POLICE BRUTALITY AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE
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POLICE BRUTALITY AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE
The second chapter
REVIEW OF RELATED WORKS
2.1 The emergence and establishment of the Nigerian police force
The origins of the police force can be traced back to the mutual pledge system. The mutual promise system was a forerunner to the establishment of the police force in the United Kingdom. Villagers were responsible for their own safety as well as the defence of their villages against robbers and marauders under the mutual promise system.
It was a sort of shared obligation for everyone. Ten families were organised into collectives, known as tithings, and tasked with protecting their communities from robbers and marauders. The tithing was reorganised into a hundred groups, each directed by one of them, who was nominated by the local noble.
The appointee who is regarded as the first true police officer is in charge of more serious violations of the law. With the passage of time, the mutual pledge system was reorganised in such a way that hundreds of families created shires,
the modern counterpart of local government areas. Similarly, the sheriff, or head of the shire, was appointed by a monarch or queen to monitor a specific territory and guarantee that law and order were maintained.
As a result of this arrangement, the sheriff soon began to seek and apprehend lawbreakers, resulting in the establishment of the Office of Justice of Peace in around 1326. In time, the Justices of Peace began to perform judicial tasks in addition to their primary role as peacekeepers.
The local constable became the operational aide to the Justice of the Peace, directing the night watch, investigating infractions, serving summons, executing warrants, and securing prisoners, as a formal system of security watch emerged. The mutual pledge mechanism gradually went out for the following reasons:
What was everyone’s obligation if nobody’s duty existed?
People had lost faith in the constables since some of them were illiterates.
There was some reliance on night watchmen who were paid.
Following that, the industrial revolution attracted thousands of people from the countryside to work in the larger cities. The poor salaries earned by the growing population could not maintain them, and as a result, crime increased,
heightening the need for legal security. The rise of organic solidarity, which supplanted mechanical solidarity, resulted in a shift in communal social activity and a decrease in community sense of belonging.
In response to established residents’ concerns, the government of England passed legislation establishing a new protection agency. Three Justices of Peace were employed by the agency, who in turn employed six capable and healthy individuals as staffers (constables). Following then, the legal system became more centralised and professional.
In addition, through acts of parliament, a protective agency was established. With the passage of time, the protection service was re-branded as London’s first organised police force, with personnel donning distinctive uniforms and led by two magistrates who were eventually given the title of Commissioner.
However, it is instructive to note that, while the people desired the establishment of a protection agency, many people opposed the institutionalisation of a professional, uniformed protection agency for the simple reason that they feared that an armed protection agency in the hands of the Central Government would threaten their freedom.
Furthermore, the people were aware that the professional uniformed protection force had been founded primarily to defend the rulers rather than them. Despite opposition to the idea of armed, military-style police on British soil,
it was introduced into Nigeria not to undermine human rights, which were the bane of its rejection, but to protect colonial masters as well as the metropolitan (British) economy in whatever form deemed necessary.
As previously said, the police became a weapon for harassing, intimidating, and using violence against opponents, and in most cases, lynching them. Nwabueze (1992) expands on this claim, stating that throughout the age of regionalism in Nigeria, each region had its own local police.
However, he said that local police units in Northern Nigeria… had been transformed into local arms of the ruling parties. As a result, criminal charges against any government official were dismissed. The inequity inherent in regional policing sparked the call for the country to have a single police force.
However, after the unification, one wonders if there has been a change between what Nwabueze (1992) inquired about and what is happening today, where only members of the opposition are being persecuted. The media would not have covered the violation of the rule of law and professionalism.
However, the disruption of campaigns by armed thugs as witnessed in the recently concluded gubernatorial elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States (Nigeria), where people were allegedly beheaded in one of the states in order to steal election materials,
but the burning to death of a woman leader of one of the political parties inside her private residence will go down in the annals of Nigerian elections. While police inaction is still unacceptable, the alleged body language or assertions of her fealty to the federal government are difficult to understand.
This is in violation of Article 26 of the ICCPR, which states that all people are equal before the law and have the right to equal protection under the law without discrimination. But what about the Police Act, which prohibits any improper agreement with any government or political party in Nigeria?
