Thread by @segalink

The complexity of our society will frustrate the current structure & approach of policing in Nigeria. We now have a society that is inundated with indolent youth with no purpose or jobs while nursing an ambition to break the bank (literally & figuratively).

These youth mostly have no apprehension of the future & hold to heart their fondness of music/nightlife despite the harsh economy. Add this to the stereotypical policing enmeshed in the parochial constabulary of 1943. This should give us a fair idea about the chaos of now.

While the current trend doesn’t augur well for our society, the victims of the agelong systemic dereliction are about to self immolate with an unwritten mutually assured destruction memorandum. The Police have now found purpose in the pursuit of a cause outside their calling.

While the failed youth by the most chaotic political cum systemic obsolescence are pushing the boundaries with the justification of white-collar crimes under false pretenses (Yahoozie). Rather than stay under the radar they flaunt their ill-gotten proceeds in music videos...

...Of course most Police Officers, whose future is hardly guaranteed based on systemic failures within the institution are peeved by this. Knowing how rewarding these crimes are with kids flaunting phones that could pay their forlorn pensions if not buy them a landed property.

It takes little less than an unmet expectation at work, promotion denial, preferred posting failure, denial of loans, deplorable condition of living or discovery of discrepancies in deductions from salary before they begin to see every youth looking fly as a Yahooboy.

You will weep when you hear the amount being allotted to operations at the police stations given the spate of cult clashes and armed robbery in our society. Some of these police units can’t even fuel their cars. I guess some geniuses then came up with an idea...

Given the dystopian sociopolitical space, they must have agreed that it actually wouldn’t be a bad idea to prey on birds of prey. If they work so hard with the risk involved & still couldn’t make ends meet, why watch youngsters break bad without repercussions?

Gradually, a culture fashioned out of the Mario Puzo Italian scripts was birthed using the tactical squads to strike fear in minds of suspects before subjecting them to admit theupy are fraudster in order to justify the robbery and illegal abduction.

The earlier victims were first flummoxed, but could not escalate because they are guilty of an illegality even though it is far from what they were charged with. Some weren’t so lucky, they paid with their lives & were summarily tagged armed robbers/cultists with planted evidence

Though not after their money and accounts were drained and shared accordingly. This culture grew and it was looking as though it pays to be a Police officer once again. People were dying to join the tactical team based on the brigandage & seeming endless opportunities.

Of course the enablers that cover up these crimes were living large. Their kids were sent abroad and their streams of income beat that of bankers in no time. It got so endemic that the Public Complaint unit became a device to cover up astynomicides.

All was well with the culture of impunity until #EndSARS happened. At first they fought this with propaganda and called us names. They said we were criminals defending our criminal colleagues, meanwhile at this point there weren’t any demilitarized zone. Every youth was a fraud.

The avarice was so entrenched that every young lady became a prostitute. The profiling went on to the point where police officers (not just members of tactical squads) see themselves as the judge, jury and executioner. You suddenly become guilty as charged for whatever.

Apart for commercializing the police and making stations drop zones for Capos, they also struck fear into society with their armed robbery styled raids of peaceful communities. What they gained in Ransom they lost in Trust. This was where the plunge began.

The #EndSARS Campaign and Movement opened the eyes of Nigerians to the Organized Crime Syndicate. It also created a ray Of hope because it is difficult to report an offense or infringement on your right to the very same policemen that robbed you. @SIAF_NG became necessary.

While exposing the bandits, running interventions and engagement of the Police hierarchies we also worked on dealing with the issues at its roots by repealing and replacing the Police Act Of 1943 with #PoliceReformBill. And #PoliceTrustFundBill as aided by the @NGRSenate

We didn’t stop there. The Judiciary and the Executives were also carried along. It was upon our intervention via @citizen_gavel that the Chief Justice of the Federation ordered the national implementation of the Administration of the Criminal Justice Act Of 2015.

We had hoped that the @NigBarAssoc would carry out an orientation on this and the magistrate would do the needful by making the rounds to all police stations in their jurisdiction but this never took off. Though other NGOs tried their best with the campaign on ACJA2015.

We learnt from this and once the Bills have been signed we will give it all that it would take for Primary school pupils to understand their rights under the New Act and ACJA 2015. The media outreach will facilitated & incorprated in police colleges.

But this is not the end. I’m sure we have been following #ResponsibleParenting Campaign on the lighter note, while we learn a few legal provisions of the Child’s Right Act 2013. Ignorance is no excuse of the law & I believe if we enforce some of these provisions the society heals

Policing becomes far more difficult without the cooperation of the society. Remember that the police are the public and the public are the police. There is a very thin line between the two institutions if any at all. Thus, we fail society when we fail our children and family.

Given our monitoring of the activities of the @PoliceNG We must admit that a lot of failings rest on society itself. I have seen areas where the kids of Landlords are the fraudsters, cultists, addicts and armed robbers terrorizing the area & the parents know this.

When the community raises alarm and the police make arrests, it is the same leaders of the community that will alert the public that their children have been raided. Meanwhile their only defense is that they are the parent. They can hardly vouch for their association or innocence

Our policing is crude and badly in need of the injection of intelligence but this doesn’t mean society shouldn’t take responsibility. If you have friends committing advance fee fraud and obtaining money under false pretenses without reporting them, you are part of the problem.

While try to contribute to building stronger institutions with the collaborative help of other credible CLOs/CSOs we expect every citizen to join hands in unity towards building Nigeria one institution after another. We must purge ourselves and not get used to pointing fingers.

Soon we will be able to build enough trust between the people and the police for you to report cultists and crime lords in society and even within the police without fear of mortal retribution. Also gate fees & bribes at stations will attract immediate prosecution.

Just as the future of all sectors of the economy is the private sector, the future of policing is community policing. This should not be confused with state policing for control of monopoly of violence by state political actors but a principle of utilitarianism.

We all have work to do and the earlier we realize this the better. The Police are working with meager resources as plagued by dysfunctional systemic elements which must be uprooted by legislation for a fresh start. The Reform is not a switch, we must learn anew another culture.

It will be phased, gradual and tolerant enough to reduce the steepness of the learning curve for the good of all. It is time to jettison the pettiness & propaganda and deploy our energy to productive development of our society for our children’s sake. Posterity will judge us all.

...End of Celestial Observation...

It takes a great deal Of discipline to run an advocacy in a polarized clime. You must always debug your system of prejudices & bias judgements. Understanding the perspective of others is key, even though many people see this as an excuse to justify impunity. This is not our view.

Nothing justifies impunity. It is like saying the demand for the adherence to human rights provision by law is justifying the crimes of culprits of various crimes subjected to abuse by police officers. This will be fallacious & far from enlightenment.

We must understand the motive behind every crime including astynomicides. This is what helps evaluation and sustainability of the new system. No law must be seen as cast in stone. They must be subject to amendments to reflect society in the here and the now.

Understanding is deeper than knowledge. You may be known by thousands of people but trust me, very few people understand you. You are thus a different person to different people. But what is key here is who you are when no one is watching. This is the story of motive.