Police brutality is not a phenomenon that’s peculiar to Nigeria and the protests in the United States to end police brutality in the months preceding the EndSARS protests were testament to that. However, in the thick of the peaceful protests by young Nigerians to end the brutality allegedly meted out by an infamous division of the Nigeria Police Force, it was important to ask certain questions.
With this, I thought it would be useful to hear from someone who understands the Nigerian Police System. Prince Ademiju Oyekan, who joined the Nigeria Police Force in January 1984 as a Cadet Inspector and retired exactly 35 years later, in January 2019 as the Commissioner of Police – Training, at the Force Headquarters, Abuja was gracious enough to share his views on the topic.
My conversation with Prince Oyekan transpired when the Nigerian Youth had just articulated their “5 for 5” demand with respect to what they wanted the government to do. The responsiveness to these demands would serve as an indicator to most, if not all, that indeed the youths’ cry for help was being heard by the relevant authorities and appropriate actions would be taken.
One of the key asks from the youths was the overhauling of the police system, and while this would be the ideal future state, it was also important to understand what the major issues were and indeed what truly needs to give.
“I decided to join the police because I was also a victim of police brutality and wanted to do things differently” Prince Ademiju Oyekan.
Prince Oyekan started with sharing the origins and the construct of the Nigerian Police Force which was shaped by the colonial masters and inherently encouraged repression. This is what has allegedly, moulded the seeming master-slave relationship between the police and civil society, which should not be the case. For me, understanding these origins shed some light on why the Nigeria Police Force is the way it is and with that understanding, maybe it can help in forging a clearer path to resurrecting it.
Quite a number of other issues were highlighted and chief amongst them for me, was the escalation process of an incident and high-level performance appraisal of a police officer. Like Tobi, one of many Nigerian youths, who was gracious enough to share his SARS experience on the Show, one of the things Prince Oyekan highlighted was that a police officer is seen to have performed his duties properly if there are no reports of any incident from the public. To put this in better context, Tobi was unjustifiably apprehended by SARS Officers and the reason he was allowed to go was that it was escalated to a Senior Officer, but he never escalated the incident, so no officer could be held culpable.
For me, it would appear that the escalation process seemingly only exists for people who have privileged access, and maybe this is one of the low hanging fruits to consider in overhauling the Police Force. With the appraisal process, if a police officer is deemed to have performed his duties properly because there were no escalations or reports, then I’m not sure how effective that appraisal system is, especially as most people don’t even know that this is the case and if they do, they feel fortunate enough to have overcome the ordeal and would not want to pursue any escalations.
At the end of the day, the end to police brutality, as in many other climes is a very long road, and some of the changes or interventions would have to be gradual, given how deep-seated some of the inefficiencies within the system are.
With this, I’ll conclude with a quote from Reverend Al-Sharpton of the United States which says “ We are not anti-police, we’re anti-police brutality”
Please listen to the full conversation on episode #4 on our podcasts page.
(In Conversation with Prince Adekitan Ademiju Oyekan)