Thread by @HisKnowledgeabl

DAY 9: KEYS TO REWIRING NIGERIA

Today is DAY 9 of #EndSARSProtest, as aggrieved Nigerian youths continue to yearn for a holistic #PoliceReforms.

At least, 90% of @PoliceNG contacts with ordinary Nigerians, which sparked the ongoing protests, occur on roadways, with motorists.

2/ Having critically examined the contending issues behind the #EndSARSProtest, in this thread, I'll bare my mind on 5 Major Keys to rewiring Nigeria.

@NigeriaGov must look into:
- Central Database
- Policing System
- Justice System
- Road Infrastructure
- Transport Ministry

3/ On October 11, in a thread, I bared my mind on how the Police in saner climes, e.g., U.S., make traffic stops across roadways, according to best global practices, as opposed to how @PoliceNG make traffic stops at their roadblocks of extortion. Read👇

https://twitter.com/HisKnowledgeabl/status/1315459598879522816?s=19

4/ Among other things, in saner climes, like the U.S., Policing is largely effective based on these five Major Keys. I, repeat, @NigeriaGov must look into these:

- Central Database
- Policing System
- Justice System
- Road Infrastructure
- Transport Ministry

5/ Central Database: This makes Policing effective in saner climes. During motorised surveillance (not roadblock), a U.S. cop can pull-over a motorist by mere running his/her license number plate on the computer in his squad car. If it returns a negative report, he/she acts.

6/ Report(s) a motorist's number plate can return from any of the U.S. States Secretaries of State's database, include but not limited to: vehicle owner's info; valid arrest warrant; suspended license; revoked license; valid driving under influence (DUI/DWI), etc.

7/ i.e., if the cop on motorised surveillance, runs a motorist's number plate, if the result shows the vehicle owner is a 75-year-old man, but the lone driver is a young man in his 20s, suspicion arises. He pulls-over the driver to confirm a case of stolen car hasn't occurred.

8/ To ascertain it is not a stolen car, the cop goes further to ask the motorist for his/her driver's license, auto insurance card & vehicle registration. The trio info can be verified easily on the State's database. If there are conflicting info, further questionings erupt.

9/ Policing System: Like Sen. @iamekweremadu, I hold that @PoliceNG has outlived its purpose & effectiveness. Nigeria can't be better policed with a centralised policing model. It is time @PoliceNG was decentralised into Independent 37 State Police & 774 Local Police Departments.

10/ U.S. for instance, has 50 Independent State Police structures. Across the 3,142 counties & county-equivalents in the 50 states & the District of Columbia, there are 3,142 Sheriffs Offices. The 19,495 incorporated places (cities, villages) all got Local Police Departments.

11/ I, reiterate, like the former Deputy @NGRSenate President, Sen. @iamekweremadu, I suggest that @PoliceNG is decentralised via an Act of Parliament.

The major benefits of this effective model was captured by me last February👇

https://twitter.com/HisKnowledgeabl/status/1227961164031823872?s=19

12/ Justice System: Reforming @PoliceNG without the Criminal Justice System amounts to a circus. As at April 2020, there were 73,726 inmates held across Nigeria's prisons. Of this, over 51,983, mostly youths, are held without trial. Only about 22, 773 inmates have been convicted.

13/ What this means is that over 70% of Nigeria's 73,726 inmates were serving time across various prisons without being sentenced.

How can there be more innocent people in prisons that convicts? What kind of Justice System allow proceedings go for years without conclusion?

14/ Sadly, @PoliceNG & other security agencies' age-long culture of arbitrary arrests, trump-up charges against hapless Nigerians, led to this menace.

Here is a system that imprisons its own citizens on mere suspicion of having committed a crime, and not an actual conviction?

15/ On the ongoing #EndSARS protests, @NGRPresident has spoken. @PoliceNG IG has spoken. Chairman @NGFSecretariat, @kfayemi has spoken. The latest speaker is Vice President @ProfOsinbajo. Yet, none of them has touched on the rots of Nigeria's Criminal Justice System. Circus!

16/ One major problem I've with @NigeriaGov, @nassnigeria & @NGFSecretariat remains: They dish out so much vocabs, jettisoning simple solutions to calming frayed nerves over the ongoing mass movement to #EndSARS, #EndPoliceBrutalityinNigera.

17/ This generation of Nigeria's ruling elites are rudderless. You mouth @PoliceNG Reforms, yet peaceful protesters are arrested, brutalised & charged on trump-up charges of murder? For declaring protest to #EndImpunity, you charge @YeleSowore, Olawale Bakare, et al, for treason?

18/ You mouth @PoliceNG Reforms, yet over 51,983 innocent Nigerians, mostly youths, are held in prisons, awaiting trial? Yet @PoliceNG & its Tactical Squad like the proscribed FSARS continue to hold thousands of innocent Nigerians in holding cells across Nigeria, without trial?

