TheCable

If you did not watch the farce between Senator Isa Misau (APC Bauchi Central) and Moshood Jimoh, the Nigerian Police spokesman, yesterday on Channels TV, you missed a lot. Farcical, not because the anchor did a shoddy job, but because one could see most of the things wrong with our police in Nigeria. It also affirmed what some of us have always thought, the police as presently constituted cannot work for Nigeria.

The senator, a former policeman, though the Police think otherwise, has been on a personal mission of exposing corruption among the men in black. Not only did he address a press conference claiming that “close to N10 billion or more than that” is paid to police coffers monthly by banks, hotels, oil companies, multinational corporations and private individuals as payment for guard duties in these places. Misau’s statement and comments on the programme included a suggestion that such payments should be better codified as internally generated revenue and subsequently used to improve the Police.

A curious submission no doubt, especially in these days of TSA and when Nigeria needs all the money it could get. Misau also claimed that about 50, 000 policemen are engaged in such guard duties even though the immediate past Inspector general of Police, Solomon Arase, ordered that no special protection should be provided for private individuals any longer. Talk of police disobeying its top cop’s order and regulations. Expectedly, Moshood, the police PRO, denied the allegation saying that no such money is paid adding that “policemen are supposed to live on their salaries,” when even a foetus in the land knows that corruption is the second name of our police. From personal knowledge, I can claim boldly that business owners routinely pay such money to the police, as it is public knowledge in banks and hotels especially.

Just as Mr. Moshood denied a report, National Corruption Report, released nearly two weeks ago by the National Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime which asserted that “police officers are the type of public official to whom bribes are most commonly paid in Nigeria.” It is such arguments that proponents of state police use in justifying the need for it, even though it does not tackle corruption, which is the basis of the rot in the police. If about 50, 000 policemen are engaged in guard duties separate from normal or routine police duties, it is no news that the rest of us are under protected and as a musician sang, our security is in the hands of God truly.

The programme on Channels also offers a metaphor on why the war against corruption is such a difficult and tough one to wage. It is ludicrous that until Misau went to town with his allegations, the Nigerian Police did not arrest him as it claim he deserted the police. The senator, a retired deputy superintendent of police, said he retired in 2010 after writing a letter to the police service commission but the letter was not replied till 2014 by which time he had left and even contested election in 2011. Throughout the programme, Moshood kept referring to Misau as “the gentleman here” but his attempts at debunking Misau was like bringing a paintbrush to a gunfight. Misau knows the Nigeria Police well having served as a mobile police officer, unit commander and with the diplomatic protection unit. He further claimed that while he served as ADC to two former FCT ministers, the top hierarchy of the police asked for land through a letter written to him, a request he claimed he facilitated. This was in response to Moshood’s question that how much did he pay to be posted to the ministers as ADC.

Again Moshood decided to play the ostrich, as Nigerians know that such “lucrative postings” do not come free in the Nigeria Police. But what kind of police do we have that a letter of retirement was not responded to for about four years? How do you declare a man you know his whereabouts a deserter when you could arrest him without much fuss? Misau’s other claims that Ibrahim Idris, current inspector general, sought his assistance when the senate invited him over the kidnap on Abuja –Kaduna expressway is in tandem with the way the ruling class operate in Nigeria. This ‘revelation’ by Misau most likely is as a result of a deal gone awry or a ploy to settle an old score. After sometime, it will die down, while Idris and Misau will share drinks together at the officers’ mess laughing hysterically.

By the way, nobody will be punished while things return to normal, if we can call it that. If in doubt, where is Abdulmumin Jibrin?