Nigeria Police Not Motivated To Perform – Sen. Tutare Sen. Umar Abubakar Tutare represents Taraba Central in the senate and is vice chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs. In this interview with Ruth Choji, the lawmaker averred that the Nigeria Police is grossly underfunded, he blamed the federal government for the situation What will it take to reform the Nigeria police force? Funding is a major problem. When you hear billions they say is given to the police, you will think it is big money, but it doesn’t go to the police. What goes to them basically is not much. From the three hundred billion naira earmarked for them, two hundred and ninety something billion is personal emoluments. They are left with overhead cost of eight billion naira. The police of almost three hundred and forty thousand men and women and with the requisite expectations of output and performance towards policing the country, you cannot say that N8billion will run the police force. Let me give you an example. There is no local government in this country that doesn’t have a divisional outpost and we have 774 local governments and let’s assume that each of the divisions has a vehicle. And those vehicles will be maintained for the whole year, let’s not talk about the ones that are in the state commands, area commands and headquarters, we are just talking about the local governments now. How much do you think it will take to maintain those vehicles? Not to talk of other vehicles they have, the armouries and the rest. So the whole budget that is provided by government to run the Nigeria police for a year cannot even service their vehicles, talk less of uniforms, arms and the rest. As it is now, they don’t have enough barracks; you will see the Nigerian police officer on a bike in his uniform carrying a gun on his shoulder. And we want them to perform well? What has been done in terms of improving the funding? As a committee, we tried to jack up the budget to give them what will relatively service them, but whenever you touch the budget, what the executive will say will be different. For example, this year in the budget submitted to the National Assembly in regard to the police, we took three billion from the police reform which is not domicile with police. It is with the ministry of police under the control of the vice president. We took three billion to compliment the police budget and that has been passed by the National Assembly. But in the amendment brought back to the National Assembly, the executive removed this money. So, tell me, if you have the willingness to make the police perform, the executive is not performing. We don’t know what they think about the Nigeria police But don’t you think Nigeria is under policed as compared to the UN standard? The UN standard is one police man to forty people and yes we are under policed. If you divide one hundred and sixty million people by forty, we will need four million policemen. And what we have today is less than four hundred thousand. We don’t have money to train the ones we have, they don’t have equipment even for communication. They use their personal telephones to make calls. When you mention Nigeria police the first thing that comes to mind is corruption is anything being done to redeem the image of the police? If you are talking of corruption, we shouldn’t just blame the police. Almost every Nigerian is corrupt. When you say the police is corrupt, how much is it that they asked for or steal? Yes agreed, they are corrupt because they collect from peasants. What of those of us in government? I was a member of a committee that went round this pension funds investigation. One person stole twenty-thirty billion naira and yet you are talking about the police that collects twenty naira from the hands of people, not the government treasury. These are the monies we are supposed to use to reform the police and other sectors that are being stolen by few individuals. Look at the way our security personnel are being killed. Look at the Boko Haram. The recent killing in Nassarawa state and what is happening to the family they left behind. We wake up in the morning, go to the office and steal billions of naira, yet we say the police are corrupt. What motivation are we giving the police? What will it take to reform the Nigeria Police? Commitment and will on all parts. We also need to motivate the police force so they can do their best. We need to provide them with the basic necessities of life. Look at families left behind by deceased policemen; they are abandoned as soon as the officer is dead. We need to start looking into their welfare. Coming back to the aviation committee which you are a member, a remembrance prayer was held for the DANA air crash recently, has all the recommendations submitted by the committee been adopted by government. To an extent, some of the recommendations have been adopted like the removal of Demuren. I believe most of the recommendations will be adopted because we did a thorough job in the public hearing and our investigations. Can you as a senator assure Nigerians that our aviation sector is safe for travellers? Those responsible for the airspace gave us assurances that our air space is safe. Even if it is not, we are in the process of making it safer. If government has the same commitment for the police like what they are doing for the aviation sector, then things will get better. You mentioned corruption earlier. Some are advocating capital punishment for corrupt government officials; would you support that bill if it comes to the floor of the senate? It is not something that can be done over night. It is not possible to have a zero corruption in the society. There are ways we can minimize it. But do you think the present administration is doing enough in terms of fighting corruption I don’t want to comment on that. You know better than me; I am part of the administration so I can’t comment on this. Going back to the constitutional review committee, what stage is the report now? The report has been laid on the floor of the senate and it has not been scheduled for consideration after the submission. The single term issue has drawn lots of reactions; are you in support of the recommendation? I am one of those who support that call because I believe it will reduce the huge sum spent on elections by incumbents to retain their seats. All the crises you see happening now is because of 2015. If it were a single tenure, they will not fight. So I believe it will reduce the burden on INEC and whoever comes will concentrate on what he is doing. If you are elected as chief executive or governor, no matter how daft you may be, two years is enough for you to learn the ropes and you can take the rest four years to do what you want to do. If you do good, history will judge. The same with people who will do badly. The creation of state is an issue that was top on the agenda of the Constitution Review; it is on record that no civilian administration has ever created a state. Do you see this session succeeding? It is capable, once the constitutional provisions have been followed. What is your take on calls for the scrapping of joint state and local government account? I am one of those who supported it because the aims and objectives of the local government account are not being achieved. It is being abused by the governors. It was supposed to be in such a way that the local government funds will be there and the states will contribute their share before funds are shared to the local governments. But state governors have turned Joint Accounts into their personal funds. What they do now is to give the LG salaries to pay. They divert the funds for their personal needs. That is why LGs are not functioning. Some are of the opinion that the country should go back to regionalism. What is your take on this. Would you say federalism is working in Nigeria? I opposed it and it is not consistent in our reports. Nigeria will remain as one. Coming back to the senate, it is seen by most Nigerian as being subjective to the whims and caprices of the executive. What is your take on this? The senate does not toe the line of the executive. We stand on what we think and feel is the right thing to do. They don’t follow the executive just like that without a reason. The only thing is that, the senate is where you have elderly people who don’t make noise unlike the House of Representatives that has young people like me. If I had known that the senate was like this, I would have gone to the House. That is where people like me should have been to be making noise. But I still thank God for the senate. They are matured people. They weigh options before taking decisions. The senate just celebrated two years in office. What would you say are the achievements so far? The senate president listed them and I believe we have done very well Going back to Taraba state, how is the state being run under the acting governor and how has Dan baba Suntai’s absence affected the state? Everything is going normal. The only thing is that we are missing our governor who is sick. But the deputy governor is doing well. He is administering the state; nobody is stopping him from doing his work. What bill have you sponsored that has direct bearing on Nigerians I haven’t sponsored a bill yet, but I am working on one on the police reforms. I want us to transform the police to become effective, if not for lack of efficient and effective police, we wouldn’t have asked the milita.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 20:36:43 +0000
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