19/ @NigeriaGov, @nassnigeria & @NGFSecretariat mouth @PoliceNG Reforms, yet they can order a comprehensive audit of the activities of @AcpIshaku-led Complaint Response Unit- @PoliceNG_CRU of @PoliceNG, created in October 2015?

20/ Beyond @PoliceNG_CRU issuing tracking numbers, since 2015, aggrieved Nigerian Youths who yearn for #EndSARS, #EndPoliceBrutalityinNigeria want to know: For misconducts, how many Police personnels have been

- Dismissed/Derobed?
- Demoted?
- Prosecuted?
- Jailed?

21/ Like every mass movement, there're idea bearer(s); foot soldiers; leaders of thoughts; boardroom executioners.

Everybody is important & needed urgently to #EndSARS, #EndPoliceBrutalityinNigeria, thus
birthing a Reformed Policing & Criminal Justice System in Nigeria.

22/ While the #EndSARS protest lasts, in the next couple of weeks, I want to see the 30th @NigBarAssoc Prez @OlumideAkpata, leading other respected legal luminaries, civil society orgs, et al, to Nigeria's Prisons; Holding Cells of @PoliceNG & its Tactical Squads like FSARS, etc.

23/ Dear @OlumideAkpata, I enjoin you to use your good offices to effect a positive change within Nigeria's Policing & Criminal Justice Systems.

Over 51,983 innocent Nigerians, mostly youths, can't be languishing in prisons, awaiting trials, & @NigBarAssoc is keeping mum?

24/ Thousands of innocent Nigerians, mostly youths can't be languishing in the Holding Cells of @PoliceNG & its Tactical Squads, without trials, and the @NigBarAssoc is keeping mum?

@OlumideAkpata, now is the time to act. I can assure you the unflinching support of #WeThePeople.

25/ Road Infrastructure: The world over, proper road infrastructure help the traffic units of Police in their daily beats. Nigeria, the reverse is the case. Hardworking Traffic Wardens of @PoliceNG are deployed under the sun & in the rain, yet, don't earn up to N250,000 monthly?

26/ #EndSARS protesters in Abuja rewarded this hardworking Traffic Warden👇, the other day. These @PoliceNG personnels do a lot on our roadways, yet, earn meagrely.

A country, where a do-nothing, snoring Senator earns in salary & other emoluments, a whopping N29.479m monthly?

30/ If @NigeriaGov at all tiers plan & build Nigeria's roadways with Traffic Lights/Stop Signs at all intersections, road markings, speed limits, etc, there won't be need for industrious officers like these, standing under the sun, in the rain, controlling free flow of traffic.

31/ Road Infrastructure aid effective policing. Pray tell, how the @PoliceNG called on emergencies will be able to access a crime scene via a road like this?👇

The world over, Nigeria is about the only place with Federal, States & Local Governments owned roads like this👇

32/ Transport Ministry: To rewire Nigeria, @NigeriaGov, @nassnigeria & @NGFSecretariat must understand that Transport Ministries play effective role in Policing. While I continue to advocate for a decentralised @PoliceNG, also, I suggest @FRSCNigeria be scrapped. Reasons below👇

33/ Across Nigeria's roads, @PoliceNG & @FRSCNigeria mount roadblocks/checkpoints.

On same route where @PoliceNG flag-down motorists, checking Driver's Licenses, Vehicle Papers, Road Worthiness, etc, @FRSCNigeria personnels are also there. This is Duplication of Duties!

34/ It amounts to waste of tax payers' Naira; waste of tax payers' quality time for the @PoliceNG & @FRSCNigeria to be flagging-down motorists, asking same questions, across Nigeria's roadways.

This policing model is tantamount to oppressing the Nigerian people. It must stop!

35/ I suggest @NigeriaGov scraps @FRSCNigeria via an Act of Parliament. @kfayemi-led @NGFSecretariat should cause their Transportation Ministries, including FCT Abuja, to establish Departments of Motor Vehicles. Their duties:

- Vehicle Registration
- Issuance of Driver's License

36/ Duties of States' Depts of Motor Vehicles:

- Issuance of Number Plates
- States' Identity Cards to Residents
- Monthly/Annual License Plates Stickers
- Driver's Tests for all private & commercial automobile operators, including motorcycle riders, school bus drivers, etc.

37/ Scrapping @FRSCNigeria and giving @kfayemi-led @NGFSecretariat, powers for their Depts of Motor Vehicles to issue driver's licenses, conduct road tests for drivers, etc, shows True Federalism, as operated in saner climes like the U.S.

Doing this, aids effective Policing.

Namaste @threadreaderapp, please unroll.