Maintaining public order and safety, detecting and preventing criminal activities and enforcing the law are among the primary responsibilities of the Police. But, as I have consistently argued, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) cannot effectively carry out these duties if most of their personnel are running errands, including for people without any visible means of livelihood. It therefore came as no surprise that following a national security meeting last Sunday, President Bola Tinubu directed the withdrawal of police officers currently providing security for Very Important Persons (VIPs) in the country. But I am almost certain that the president will NOT be obeyed! For ‘evidence’, I will list a few of the many similar directives that have been issued in the past and rehash my own interventions.

On 20 August 2015, after a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Police Affairs and the Police Service Commission (PSC), just three months after assuming office, the late President Muhammadu Buhari directed the then Inspector General of Police (IGP), Sunday Arase (who died recently), to withdraw most of the policemen attached to VIPs. It is not that the presidential directive was ignored that riles but rather that practically all IGPs have themselves made a song and dance about this same order. At a meeting with commissioners of police (CPs) and other senior police officers in Abuja on 19 March 2018, Arase’s successor, Ibrahim Idris, said the police would “streamline the deployment of its personnel attached to political and public office holders, aimed at enhancing effective and efficient policing in the country.” He therefore told his officers that a “directive for withdrawal of all police officers deployed to VIPs, political and public office holders, with immediate effect, is hereby given.”

Two and a half years later, on 22 October 2020, Idris’ successor, Mohammed Adamu also “ordered the withdrawal of all police officers attached to Very Important Persons across the country, with immediate effect.” If anything happened, there would have been no basis for another directive eight months later in June 2021 by IGP Usman Baba Alkali for the “immediate withdrawal of officers attached to private citizens.” I can go on and on to cite the many IGPs who have publicly announced this directive without implementing it. What makes the latest directive interesting is that Tinubu is merely asking Kayode Egbetokun to enforce his own order of June 2023, then as acting IGP.

I am sure the president is responding to a recent indicting report from the European Union Agency for Asylum that estimates one-third of the operational police strength in Nigeria is deployed to “the protection of politicians and VIPs, rather than to tasks serving the general population.” The report stated further that a shortage in manpower, “as well as corruption and insufficient resources, has resulted in delayed responses to crimes and numerous communities being left without protection.” We can see the consequences in how criminal gangs are now playing a dangerous hide-and-seek game with authorities both at the federal and in the states by abducting innocent school children and rural dwellers, taking them into forests and releasing them days later after ‘non-kinetic’ negotiations with government officials.

As the principal custodian of peace, order and security in a constitutional democracy, no institution is arguably more important than the police. But so abused is this institution in Nigeria that most of their personnel have been reduced to playing guard duty for members of the business and political elite. Even foreigners go about with contingents of policemen in Toyota Hilux vehicles that have become part of the convoy of every VIP. To worsen matters, the number of policemen deployed to serve political office holders is mind boggling. In April 2017, following a public altercation between the then Rivers State Governor (now FCT Minister), Nyesom Wike and then IGP, Ibrahim Idris, the Force Headquarters released a statement, apparently oblivious of its implication.

To debunk the allegation of not protecting the governor, then police spokesman, Moshood Jimoh (now the Lagos State Police Commissioner), gave the number of police personnel attached to Wike as 221. The same number was posted to each of the other 35 governors at the time, according to Jimoh. The highlights he provided were beyond scandalous and I am quoting him verbatim: “The breakdown is as follows: One ADC (SPO); one CSO (SPO); one Unit Commander (Special Protection Unit) SPO; one Escort Commander (SPO); one Camp Commander (Counter Terrorism Unit) SPO; one Admin officer (SPO) to administer the Police Personnel, 54 Inspectors of Police; 136 Police Sergeants and 24 police corporals.” He then concluded the statement with this self-indicting line: “Obviously, the total number of 221 police personnel attached to His Excellency, Mr Nyesom Wike, the Governor of Rivers State, is more than the strength of some Police Area Command formations in some states of Nigeria.”

