Insecurity: Essence of rebuilding collapsed police infrastructures
A review of the achievement records attained by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in 2020, as disclosed by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Adamu Mohammed on Monday, revealed that a total of 21,296 criminal suspects involved in various violent crimes were arrested, while 3,347 firearms, 133,496 ammunition and 960 stolen vehicles recovered. In addition, the account has it that a total of 1,002 kidnap victims were safely rescued from their abductors and reunited with their families.
It is however pathetic that despite the records of the Police on its 2020 achievements, the profile of domestic insecurity is far on the high side of panic. Following the reality of situations, Adamu assured Nigerians of improved security in the year 2021. According to him, the Nigeria Police Force will be unrelenting in fighting all forms of crimes especially kidnapping, armed robbery, banditry, cultism, cybercrime, sexual and gender-based violence in 2021. He assured further that aggressive, proactive, intelligence-driven and community-based crime fighting strategies will be implemented by the Force in ensuring safety in the Country, stressing that the Force will collaborate with other Law Enforcement Agencies as well as citizens in carrying out the task of ridding the country of criminal elements.
It is important to state that the prevailing narrative of insecurity across the Country remains a subject of concern, requiring a forceful push of operations for a change in the realities of safety conditions in the Country. It is reminiscent that the collapse of Police architecture since the #ENDSARS protests has largely crippled security operations against various forms of domestic crimes in the Country. The profile of organised and non-organised crimes have attracted worsening records most recently. This largely bears relevance to the fact that a major architecture meant to check against them has been subjected to a fate of collapse. The loss of morale on the part of the Police is a major problem that requires strategic approach to address. The rising spate of robbery, kidnapping, banditry, cultism and cyber crime, among other various forms of domestic violence have heightened the sense of insecurity in the Country. The phenomenon has instilled panic which is unhealthy for reasonable tranquility, peace and order paramount for cohabitation and business activities.
The heightening of insecurity has deeply worsened the ease-of-doing profile in the Country. The phenomenon is unhealthy for the state of the economy which is heading towards a great ebb. The alarming state of economic downturn and its attendant hardship in the populace holds threats of disturbances against the polity. Two major pillars of the essence of governance as identified by political theorists give premium significance to “Justice and Security”. Where these two pillars are in a state of disarray, this renders the society in shambles. The security of lives and property is an indispensable responsibility of the Government. The necessity of Justice is an element of government that is non-negotiable to ensure sanity in the Society.
Given the fact that the Police play significant roles in the two major priorities of the Government in ensuring “Justice and security”, it is essential that the Police be reorganised for efficiency in the light of the prevailing circumstances in the Country. The necessity to position the Nigeria Police Force cannot be over-emphasized in the light of the relevance of the Force in the execution of Justice and the enforcing of law for social sanity.
It is therefore, essential for the Federal Government to make moves towards rebuilding the collapsed structures of the Nigeria Police Force. Situation reports across several States are fraught with records of breakdown of Police infrastructures. It is paramount that the Federal Government makes pragmatic efforts towards rebuilding these structures to restore sanity across the nooks and crannies of the Country. The rising spate of security threats is alarming; it is paramount for the government to rise to the bar to address the situations by revamping the working and operational efficiencies of all the security agencies in the Country. The need to restore sanity in the Country is sine qua non. It is therefore a matter of necessity for the Government to give priority to the subject matter of addressing the troubling spate of insecurity across the Country.
