#ENDSARS: ONE YEAR AFTER; Its Gains And Lessons Learnt…. Nigerians React.

Capt. Bish C. Johnson (Rtd.)

“If you go down to the history of the Nigeria Police Force; it began during the colonial era and the objective of those colonial masters was to have a police force that could be used to suppress and silence the indigenous people of Nigeria and subjugate them into compliance with the dictates of the colonial masters".…Bish Johnson.

Notable stakeholders in the nigerian project have restated their commitment and support for the overhaul of the Nigeria Police in the wake of the One year Anniversary of the #EndSARS protests that engulfed the country, exactly one today.

The EndSARS protests, which was aimed at bringing to an end, alleged police brutality by members of a special unit; the Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS, also called for an improved welfare package and remunerations for personnel of the law enforcement, the Nigeria Police Force.

The #EndSARS protests which took place on the 20th of October, 2020 with Lagos state as its epicenter,  did not end well owing to its hijacking by suspected hoodlums from its peaceful and well coordinated procession but this did not deter the organizers; mostly youths from attracting global attention and support.

In reacting to the gains and lessons learnt from the #EndSARS Protest, Captain Bish C. Johnson, a security expert and former Captain of the United States Army, says that, from every indication, it does not seem like anything has changed even after the #EndSARS Protests, exactly One year ago.

“I have seen similar groups of Police officers; some of them even call themselves SARS. Some say they are Federal SARS. Therefore, it did not really seem to me like anything has changed. I think it is like we bare back to where we were before the #EndSARS Protests of October 20, 2020”, he said.

“Sadly, it is not only with #EndSARS as most of the things that the young nigerians were against during the protests that spread across the country, which were mostly about creating awareness, and concerns about how the country was going, still remains the same and, part of the reason is because, that protests was not followed to its logical conclusion”.

According to Captain Bish Johnson, “part of why it (#EndSARS Protests) failed is because, there was no concrete agreement or, such of a social contract that was signed by the government and the leaders of the #EndSARS protests; if they had any, as some of them said that they were like “soldier ants” without leaders. Therefore, they never had the trust for anybody to negotiate on their behalf as, nothing seems to have changed and I do not think that the country has learnt any lesson from that Protests”.

Bish Johnson, while responding to issues of harassment and the culture of intimidation by officers of the Nigeria Police, stressed that, “every institution, not only in nigeria, has a culture and that culture sometimes, manifest itself based on the foundation or the reason why the institution was born”.

“If you go down to the history of the Nigeria Police Force; it began during the colonial era and the objective of those colonial masters was to have a police force that could be used to suppress and silence the indigenous people of Nigeria and subjugate them into compliance with the dictates of the colonial masters. With that foundation, it became a culture and, that culture has continued from that time until now whereby, the Nigerian Police does not see the citizens as partners in progress”.

 “Therefore, the culture persists that, this is the form of oppression and use of force, which explains why there is the use of the name; “force”, in the Nigerian Police. That is, that “Force” is the best way to police the people. Unfortunately, use of force in policing, is no longer effective now, so, there has to be a new culture. 

For you to achieve that new culture, it addresses that issue if the use of force in law enforcement and policing. It will require some radical decisions to be taken”, he opined.

He further disclosed that some countries have been able to do that while others have in fact, abolished their police and began from the scratch that is one of the ways that you can change that culture. 

“However, I do not think that is possible in Nigeria. The best way now is to legislate some of the practices in policing Nigeria. In that case, it would still be the Nigerian Police, to also enforce that legislation”, he said.

“It is a difficult situation but it also one that is not surmountable, if the political will is there, to do so”.

Speaking of the issue of recruitment into the Nigeria Police, the security expert stressed that there are concerns on the educational qualifications of some of these recruits as some people of questionable characters have been seen adorning the uniforms of the Nigerian Police. 

“The issue of recruiting unqualified persons into our institutions is not peculiar to the Nigerian Police. However, because the police deal directly with the citizens, it is very important that, those who are coming into the Police are the best of the best, in terms of educational qualifications and content of their character. Therefore, the recruitment process has to be more stringent to weed out the bad elements of the society who may want to use the police as a dumping ground for them. This is the first step”, he stated.

”Secondly, you have to eliminate the Nigerian factor, which is very difficult to do as some people use their positions to dictate and place people in positions in our institutions”.

“Therefore, if we can find a way to eliminate that Nigerian factor, it will go a long way in solving that problem. We have to make the profession more attractive as only a very few smart and intelligent Nigerians will tell you that they would like to serve in the Nigerian Police. It is simply not attractive enough.

Owing to the fact that it remains unattractive, it cannot attract the best of the best that the society has to offer”, Johnson counseled. 

He called however called for a review of the welfare of police officers, as that was one of the demands by the #EndSARS Protesters.

 “This is something that should be considered as well, as it will make it more attractive like the other law enforcement institutions like the EFCC, DSS, and the ICPC and stuff like that. If the police recruitment process becomes more attractive, it will attract the right characters into the force. If the police is left with the same pool of people due to the fact that the Service is unattractive, there is nothing they can do about it because, they have to recruit people from the pool that is interested in joining the force”.

Responding to inquiries as to the minimum qualification into the Nigeria Police Force, Capt. Bish Johnson revealed that, “in 2013, I personally made this proposal as far back as 2013 when I arrived Nigeria from the USA. In my view, because crime these days have become more complicated and complex, there is the need to have a broader mind to be able to unravel criminal activities”. 

“The criminals have become more sophisticated and as such, in my opinion, had recommended that the minimum level of educational for a new recruit into the nigeria police, should be of the grade of the Ordinary National Diploma, OND. This would therefore, allow for the use of technology in fighting crime. The era of using analogue processes to solve digital problems, are long gone”, he said.L

“There is the need for the application of 21st century solutions to 21st century problems. I had therefore, proposed that the recruitment grade should be OND certificate holders and that, their welfare and salaries should be based on that aspect of educational level just like their counterparts in the private sector”.

Tasked on the possibility of these suggestions being able to help curb the situation, he pointed out that; “Every system has its own advantages and disadvantages. On this issue of State Policing, I was equally among the first persons to have raised this issue in 2013 when I made a proposal for a seriously changed policing in the country. This was because; I believed that the Police is the backbone of internal security in any country”.

“It is my belief that if we get the policing right, we would be in the right direction in getting the country right because, if the police are not right, that is why the country cannot be right. Yes, security is a local thing and, one of the tenets in democracy is that, when you ask the people to go and govern themselves, you must also allow them to also, secure themselves”. 

“It is very wrong for someone who is from Bauchi state to go to Bayelsa where he does not understand the language, culture of the people and you then ask him to police those people”, he warned.

He agreed that state policing will go a long way in solving some of all these problems, revealing that, “it will now relieve the federal police of certain obligations that that they had to meet now, than just leave them with fewer and more serious issues like terrorism, cross border crimes, financial crimes. All of which are highly sophisticated ones and it will reduce their burden. It makes no sense to me, that at a time when cyber crime is on the increase, a police officer will be spending his time, energy and resources in investigating the reports of somebody who stole a goat”. 

Reiterating that he was not in any way trying to diminish the crime of stealing a goat, he opined that it is high time Nigeria prioritize its resources, which of course, includes money and time in policing. 

“I will propose for the liberalized policing so that, states and local governments can have their own police. The universities can equally have their own police, so long that there is a mechanism in place whereby, the federal government is able, to have some level of regulation that does not allow it to become a “wild wild west” thing whereby, people will just do whatever they want. This is the best way to go”, he stated