Frustratingly, the police hierarchy’s body language appears to imply that “failure to support the government is tantamount to rebellion, and thus a punishable offence” (Amnesty International, 2002). As disappointing as it may appear, all of these anomalies and implications on human rights are self-evident of the imperialists’ coercive imposition of police on the Nigerian people.
Without a doubt, section 194 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Nigeria, 1999), which established the Nigeria Police Force as the National Police with exclusive jurisdiction throughout the country, was silent on profiling the character of recruits; there was no background check on who and who had to be recruited.
Obviously, it appears to be the herculean effort, as all types of people have been recruited for the force. Unfortunately, no one seems to see it as a disadvantage. Surprisingly, the colonial authorities emphasised refined character as a foundation for recruiting in their nation. However, in Nigeria, the hypocritical position of colonial policing is vexing.
As a result, the police have come to represent darkness, brutality, deception, and recklessness, and they continue to be the sole proponents of unfinished investigations. For example, the assassination of Chief Dikibo, a Peoples Democratic Party chieftain in Rivers State, and Chief Bola Ige, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, is still being investigated after about sixteen years because no one has yet been convicted for these high-profile murders,
even when there are possible clues (Coker and George-Geny, 2014). Worryingly, according to Coker and George-Geny (2014), many of the suspects have been rewarded with electoral and executive jobs.
From the preceding, one could readily conclude that there is a positive correlation between Nwabueze’s earlier allegations that criminal accusations made against people in positions of authority go unnoticed (Nwabueze, 1992) and the current situation.
We have frequently said that changing the Nigeria police force is the greatest folly of all, because her history since inception has been not only of exploitation and cruelty, but also of protecting the bourgeoisie as it is today.
As a result, the exploitation and violence of the Nigerian police continue to be reasons why many in government wish to keep the force as it is in order to maintain the status quo, and so perceive reformers as idealists who have lost touch with reality.
While it is regrettable that officers kowtow to perpetual adoration of wealth, murals of dictators, quack-pastors and occultists (whom they now bodyguard), political thugs, narcotics smugglers, murderers, and religious bigots, can the Nigeria Police still achieve greatness and respectability?
The agonies, humiliations, frustrations, and disappointments endured by many souls whose loved ones have been ruthlessly murdered by police on “accidental charges” because they obstructed justice are heartbreaking.
At this point, we might be tempted to compare the interpretation of human rights violations by Nigerian police to Ayi Kwei Armah’s satirical novel ‘The beautiful ones are not yet born,’ because no one has yet succeeded in laying bare the entire pattern of that novel (Armah, 1968). Similarly, no one has been able to fully comprehend the Nigerian police.
Unfortunately, no one is particularly concerned about the high level of police brutality, which is the work of a few individuals whose dishonesty, lying, avarice, and demonic power are insulating all nooks and crannies of Nigerian society.
And as the year progresses, the abuse of human rights becomes so overpowering that one is obliged to pause for a while. Allow one’s thoughts on Nigerian society to stray while standing aside and contemplating the brutality of the Police in Nigeria (PIN),
also known as the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). While the force suffers from identity crises and has the strange reputation of snuffing out the lives of innocent Nigerians at the slightest provocation, it is undeniable that the police exemplify darkness, brutality, deceit, recklessness, and remain the sole proponent of unfinished investigations.
This unfinished inquiry into many fatalities has become so hungry and terrible that cops have turned leprous, both in colour and content. Contrary to popular belief, the police insist that Nigerian citizens are their friends, even if none of us are safe in their hands. In essence, some claim that unless the Police in Nigeria (PIN) becomes a true Nigeria Police Force (NPF),
nothing can be done to improve her crooked reputation. Many people regard the cops as walking corpses. To be sure, there has been far too much oppression and brutality by the powerful and wealthy against the poor and needy.
Indeed, Nigerians have been reduced to beggars, destitutes, or prostitutes as a result of the country’s dire economic circumstances. With nearly every following administration, the people have gotten worse.
The people have never had a true and authentically Nigerian police force that has ever prioritised national interests over local, personal, and sectional interests. Regrettably, there is nothing on the horizon that suggests a drastic shift from the present quo, because human rights abuses are becoming more powerful and calling the shots.
The Nigerian police have been so badly mismanaged in all aspects of preserving human rights, particularly in the face of minor provocations, that one is tempted to raise the underlying question.
