In recent times, there has been a raging and unsavory controversy around the recruitment of policemen, between the office of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the leadership of the Police Service Commission (PSC).
Unfortunately, this has generated a lot of bad blood between both security institutions, thereby raising eyebrows and creating much public concern in the country. Many Nigerians feel that this push-me-I-push-you stance is uncalled for in the midst of pervading insecurity in Nigeria.
Such energy and imaginative thoughts employed herein should have been channelled towards confronting bandits, instead of fighting over who should recruit and who should not recruit. After all, the police officers trained and equipped behave the same way, irrespective of who recruits them.
However, much of this hullabaloo stems from a number of causes, among which are the perceived superiority complex borne out of the non-authority of hire-and-fire syndrome (my own generated phraseology, which I will explain later), personality traits and government action or inaction, which exacerbated and encouraged this sad scenario.
Sometimes, officers/officials of government who wallow in egocentrism arrogate all powers to themselves at the exclusion of bright and brilliant ideas from others. This also happens in the Nigeria Police Force.
An IGP who suffers from superiority complex and exhibits such a character tends to assume all responsibilities and ignores other officers. Because of this, he feels he is better than all of them and knows more than all of them. An IGP does not, cannot and will not necessarily know everything more than his juniors, coursemates and seniors (yours truly was an IGP and also chairman, PSC). He is there by happenstance and God’s providence.
Section 6(1)(a) of the Police Service Commission (Establishment) Act, 2001, empowers the PSC to appoint and promote persons to offices (other than the office of the IGP) in the Nigeria Police Force. Section 6(1)(b) says: “the PSC shall dismiss and exercise disciplinary control over persons (other than IGP) in the Nigeria Police Force.”
Any IGP with such personality traits mentioned above and who tends to suffer from non-authority of hire-and-fire syndrome will ignore, disrespect, underate and overlook the PSC because the PSC does not exercise the authority of hire-and-fire over him.
When I was the chairman of PSC, we had an IGP who exhibited these acts. He never took directives or instructions from the PSC, never attended our meetings when invited by the PSC and never replied our letters. However, we ignored him and made sure we carried out our functions as enshrined in the Constitution, to enable the police move forward.
Police recruitments have been going on over the years without rancor and acrimony, until government and legislations moved in. In those days, commandants of police colleges and training institutions like Ikeja, Nonwa, Oji River, Kaduna, Maiduguri, etcetera, recruited and trained policemen and women when directed to do so by the IGP with specific numbers allocated to them.
After the training, they forwarded the names of successful trainees who were allocated force numbers and posted to commands by the IGP. The IGP only concerned himself with the recruitment of cadet inspectors and ASPs in Kaduna and Ikeja and the Police Staff College, Jos.
(To be continued)
•Sir Mike Mbama Okiro, former IGP
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Babanbola: New terror group (2)
These youths, whose ages range between 12 and 30, are regarded as the society’s miscreants. Many see them as street nuisance. Many are orphans and some have been identified as foreigners that strayed into Nigeria in search of better livelihood. Sociologists would conclude that they are the reflection of a failed government and society. Indeed, they are the result of parental failure, not excluding nor excusing societal neglect and religious houses where Almajiris are schooled.
Babanbola, an Hausa coinage for “waste collector,” is a societal demeanor that Nigeria has accommodated without providing any exchange or other alternative to this social problem. So, it has stuck to our mentality like an indelible stain. As the society grew economically, and the people experienced lack in various dimensions, with no employment for youths, most of whom are school dropouts , this further swelled the army of babanbola in the society.
There is no formal training for them, except that the person must be fit, strong and rough in attitude. His mentality must be that of a survivalist who sees himself as someone already trodden upon by society and he consciously believes that the society abandoned him to his fate without any atom of care.
Surprisingly, there are no female members among the babanbola. They are easily identified on the streets and in neighborhoods: their raggedy dressing, with a long, dirty sacks hung over either their right or left shoulder, often stretched to their waist or thighs, dangling when empty. Then you notice them armed with a long iron rod used to scavenge every deposit of dirt or waste containers around houses.
Their daily sight offends members of the neighbourhood where they often operate, some release their guard dogs and security guards to chase them away because of their dirty nature and basically because of their deliberate littering of their frontage very waste. A popular radio presenter known as “FCT Mayor,” Mr. Fortune Musa, described them as “city menance” adding that government should endeavor to rehabilitate them by creating job alternatives.
Recently, a senior journalist, Mr. Ikahro Attah, was appointed as the Senior Special Assistant to the Minister of the FCT on monitoring and enforcement. He operates with a full complement of security agencies with a mandate to arrest and remove them from the federal capital.
Hundreds of these hoodlums have so far been apprehended while their makeshift tents scattered across the FCT are daily being identified and either set ablaze or destroyed.
This new move is being contemplated by other state governments in the country. The question is, can the society stand the evolution of the babanbola? Should these jobless youths be forced into radicalism in the guise of constituting themselves into anti-social elements by upgrading their means of livelihood to instead of kidnapping waste materials, they would resort to kidnapping human beings and later into more dangerous activities like robbery.
Already, innocent members of the public are daily reporting that babanbolas are now armed and are attacking ladies and are seen carting away properties belonging to residents of Niger, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Abuja.
Can the society and the government that is already overwhelmed with insecurity be able to withstand the new terror group which they want to turn the babambolas into before our very eyes, just like the Boko Haram, Bandits, and others..(Concluded)