Is British Police the Answer? - Thisday

EDITORIAL
2 December 2007
Posted to the web 3 December 2007

Lagos

Ordinarily, assistance from advanced countries to developing ones is healthy, perhaps inevitable. But the federal government's invitation to the British Police to restructure its Nigerian counterpart exposes government's unreadiness to frontally tackle the numerous problems of the Nigeria Police.

The circumstances that produced the request is understandable, though. It was in response to the offer reportedly made by the British Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown, during last month's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Uganda to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to name an area in which his country should support Nigeria. And probably worried about the nation's worsening internal security, Yar'Adua decided that the Police should utilise the overture. But in so doing, President Yar'Adua inadvertently demonstrated a lack of understanding of Police's contemptible situation - an attitude that had also been exhibited by previous governments which had formed the habit of setting up panels to examine the predicament of the Police, without giving bite to their recommendations.

And now, the government has taken the same route, this time, with the addition of looking outwards for solutions. A committee of retired and senior police officers who have distinguished themselves will soon be inaugurated by the Minister of Interior, Major General Godwin Abbe, who is clearly upbeat about it. As he put it, "We have it on good authority that the British government is ready to support us in reorganising the NPF (Nigeria Police Force) and empowering it to be able to carry out its assigned role of ensuring law and order. The extent of involvement will be determined by the committee... The British government has done well in the past and the Nigerian government appreciates that. That is the essence of the cordial relationship between the two governments." Full Story