I found it quite shocking at the time that the police would publicly admit allocating 221 of their personnel to protect one man in a nation so challenged by insecurity. When you multiply that number for 36 governors and add those allocated to other elected and appointed political office holders at federal and state levels, you can understand why Nigeria is now in a state of anomie. As an aside, while going about with a retinue of policemen has become a status symbol in Nigeria, I am delighted that we still have decent public officials. Arriving Abuja airport on Sunday from Lagos, I noticed the EFCC Chairman, Olanipekun Olukoyode, carrying his own bag and walking the tarmac unaided by any policeman. Under this administration, I know special assistants with no specific functions and All Progressives Congress (APC) operatives who throw themselves around in Abuja with several policemen in tow.

Unfortunately, the glaring misuse of the police comes with diminished dignity and professionalism for their personnel who are subjected to demeaning chores. From holding plates of food at public functions for those who consider themselves too big to dish their own meals, to carrying umbrellas for their spouses and concubines, it is as if many of these law enforcement agents have been deployed to run domestic errands rather than provide protection. Some orderlies even shine shoes for their principals at public events.

Apparently embarrassed by this ugly trend, the PSC in September 2022 called for a review of the operational guidelines for police orderlies. “The commission frowns at the abuse of police orderlies by Nigerians who now use them as status symbols or convert them to house helps who clean, cook or do menial jobs”, said the PSC in a statement by their spokesman, Ikechukwu Ani, who condemned the attack of a police orderly attached to a female ‘professor’ at the time, following a sensational case that has been swept under the carpet. “With the security problems ravaging the nation, there is an urgent need to free many police officers loitering in private houses and following big men around,” the PSC added.

Let me make something clear here. I have interacted enough with the police to know that the NPF has many brilliant professional officers. Some are my personal friends. In any case, it is not for nothing that whenever Nigerian police personnel are deployed for international duties they return with accolades. For instance, the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Center (NPF-NCCC) was named the Best Cybercrime Unit in Africa for 2024 by the INTERPOL Cybercrime Directorate, based in Singapore. Many of their contingents that served with the United Nations missions in other countries have also, at different times, won medals for their courage and professionalism. The question that begs an answer is: How have we degraded the personnel of such a potent force to that of handbag carriers for fat cats?

Beyond the jurisdiction fog in a security architecture where the military that should ordinarily channel its energy and resources towards protecting our territorial integrity has had to deploy troops for internal security in all the 36 states, the real issue is that with the kind of security challenges Nigeria faces today, we cannot afford to rely solely on the military for public safety while we turn police personnel into bodyguards and glorified errand boys/girls for political office holders and influential private citizens.

Since there is now a global spotlight on our country, it is no surprise that the Financial Times of London yesterday wrote an editorial titled, ‘Nigeria’s Problem is bigger than Trump thinks’. The challenge of our country, according to the British paper, “is not that it fails to protect its Christians. It is that it fails to protect anyone of whatever faith — from criminal gangs, bandits and organised terror.” With swathes of ungoverned territories, growing population of idle young people and leadership ineptitude at all levels, the paper further argued, the “security forces that have proved so ineffective at providing law and order are merely a reflection of other parts of government: they are riddled with corruption and ill prepared.”

The editorial, however, ended on an optimistic note. The newspaper believes that “after years of disastrous drift, the ship of Nigeria’s economy may at last be turning around, providing the faintest glimmer of hope,” before it added: “Tinubu must now urgently set about building a competent state with security control over all its territory.” That cannot be done without the police. Incidentally, as I write this, I just received a statement on a presidential declaration of security emergency by Tinubu. Part of the new measures include an upgrade of police training facilities and what to do with their personnel that are to be withdrawn from guard duties.

To relieve the police of menial duties, the president had earlier directed that the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) should henceforth provide personnel for VIP protection. But as lofty as the idea may be, I am not holding my breath. There is a very big racket in VIP protection within the police hierarchy at many levels that would render the presidential directive ineffectual. On his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Monday, Senator Shehu Sani, who must be very much familiar with this game, wrote: “Withdrawal of Police from VIPs is a good idea and good policy statement in view of the nation’s urgent security needs, but it will only begin and end up as a statement.”

Beyond the fact that the VIPs would not want to let go of these orderlies who have become embedded in their political/family structures, the ‘ogas at the top’ who assigned them will also find a way around this presidential directive. They always do!

• You can follow Segun Adeniyi on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, @Olusegunverdict and on www.olusegunadeniyi.com