Is a government’s intelligence truly better to that of people outside it? There may be some disagreements here, but no one can be persuaded that an individual or government as a group of individuals has better wisdom.
As the Chinese say, a thousand flowers should bloom and a thousand thoughts should compete, and so one feels that even a madman has an antidote to bring in a new beginning for the Nigeria police.
A police force that is not in a hurry to collapse should not forbid any insane person from writing prescriptions because he may contain some unproven and undiscovered insight.
Really, general insanity may be diagnosed for a police force that despises criticism and pretends to be wiser than those outside of it, and only a lunatic would pray to identify with such an insane police agency.
Despite this, others argue that the Nigerian police have the power and authority to correct all wrongs against human rights abuses in order to restore sanity, discipline, morality, and the dignity of man in society.
Police brutality and its consequences
Without a doubt, the police in Nigeria are given enormous powers by law and the constitution to take preventive actions against the conduct of all crimes. Under this premise, the law empowers them to use whatever reasonable force is necessary to prevent crimes.
However, in the exercise of this authority, there have been several cases of unforgivable killings of innocent people by Nigerian police officers. This is especially true of younger officers who do not act alone or on their own initiative.
Senior police personnel, according to credible evidence, are deeply implicated in these atrocities. Regrettably, it is disheartening to witness that police management consistently undermines any efforts by injured victims or their families to seek reparation or justice by reassigning the officers responsible for the crime (Alemika, 1993).
For example, the case of Chika Elekwachi, a pregnant married woman in Lagos who refused to be identified as a prostitute, which resulted in her being beaten mercilessly by the police to the point of losing consciousness and going into brutality-induced premature labour for a baby who later died, cannot be overlooked.
According to Human Rights Watch (Human Rights, 2009), Chika’s vehicle was obstructed by a bus; as a result, one of the three police officers in the bus out, pointed a gun at her, and told her to park.
According to Human Rights Watch (2009), incidents of police brutality against citizens, such as the Chika case, are concerning and symptomatic of the police’s indiscipline, impropriety, and resulting disillusionment.
Beating up a married and pregnant woman and stripping her naked because she objected to being called a prostitute is insane and imprudent. The act is a misdemeanour,’ and we are saddened that police brutality is on the upswing, despite the top echelon of police leadership’s professed resolve to reinvigorate professionalism in the Force (Human Rights Watch, 2009).
It is unfathomable that a pregnant woman could be treated cruelly. The occurrence, scope, and pattern of police abuse of citizens’ rights in society, as previously observed, are dependent on the standing of the individual involved. There are several reports of police violence. Chika’s situation is one too many.
Among other charges, the organisation claimed that police detain people in order to extort money or coerce a confession. Obviously, some of the torture techniques used to elicit confessions or extort gratification (Alemika, 1993) reflect the country’s dysfunctional police system. Furthermore, it is clear from the preceding that the Open Society Justice Initiative (2011) report against the police is not only shocking, but an undeniable fact.
Bribes are requested from motorists at roadblocks with reckless abandon, according to the report. At its worst, the report alleges that the police massage Chemical Mace and hot chilli pepper into the genitals of those arrested in order to elicit dubious confessions to use as an excuse to summarily execute those they describe as “armed robbers.”
Furthermore, the average police officer on the streets of Nigeria is frequently armed with a horse whip, which many of them use on innocent passers-by without provocation. According to the Report, individuals who get away with just getting horsewhipped are regarded lucky.
Many others perform significantly worse. Odinkalu(2005) says previously that human safety and security are human rights since they have intrinsic value. Without a doubt, he contends that the state wields disproportionate power in the security sector,
and that as a result, the legitimacy and rights of the people can only be perpetuated to the extent that the state can guarantee the safety of life and property of its residents.
Theoretical structure
Marx’s Conflict Theory
The conflict theory proposed by Karl Marx (1818-1883) serves as the theoretical foundation for this paper. The theoretical propositions offer a materialist interpretation of history, a critical attitude against existing social structures, and argue for reform to enshrine the rights of the proletariats (commoners),
notably in Nigeria, where this study is based. Marx argues vehemently that the materialist view of history begins with the premise that the most important determinant of social life is the labour people do,
particularly work that results in the provision of basic necessities of life, food, clothing, and shelter (Marx, 1971), but he questions the abuses to which the proletariats are subjected by the bourgeoisie (owners of means of production). It is critical to state unequivocally that these heinous abuses, including the threat of death,
against the powerless violated all agreements negotiated for the protection of human rights at various International Human Rights Conferences, including the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights signed in 1981 (and which became effective in 1986).
