Nigeria insecurity may escalate– ex-CP

By Olusola Alatise

Unless there is a paradigm shift in the Nigeria security system, cases of insecurity threatening the peaceful co-existence of the country may get worse in the nearest future.

A retired Commissioner of Police, Chief Samuel Adetuyi declared this while featuring as a guest on The Hope Platform during the weekend.

Adetuyi, who served as Commissioner of Police in Kogi, Rivers and Yobe states before he retired predicted that the present security challenges may be a child’s play in the future if certain issues are not addressed.

He described the present measures being put in place by the government to tackle insecurity as palliatives, noting that they are not capable of addressing the actual problem.

He said the world has gone digital in terms of tackling insecurity while Nigeria is still employing analog tactics.

His words:”My worry is not about what is happening now, but what will happen in the future. Losing security battle in Nigeria was not caused only by the police, but also the government and all Nigerians.

“Take a look at policing in America or Britain, modern infrastructural facilities that will enhance proper policing in this digital age are there. Is it good road network with fourteen lanes, who is that policeman or kidnapper that will come and stop any vehicle on average of 120 speedometers?

“We are in the era of computer, this is digital age and we are still using analog method.

In terms of modern gadgets, they are given customized vans with all the necessary gadgets, unlike here where they will be provided with personnel hilux vans. Besides, there are cameras mounted everywhere to take photographs of crime scenes.

But our leaders travel to these places and see all these, why can’t they provide them here?,” he queried.

He posited that the first step the government should take is to facilitate these and also build capacity for the police .He said there should be provision of customised combat helicopters for the police to comb the forests, face robbers, terrorists and kidnappers, adding that the tools they are given now to do that is like sending them on suicide mission.

On the issue of state police, the retired CP said those calling for it will be the first victims sensing that state police will come with its own round of problems.

He said though state police is one of the features of federalism but that it can never bring solution to the myriad of security challenges facing the country.

He disagreed with people calling for psychiatric test for policemen, saying the condition where Nigerian policemen work sometimes could make them misbehave or look like lunatics.

Adetuyi, who chaired the first Ondo State Security Summit, queried the rationale behind the attachment of retinue of able policemen to Very Important Personalities in Nigeria, saying worse still, the Inspector General of Police cannot remove the security details attached to them.

“We have not started at all to fight insecurity. Our leaders are everywhere in the world seeing what is happening. My experience why traveling from Los Angeles to Santiago in the United States of America showed that fighting insecurity is a systemic thing.

He expressed fear that the properly trained policemen will retired from the system in the next five years and that does not portend a good omen for the system.

On the solution to the insecurity problem, Adetuyi said the bill on police trust fund must be implemented for effective funding of the police.

He said everybody must be involved in the security affairs of Nigeria and should not be left to the police alone, saying this is digital age and that insecurity cannot be battled with analogue method.