On policemen performing ‘domestic duty’

CONSIDERED from every angle, it is a shame that officers of the Nigeria Police attached to some Very Important Persons (VIPs) have been reduced – or reduced themselves – to performing what Mr. Mike Okiro, chairman of Police Service Commission, termed ‘domestic duty.’ Such duty includes carrying the handbags of their ‘madam’, the umbrella of their ‘master’, and in a different but related situation, it involved another security service and its supervising minister, polishing the latter’s shoes at a public function.

For many reasons, these acts dehumanise the person of the aide and demean his uniform as a symbol of authority of the Federal Republic. Such acts constitute a smear on the reputation of the officers and their parent organisation, just as it tells a lot about the so-called VIPs, their character, ego, self-respect, and understanding of the limits of official duty.

Whereas it is global practice that some persons in society should have police protection by virtue of their position or roles, the nature of their work, or indeed any other cogent reason, even sufficiently policed countries do not assign their men and women to just about anybody with money or the sense of self-importance to request for police protection. The exception is in Nigeria where, for years, the Police have condoned this even as their top officers repeatedly warn and threaten against it. Sometimes, the police deny that it happens. Yet, the Nigeria Police is just that: the police of and for Nigeria with, according to its Mission Statement, ‘the intention of ensuring the safety and security of the country, public officers maintained with public funds to ‘create a safe and secure environment for everyone living in Nigeria and, in the words of IGP Solomon Arase, ‘accountable to the citizens.’

Quite clearly, the police with just about 370,000 personnel to cover a 170 million population, has far fewer hands than it requires to be effective. It is, therefore, difficult to justify the allocation of substantial numbers of personnels to just about any public official, well connected or wealthy persons, including foreigners to boot. The Nigeria Police is neither a private security service to be deployed at the whims of the owner nor is it the property of the ‘propertied class’ in society. It is established to, in its own words, ‘create a safe and secure environment for every one living in Nigeria,’ and with a core value to ‘deliver quality police service that is accessible to the generality of the people.’

In sum, Okiro and the Police authorities must withdraw the officers inappropriately attached to all sorts of men and women who by official definition and rules do not deserve them. Whosoever desires extra protection far beyond what the average citizens enjoy must arrange for this with registered private guard companies.

Okiro has indicated a plan to deploy a squad to monitor and arrest policemen who allow their official role to be mis-used and their personal dignity to be abused. He cannot implement this too soon, and this newspaper holds that, within both the provision of the Third Schedule, Part 1, Section 30(b) of the Constitution, and the enabling Act of the Police Service Commission, he needs no higher consent to move. Any reasonable measure to stop the disgrace of uniformed officers of the law, and abuse of VIP privilege deserves all support.

It may be granted that some officials and low-level officers may, for rewards, seek to impress their bosses with subservience and self-demeaning acts. But what does one make of highly placed men and women who, if they were truly deserving of their ascribed positions, should see everything wrong with an obvious abuse of this privilege? And these are little things that define a leader. That they do not, speaks much negativity about their person, character, ego, sense of propriety, values, and all. Of course, it is axiomatic that not everyone in official leadership positions earns or deserves it.

Pray, what point is made by either a security aide, not a grooming aide – cleaning the shoes of his superior in public? The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) spokesman has been quoted to say that the officer’s disgraceful gesture demonstrated ‘a mark of respect for his principal since he was not compelled to do it.’ This ‘principal’, he added ‘is entitled to aides that could help in ensuring that he looks neat at all times.’ Respect for a ‘principal’ and a concern that ‘he looks neat at all times’ certainly should not be stretched to such bizarre limits. And it would be necessary that the NSCDC tell the Nigerian public the job description of a security aide in order to establish if it includes the management of looks.

Nigeria is a place where the trivial, the mundane, and the ordinary is elevated as definitions of importance. Crude display of wealth, often corruptly acquired, and of power crookedly acquired, result in the desperate need for extra protection, and in turn, the abuse of such privilege by many persons not deserving of it in the first place. The burden to stop the abuse of security men is on the policemen and women at all levels of authority. Okiro must walk his talk forthwith. But it must be stated too that persons who genuinely deserve to and do have security aides must show them – and the bodies that they represent – some respect. It is a cheap sense of importance that any VIP would treat subordinates with indignity.