According to Marxist ideas, power is concentrated in the hands of a minority in society and is used to harass, threaten, and exploit the helpless. To explain, successive Nigerian governments have different interests than the ruled (powerless), leading to abuses and dehumanisation of the people’s dignity.
The concentration of power in the hands of those with economic control causes societal divisions. Marx goes on to say that the history of all previously existent societies is the history of class battles, and that the state serves the dominant classes in society. Marx saw established economic exploitation as directly leading to political subjugation and converting the dominated (powerless) into servants of their socioeconomic interests.
Marx contends that the violation and denial of human rights always serve capitalist interests by pacifying intellectuals who are paid directly or indirectly by the government to justify and rationalise existing human rights violations, while the majority of the oppressed population is left in the underground of marginalisation to mourn their subjugated status as people who have no choice but to accept their fate.
Marx was clearly a prophet in foreseeing entrenched economic exploitation leading directly to human rights abuses, as government and all its agencies (as in Nigeria) suppressed human rights using governmental directives to justify their cruelty against the people when he was writing.
For example, the police have proclaimed allegiance to the central authority by her body language, despite the statutorily mandate establishing it, and the majority of the public has become servants of repressive interests against their will. In this unholy alliance, for example, police power has been consistently utilised to oppress and flaunt evil as required by the strong affluent against the populace.
Nigerians have been turned to beggars as a result of the country’s dire economic state. People are being dehumanised more than ever before, with nearly every subsequent administration being unfriendly and harsh to their rights.
Essentially, the people have never had a true and authentically Nigerian police force that has ever prioritised national interests over local, personal, and sectional interests.
Regrettably, there is nothing on the horizon that suggests a drastic shift from the present quo, because human rights abuses are becoming more powerful and calling the shots. Finally, because the ruling class’s ideology is dominant in a capitalist society like Nigeria, the socio-economic relations of production are under their control, and thus they reproduce and perpetuate the socio-economic class structure that has continued to maintain the imposed policing system that,
after six decades of independence, remains exploitative and abusive of human rights. The relevance of this theory to this paper stems from the fact that rain cannot wash away a leopard’s dark spots; the exploitative ideology inherent in Nigeria police points to a system of governance that regenerates and perpetuates the interests of the dominant (and bourgeois) class, while uncooperatively refusing to deliver to citizens their fundamental human rights in order to restore their human dignity.
Police violence in Nigeria and its consequences
Nigeria has been independent for 60 years, but has been subject to military control for half of that period, which has conditioned many Nigerians to live in fear of persecution and servitude.
However, when democracy was restored in 1999, heralding the start of a new age, most Nigerians expected to finally realise the benefits of a democratic society that prioritised them through people-centered policies. Unfortunately, this dream proved to be largely an illusion.
Nigeria, like many other countries and emerging democracies, has faced several problems. In the last decade, they have included unemployment and underemployment, unpredictable electricity supply,
infrastructure gaps, insufficient social amenities, poor healthcare facilities, a lack of access to excellent education, and the threat posed by violent extremism.
These difficulties have driven Nigerians, who are famed for their hard work and resilience, to bear these hardships while turning on the state to meet their needs. The protection of lives and property is one of the state’s most important responsibilities to its inhabitants. However, the Nigerian Police Force, which is tasked with maintaining peace and order, is widely regarded as incapable of carrying out its mandate.
Recent protests across Nigeria’s 36 states have been staged by Nigerian youth in direct response to police violence. Protesters want the police’s notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which has long been accused of extrajudicial violence, to be dissolved.
The federal government disbanded the unit for the fourth time in three years on October 11. So, what exactly do these young demonstrators want? Indeed, their campaign calls for good governance in the broadest sense,
including a full revamp of the country’s national security infrastructure. These young people have shown generational leadership, and their movement has garnered international backing from figures like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
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