Buhari, implement the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Act

 “Consequently, not less than 1,000 APCs, 250,000 assault rifles/corresponding ammunition, 2,000,000 tear gas canisters/smoke grenades 200,000 riot gunners and smoke pistols, 1,000 tracking devices, 774 operational drones, among others, (are needed) to cover the length and breadth of the nation.” – The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, at the House of Reps public hearing on Feb 25, 2020

There is no gainsaying the fact that one of Nigeria’s major challenges is insecurity of lives and property. For over a decade, the country has been battling with insurgency in the North-East states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.  In the North-West, particularly in Katsina, Kaduna and Zamfara states, banditry has been the order of the day for quite some time now. The North Central, especially Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa and Kogi states, has been the hotbed of clashes between farmers and herders.

In spite of the 2009 amnesty programme of the Federal Government, militancy bordering on pipeline vandalism, kidnapping for ransom and cultism have continued to ravage the entire South-South and part of South-East states. The South-West is in the throes of kidnappers, ritual murderers and armed robbers.  Essentially, Nigeria is sliding into Thomas Hobbes’ ‘state of nature’ where life is brutish, short and nasty.

The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended in Section 14 (2)(b) says security and welfare of citizens are the primary reasons for governance. It is the Federal Government’s gross failure to effectively secure the country that has made the South-West states of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun to come up with the regional security organisation, Amotekun Corps. Some groups in northern Nigeria also mooted the idea of “Operation Shege Ka Fasa”. There is a kite being flown that the five South East states will float ‘Operation Ogbunigwe.’ These moves are aimed at complementing the Federal Government’s inadequate efforts to police the entire country.

On Tuesday, February 25, 2020, the House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs,organised a public hearing tagged, ‘Repositioning the Nigeria Police for an Enhanced Service Delivery.’ Present at the one-day dialogue were top echelon of the Nigeria Police Force, including a retired Inspector General of Police and the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, among many others. The current Inspector General, Mohammed Adamu, was represented by the Deputy IG in charge of Operations, Abdulmajid Ali. The public hearing was quite revealing as officers, both serving and retired, at the event opened up on the inadequacies of the NPF.

The IG came up with A laundry list of what the police need to perform optimally. According to him, the Nigeria Police Force needed no fewer than 1,000 armoured personnel carriers and 250,000 assault rifles with corresponding ammunition.

Other equipment listed by Adamu included 200,000 riot gunners and smoke pistols, 1,000 tracking devices, and 774 operational drones, among others. According to the IG, the challenges included gross underfunding, which he claimed was caused by inadequate budgetary appropriation and non-release of the limited appropriated funds.

In his presentation, DIG Ali, on behalf of the IGP, said “A comparative analysis between Nigerian and South African police indicates that while the latter received the sum of R46.87bn, or N1.1372tn, for visible policing programme, with a 6.89 per cent growth projection up to the 2021/2022 financial year, the former had to make do with N35bn appropriation and an eventual release of N20bn for capital and overhead expenditure.”

 Ali also said, inter alia,“In Kenya, for example, a police constable take-home earning is about 34,907 Shillings, or N126,000, whereas his Nigerian counterpart earns unfortunately less than N50,000. Pitiably, this earning comes down to between N12,000 and N18,000 at retirement,” This is preposterous!

Did you know that the total staff strength of the Nigeria Police Force is 302,000? That also came out at the public hearing. The Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Alhaji Musiliu Smith, himself a retired IGP, at the event complained about inadequate police personnel, many of whom he said were deployed to protect public buildings and very important persons. Hear him, “It is from the indicated police strength that personnel are deployed to Presidential Villa, National Assembly, judiciary, top government officials at the centre (Federal Government) and all the states, prominent traditional rulers nationwide, embassies, banks, key/vulnerable points and all levels of police formations throughout the country. Little wonder, only skeletal police coverage is available in all police formations nationwide”.

While the situation of Nigeria Police Force is lamentable and pitiable, I wonder why there is delay in the implementation of the Police Trust Fund, which would have helped in bridging the funding gap in the Police Force. Recall that on Wednesday, July 3, 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the Police Trust Fund Bill alongside eight other bills, according to his then Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang. Nine months after that historic signing of the bill into law only an implementation committee of 12 members had been set up since October 2019.

This is not good enough. There was a time the nation was told the board of the Trust Fund would be inaugurated in January or February this year, but this is yet to happen. Obviously this is one of the 80 ministries, departments and agencies that this newspaper, in its March 10, 2020 edition, said was yet to have substantive heads or governing boards or both. It said, “The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has left at least 80 Federal Government agencies without substantive operational heads or governing boards or both.”

 Is it because there are no qualified Nigerians to man these MDAs? This is heart rending! For the information of the general public, the Police Trust Fund provides a legal framework for the management and control of a special intervention fund for the training of personnel, procurement of operational equipment and provision of infrastructure as well as maintenance of police stations nationwide. Having assented to the bill, the President is expected to inaugurate the board of the Fund which is what is still being awaited. The Police Trust Fund Act stipulates that the board shall have an executive secretary, who shall be the chief accounting officer and oversee the administration of the fund, and an implementation committee consisting of a minister as chairman and such other members not exceeding six in number with proven integrity appointed by the board of trustees.

The Board of Trustees shall consist of a retired Inspector General of Police, the Inspector General of Police or his representative as ex-officio member, representatives of the ministries of Police Affairs, Justice and Finance, civil society group and the organised private sector. The PTF is to be funded from a levy of 0.005 per cent of the net profit of companies operating in Nigeria, 0.5 per cent of the total revenue from the Federation Account, any take-off grant and special intervention fund as may be provided by the federal, state and local governments and such money as may be appropriated to meet the objective of the Act by the National Assembly. Other funding sources include aids, grants and assistance from international, bilateral and multilateral agencies, non-governmental organisations and the private sector, in addition to grants, donations and investments made by the Fund.

Why is the President unduly delaying the composition and inauguration of the board and appointment of key officers to drive the implementation of the Trust Fund? Given the exponential increase in the incidents of crimes and criminality in the country, it is high time the President did the needful without further ado. Well, I do hope when this trust fund is up and running it will not be fraught with corruption as has been the case with other interventionist agencies. The Niger Delta Development Commission is a case in point. Nigeria Police as we do know, though could be highly professional, is facing a battered image of being notorious for corrupt practices.  I do hope the necessary checks and balances are in place so that funds belonging to the NPTF do not end up largely in the private pockets of its managers.