Almost a quarter of a century into current dispensation of uninterrupted democratic governance in Nigeria, opinions are diverse as to success or otherwise of the experience. Sir (Dr) Mike Okiro, former Inspector General of Police and former Chairman of Police Service Commission, spoke with Dapo Olaosebikan and Demola Abimboye in Abuja recently on it and other key security issues since 1999;
Excerpts:
Sir, What is your assessment of Nigeria’s democracy since 1999?
My general assessment is that democracy in Nigeria is still at the teething stage. But, we seem to compare our experience with countries that are more advanced and have gone very far in democratic experience. We have copied the American (USA) system of democracy. Somehow, we copied their constitution and we do what they do. America is more than 200 years as a democratic country, whereas, Nigeria is just above 60 years; a man may not have his first born being as old as the first child of his father. I think with time, we will improve and get there. As it, we are copying what they have done; we may not be good as they are, but Nigeria is not doing badly.
What would you consider as the positive aspect of Nigeria’s democratic experience in the country since 1999?
If will look at democracy, the people chose those who rule them. I will say that the good side to democracy is that people chose their leaders. But, in our own experience, the bad side is that there have been visible manipulations where the right people never get to win elections. That’s why you have post election crisis and litigations. Sometimes, people don’t really get the results of who they voted for. The consequence of this is that those who rule the nation might not be the best brains and, often, when you go to the court, you may not get justice because the evidences provided the court might have been manipulated resulting in long post-election litigations.
Sir, would say the current experience between 1999 and now has guaranteed rule of law, security of life and property?
Not at all. In Nigeria, rule of law since 1999 hasn’t been seriously upheld and you cannot blame the judges who are to adjudicate in cases of breach of law or fundamental human rights. Someone said the law is like cobweb; it is not strong and so you can tear it. The judge will make his final pronouncement on matters before him and say “according to the evidence before me, I am convicting or discharging this person”. Evidences before judges are being manipulated that’s why it is said that the judiciary is messed up, especially in the on-going political dispensation in Nigeria. The politicians have not really helped application of rule of law in in the country in this regard because everyone of them wouldn’t want to have his or her way, particularly in election matters. So, the rule of law in Nigeria since 1999 has not been perfect, we are still learning. This is also true of whether it has guaranteed security of life and property.
So far, would you say lawyers have helped application of rule of law in our democracy?
Yes, they have helped the democratic process. You see, lawyers make the people to understand democracy. They interpret the law and make people to know their rights and privileges. They also interpret the constitution and help in the defence of people’s fundamental human rights. They also let people know their civic rights and obligations to the government.
During elections, particularly at the voting centres, there is presence of the Police and other security agencies yet crisis persists; what is your view on this sir?
I don’t know why Nigerians like to break the law deliberately. I don’t know whether it is in our culture or natural makeup. Everywhere in the world, democracy is regarded globally as the best guarantee for free choices in electoral matters, but in Nigeria, it is a do-or-die affair; people just want to win elections at all cost which should not be the case. During elections, politicians delibrately break the law to intimidate voters and bend the rules to favour them. The bad aspect of this is that this development happens all over Nigeria. I think the politicians should be blamed for instigating crisis during elections by not obeying simple laws and rules guiding the electoral process.
There has been escalation in insecurity, kidnappings and all sorts of crimes and criminalities in the on-going political dispensation in Nigeria; what would say is responsible for this?
The government is to blame for it. The Police is the lead agency in terms of internal security and maintenance of law and order in Nigeria. The Military Act says the military can assist the Police in internal security of the country. But, the Police has always been understaffed and underequipped. In addition to this, the general welfare of the Police has been poor.There has also been lack of training of the personel. All of these result in low productivity leading to inability to curtail or prevent criminality and insecurity in the country.
There is also lack of personel in the Police. Between 1995 and 1999, there was no recruitment into the Police Force. The Police was 79,000 in strength. There was shortage of manpower and many police stations were shut down. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo noticed this when he came to power and wanted recruitment of 40,000 into the Police yearly but they couldn’t meet up because there was no money.
When I became the Chairman of Police Service Commission, I noticed that Chief Obasanjo’s order was implemented to point and later abandoned and for five years, there was no recruitment into the Police. I also did a survey and discovered that the Police lost 9,600 personel in five years due to death, retirment, dismissals etcetera. As result, I wrote a strong letter to the government about it. Based on my letter, which was first of its kind from an agency, the government approved recruitment of 10,000 personel yearly.But then, it was stopped.
We have being in a situation where millions of youths, young people and school leavers have no jobs roaming the streets and many of them going into criminality of different dimensions while the Police is understaffed and under-equipped with no motivation for field intelligence gathering. This is why insecurity is high in our country. This is why I say government is to blame for insecurity being faced Internally in Nigeria. Government should wake up and do the necessary things that will guarantee internal security and peace in Nigeria by providing equipment, looking into the welfare of the Police and improve the number of its personel through constant recruitments and trainings. Then, you’ll see that insecurity will be reduced in the country.
You talked about increasing Police personnel, the Steve Oronsaye Report recommended merger of the Civll Defence and Federal Road Safety with the Police; do you support the the recommendation?
These agencies belonged to the Police before. When you look into history, it all started with the West Africa Constabulary in 1861. But, as time went on and the society became more and more developed and civilised, there was need for specialisation to deal with specific societal needs.
For instance, when we were young it was the nurses, who we used to call ‘sisters’, that treated people at the health centres. But later, you had specialised doctors dealing with various health issues. To me, it is not bad that you now have agencies doing what the Police used to do. It is good government did not implement the Oronsaye Report. Traffic is traffic everywhere it doesn’t matter who or which agency is controlling the flow of the traffic. My take is that Federal Road Safety Corp should be in charge of traffic on all Nigerian roads-be it local, state on federal while police should handle other internal security matters. I also believe that personnel must be properly recruited and trained and there must be adequate provision of equipment and welfare (of the personnel) must be top priority of government at all times.
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