The report that thousands of personnel of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) are being owed relocation allowance by their employer, the Federal Government, is disheartening. But it is even more than that: as a bad example to other employers in the country, it is unconscionable, it is not right. Sad as it is, may we remind the Federal Government of its constitutional obligations to treat citizens humanely.

The Government of this Federation is enjoined to ensure in Section 16 (d) of the extant constitution from which, let it be noted, it derives its raison d’etre and its just powers that ‘The State shall direct its policy towards ensuring… that suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum living wage, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits and welfare of the disabled are provided for all citizens.’ That is the law binding on the employer of the men and women of the NPF. Furthermore, Section 17(2) (c) requires that ‘governmental actions shall be humane’; and (3)(b) demands from the government in Nigeria that ‘In furtherance of the social order…b) conditions of work are just and humane, and that there are adequate facilities for leisure and for social, religious and cultural life’; Section 34(1) (1) says ‘every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person…’. Above all, these provisions can be rightly construed as only expressions of the overarching provision in Section 14(2)(b) that ‘the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government…’

If the government treats its police employees in the manner reported, on what moral ground can it stand to chide private sector employers who commit similar acts?

But the Police, as a part of the disciplined forces, belongs to an especial category: it is the first line of defence of law and order in society. The Police Act, 2020 expects the NPF to carry out a nine-point assignment that ranges from preventing and detecting crimes, and protecting the rights and freedom of every person in Nigeria ‘as provided in the Constitution, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and any other law…’ through maintaining ‘public safety, law and order’ to discharging ‘such duties within and outside Nigeria as may be required of it under this Act or any other law.’

It is reasonable to expect that persons assigned such wider-ranging and demanding duties will be given the best possible incentives to perform and keep the country safe from internal strife as they are, in Section 17, on oath to do.  Their Federal Government employer does not see this reason.

The well and widely known story of poor treatment of the Police is not recent though. Indeed, from the decrepit conditions of the training schools to poor remunerations and inadequate supply of tools (including uniforms and shoes) there is much that makes the work of policing Nigeria arduous, unpalatable, and discouraging. It may be no exaggeration that the officers and men of the force are psychologically assaulted by the unhappy way that the government of this federation treats them. And the point must be quickly made; being mere mortals, this mental condition finds expression in the negative attitude to work and disposition toward the citizens that they are hired to protect. Otherwise, good men and women cannot be so good when subjected to inhumanness.  Indeed, disgruntled, in uniform and with legitimate possession of weapons, they become part of the danger to society. But it should, nay must, not be so if they are to fulfill their very tall mandate in the extant act.

If, as reported, the former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, in May, gave his officers about 30 days to relocate, it can only be reasonable to assume that he had his plans all worked out including paying the necessary relocation allowances. And, as the NPF spokesperson Olumuyiwa Adejobi is quoted to say, ‘they [would] not be asked to move until their money [was] paid for a new accommodation.’ Besides that this is normal procedure in public service, it is even a civilised thing for a responsible employer to do.  Seven months later, they have not been paid, and the policemen remain in squalid accommodation unfit for human habitation. Is funding the problem? It cannot be. From the wastage and theft in government institutions, no one will reasonably believe there is no money for this necessary purpose.

The Police Act spells out in Sections 26 and 27 how the Force is to be funded and the modalities for expenditure.  Besides the Federal Government as its parent body, state governments and foreign organisations give financial and other assistance.  But the recurrent refrain from the Police, (as well as ministries, departments, and agencies of government is inadequate funding, even when and where wastage and theft are rife.  It is difficult to believe that the government cannot afford to pay the 22,000- strong police personnel affected by the quit order. Nigerians see how public funds are injudiciously applied to purposes that add scarcely any value to good governance or the maintenance of law and order.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Olukayode Egbetokun promised in a speech to Strategic Police Managers in June to uphold the rights and welfare of both his officers and the communities they serve. He will need all the funds and other means he can muster, most especially from the government.  And he can only if the government is willing.

The poor treatment of the police personnel by government – reflected in dilapidated training and housing facilities, wretched looking accoutrement, low remunerations, and allowances -utterly disrespects these officers of the law. Indeed, this aberration encourages the disdain by the citizens for police men and women charged to protect them and always ensure public safety. This is not right at all. U.S. Supreme Court Judge Louis Brandeis is said to say that for the law to be respected, it must be made respectable. This applies squarely to officers of the law too.

All said, there can be no denying that the Federal Government cannot afford to maintain the Nigeria Police Force as presently structured. The states already make large contributions to sustain a federal police force that they do not control. That is an aberration. Even worse is that it is an aberration to have a unitary police structure in a federal system of government; it is inappropriate, it is unconventional, and it defies common sense.  For these and other good reasons, the present structure of policing is inefficient and ineffective. It is time to decentralise policing in Nigeria as all reasonable people continue to advocate.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) party promised in its 2015 manifesto to do this. Eight years later, it failed under the Buhari government. The new APC helmsman, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has promised in his ‘Renewed Hope 2023’ document to ‘reposition the Police’ and ‘reform’ it ‘to better deliver on its primary duties of community policing…’, ‘to amend national governance architecture such that states are afforded the autonomy and resources needed to better serve the people’, ‘to ensure that states are in greater control over certain critical areas… [including] crime prevention…’ Nigerians are waiting for this government to walk its talk.