The Nigerian Police Force should be dissolved

monjola sotubo

June 20, 2016 11:20 AM

Nigerian police officers do not command respect, instead they elicit fear, disdain, disgust, disrespect and mistrust.

Police arrest man in Nigeria

The Nigerian police is not your friend, in fact, it is your worst enemy.

In real countries, police officers are helpers. They help you out of difficult situations and protect you from harm. In these countries, being a police officer is an honour and such officers are viewed and treated with respect.

In Nigeria however, the opposite is the case. An approaching police officer is cause for alarm and their visits are met with apprehension instead of relief. Nigerian police officers are bullies, they are oppressors, they are the despicable kinds of people who mock a woman who has been raped and tell her she deserved it.

Nigerian police officers do not command respect, instead they elicit fear, disdain, disgust, disrespect and mistrust. Inviting Nigerian police officers to combat armed robbers usually leads to disappointment. Negotiating with the robbers instead would give one a better chance of escape.

Expecting the Nigerian police to rescue a kidnapped family member is tantamount to handing that family member over to the cold hands of death. Expecting the Nigerian police to solve a murder with concrete evidence is like expecting the Naira to go back to N1 to the dollar by tomorrow.

Nigerian police officers kill human beings, men and women with blood in their veins, over bribes, they cut deals with robbers and let them escape, they ask robbery victims to “mobilize” them with cash to do the job they were hired to do. Nigerian police officers would sell their very souls to the devil for money if they had the chance.

Nigerian police officers stand on roads in the early hours of the morning to waylay innocent people who are going to work or church because they know that a person in a hurry is very likely to part with money in order to be quickly released. Nigerian police officers wait for an ignorant person to commit an offence, and then they pounce on him in order to milk him of hard earned cash.

This is the image of the Nigerian Police Force, and this is why it has to be dissolved.

The Nigerian Police Force is rotten to the core and many members of the force have lost their conscience due to years of compromise. It all seems normal to them now and we cannot afford to entrust the lives of Nigerians to people like that any longer.

The Federal Government should dissolve the current police force and rebuild it with old officers found deserving and new officers who know what it really means to be a police officer.

If Nigeria is to have the change that it deserves, then everything must change, and that includes the Nigerian Police Force.

monjola sotubo