By Charles Kumolu, Deputy Editor

When Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu, in April this year, said President Muhammadu Buhari had approved community policing, many had thought that what the President approved was state police.

The succeeding arguments on whether state police should come into being via presidential proclamation or enactment of the National Assembly indicated that only but a few knew what community policing is all about.

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The IGP had, at the Forum of Northern Traditional Rulers in Kaduna, said Buhari approved the adoption of a community police system to combat growing security threats across Nigeria.

He described community policing as a citizen-centered and community policing approach which would lead to more sustainable successes in the management of internal security threats.

Policing model

Also, the IGP said the policing model envisaged for the country would involve the establishment and usage of Special Constables.

On the heels of that, the Federal Government inaugurated a 14-member committee to work out the framework of strengthening internal security and community policing.

Since then the police boss has continued with his advocacies for it, though with less awareness campaign.

Irrespective of that, community policing is still mistaken for state police by Nigerians.

Wesley G. Skogan and Susan M. Harnett, in their book, Community Policing, Chicago Style, said community policing is a model that involves organisational decentralisation, new channels of communication with the public, a commitment to responding to what the community thinks their priorities ought to be, and the adoption of a broad problem-solving approach to neighborhood issues.

Excerpts from the book read: “Police departments across the country are busily ‘reinventing’ themselves, adopting a new style known as ‘community policing’.

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“The concept is so popular with the public and city councils that scarcely a chief wants his department to be known for failing to climb on this bandwagon.”

As its name suggests, the model differs from the current system of policing.

Three strategies

These distinctions were captured by Bello Ibrahim, Magajo Saleh and Jamilu Mukhtar, in ‘An Overview of Community Policing in Nigeria’ thus:

“Three strategies make community policing quite distinct from traditional policing: community partnership, organisational transformation, and problem-solving.”

Most Nigerians may not know much about the policing system, but findings by Sunday Vanguard revealed that the country had long considered the prospects of community policing long before the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, embraced it 2002.

Information from the archives of the Nigeria Police shows that the police had commenced community policing during the tenure of former IGP Tafa Balogun, precisely in March 2002.

The force did so in partnership with the British Council Department for International Development, DFID.

It was learned that a section, Community Development, and Strategy Development, is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that community policing works.

Pilot phase

Information on the website of the police said some police officers have been trained under the programme in the UK and USA since its inception.

It said officers in the section monitor and evaluate the implementation and development of community policing.

Besides, a Police Commissioner, Austin Iwar, who authored ‘Implementing Community Policing in Nigeria,’ said the police launched the community policing project in Enugu in 2004.

He stated that following how the pilot phase worked in Enugu, then IGP, Sunday Ehindero, ordered that it should be done in Benue, Jigawa, Kano, Ogun, and Ondo states.

Using the pilot states as an example, he explained that the model “adopts four essential strategies of responding to the needs and concerns of individuals and communities, consulting with communities, mobilising communities, and solving recurring problems.’’

He added that ‘’the strategies are designed to encourage the community to become partners in controlling and preventing crime.”

Social and institutional constraints

Whether community policing has been a success story in Nigeria since 2004 is a question with obvious answers.

Sunday Vanguard believes that had the policing model worked, Nigeria may not have been this insecure and current moves at its (re)introduction wouldn’t have appeared novel.

That the IGP has not relented since he commenced the latest plans could as well be taken to mean that the previous attempt at having community policing failed.

Several authorities on policing have also argued in that direction, citing social and institutional constraints.

These problems are not different from the known factors militating against traditional policing in the country.

They are but not limited to endemic corruption, absence of trust, and poor funding.

Real danger

Sunday Vanguard believes the effectiveness of community policing depends on the three factors, especially public confidence in the force.

Unfortunately, getting a Nigerian who believes in the police is the most difficult task anyone could undertake. And that is where the real danger lies for community policing in the country.

Certainly, the IGP may have to work more on the perception challenge confronting the force which Human Rights Watch said has a long history of engaging in unprofessional, corrupt and criminal conduct.

The imperativeness of having a better public perception can’t be overemphasised since community policing requires that officers are seen by communities as unbiased rather than tools of oppression.

In the conversations our reporters had with opinion leaders, the poor public perception of the police was an issue of concern.

That in itself re-echoes the centrality of public confidence to the future of community policing in the country.

Staff strength

Apart from the Force Public Relations Officer, PRO, Frank Mba, who was very optimistic, others were pessimistic.

The majority said irrespective of what the model seeks to achieve, state police remains the answer to the under-policing of Nigeria.

Currently, the Nigeria Police Force, which was established in 1930, has staff strength of about 301,737. Going by Nigeria’s population, the figure implies that one police officer presumably protects 662 people.

This is far below the United Nations recommendation of one police officer to 400 people.

Notwithstanding, the police leadership seems not to be looking back in its determination to make policing everyone’s business through community policing.

40,000 CPOs

The plan involves the recruitment of 40,000 Community Policing Officers, CPOs, in addition to 1,300 CPOs to be domiciled across the 774 Local Government Areas, LGAs, in the country.

Section 50 (1) of the Police Act 2004 was cited as the legal framework under which the plan is being executed.

The IGP had explained it thus: “The breakdown of the community policing deployment plan covers the recruitment of a total of 40,000 CPOs across the country in the interim.

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“The CPOs will be recruited from within the communities where the prospective applicants reside and 50 CPOs are to be engaged in each of the 774 Local Government Areas.

“Also, 1,300 CPOs will be drawn from professional bodies like the academics, road transport unions, artisans, traders associations, religious bodies, women groups, and youth organisations among others.”

The optimism of the police and concerns of regional socio-political groups, and opinion leaders converged on our Story of the Week, producing fresh perspectives to Nigeria’s search for a better policing system.

Vanguard