint at every pole, on the same road, each holding traffic and openly collecting egunje from motorists, private and commercial. If you are commuting from Umuahia to Aba, for instance, in less than 20 minutes, you’ll get to Umuikaa or Ugba junction. Once there, it would take another two hours or more before you cover the less than 15 kilometres journey into Aba through the Port Harcourt-Aba-Enugu expressway.
Unfortunately, officers of the Road Safety Corps also cram this same axis. The Ugba, Arungwa, Tonimas to Osisioma junction in Aba. These areas are a playground for security operatives manning illegal toll gates erected by these officers. Late last year, the IGP gave stern warning to police men to clear the roads, they resorted to coming out in the night. The truth is that, across the nation, most security men want to be posted to the East, Aba precisely, because it is a fertile ground for money-spinning ventures for them.
With the posting of a new police commissioner (a female for that matter), Janet Ogbede, the tide will surely be stemmed. The same scenario plays out from the Rivers State end entering Abia State.
•Mr. C. Adindu is a lecturer, +234 803 705 5621