The performance of the Nigerian military in the fight against insurgency has not been salutary due to a number of factors which include sabotage, low morale, poor equipment and manpower shortage. To bridge the manpower gap, the North East governors, at a recent meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, requested equipping the Nigeria police with sophisticated weapons such as armoured personnel carriers and high calibre rifles for effective fight to end the war.
This is a timely call. No doubt, the security situation in the North East in particular and the country in general calls for more vigilance on the part of all stakeholders in the Nigerian project. Abductions on the nation’s major highways have become routine. Killings and destruction of property have not abated. Not even the military is spared the onslaught of the terrorists. In the North East states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, the Boko Haram terror campaign has claimed over 36, 000 lives and property worth N3 trillion since it started in 2009.
The insurgents are still not relenting. Earlier this month, the United States-backed AFRICOM warned that the Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (ISWAP) terrorist groups were gradually taking over West Africa after being displaced in Syria and Iraq. The Commander of the US Special Operations Command, Africa, Major-General Davin Anderson, was reported to have said that the terrorists had expanded in Mali and had moved into Burkina Faso where they now exert some control over the local population. They have reportedly continued to move throughout the West African region.
With this state of affairs, the military obviously needs help. But the police need greater help if drafting them to the warfront will make any meaningful impact. No doubt, they are ill-equipped, ill-motivated and poorly paid. The condition in most of their barracks is, to say the least, squalid and horrible.
Also, their orientation is poor and morale very low. Often, they vent their anger on innocent citizens whom they are paid to protect. A typical example is the horror treatment often unleashed on citizens by the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Attempts to reform SARS have not been successful.
Besides, some of the personnel have criminal background. They find themselves in the police force because they cannot get jobs elsewhere. And because the recruitment process, sometimes, is not thorough, the criminals infiltrate the force and commit atrocities that drag the image of the force through the mud. With this state of affairs, even if they are given the best equipment in the world, they will still not perform well.
The war against insurgency goes beyond physical combat or equipping the police. In the meeting with Buhari, the governors also decried the rate at which the insurgents exploit challenges confronting people to recruit more members into their fold. This is where intelligence gathering and counter insurgency tactics should come in. Are the police well trained and well prepared for this? Do they have adequate manpower for the task ahead? Currently, the strength of the police is less than 400, 000 personnel. This is below the United Nations recommendation of 1:400 police-to-person ratio. This challenge can be partially addressed if the personnel are deployed where they are mostly needed. Many of them are on the roads where they extort money from travellers. Some others are attached to individuals. Police authorities must be prepared to tackle corruption that has tainted the image of the force.
Moreover, the Federal Government should consider decentralising the police as is obtainable elsewhere. The United States, for instance, has federal, state and council police. The government should also look into inter-agency rivalry which does not enhance the operations of the agencies. Will the police work effectively with the military without rancour? The relevant authorities should instill discipline and re-orientate the forces towards fighting for a common goal. The recruitment process must be thorough and transparent.
It is worth pointing out that it is only the government that should have a monopoly of the instruments of coercion. That is why the mopping up of illegal arms in the country as ordered by the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, is commendable. Commissioners of Police must take the order seriously. It should not be handled like the previous ones that did not yield the desired results. In 2018, the police carried out a similar exercise. The rising rate of banditry in the country is enough evidence that the mop up exercise was not effective.