By Prince Wiro
CLEEN Foundation with support from German Cooperation and UNDP on Tuesday 28th,January,2025 held Citizens’ Engagement On Police Reform in Rivers with the theme “Supporting Police Accountability And Transformation Projects even as the guest lecturer,Professor Etannibi Alemika blamed poor policing on bad Governance.
Professor Alemika while x-rayiing the Past Police Reform Efforts In Nigeria:Gains and Pitfalls stated that Economic,Social and Political nature of the society causes crime .
“There is crime when you have dysfunctional Economic,Social and Political society.
Police is poorly paid. If we want good Police, we should go back to Government not the Police.
“We constitute Police that are not taken care of,how do you expect them to take care of you.The effectiveness of the Police is the product of resources allocated to them.
“Every society have different policing mechanism to gurantee security and safety.Police is a participant in Policing.What is the role of other participants.Traditional ruler and others have a role to play too.
“Police are not cause of crime and cannot be solution to crime.Poverty,exclusion,poor family uprbringing,marginalization,discrimination are reaponsible for crime.Bad Government produces bad Police.If the product is bad blame the manufafurer. They are agents of Government,if they dont do well blame the Government.
“The way to reform Police is to reform the Government.You must get election process right.We need people with disrespect to material things.Corruption has eaten deep into the country
“We can deal with the challenges of poor policing by ensuring Good Governance and democratically working Government.We recommended Police Association(union) but the Government orejected it.Nigeria is one of the Country that does have Police Association.We even put caveat that if the Police Association is approved, the Police cannot not go on strike.”Professor Alemika said.
Earlier,in his welcome address, Peter Maduoma,acting Exccutive Director of CLEEN Foundation stated that the programme is holding in each Geo-Political zone in the country and Rivers state was choosen as venue for the South South region.
“This is a time of brain storming,how to make policing effective.We will be getting a charter of demands.We know that the duty of public safety is not for Police alone,everyone has a role to play in Improving on Police and community relations is very important in order to close the gap.
“We think that if we engage the police constructively, sincerely, the gap will be closed.We expect Police to provide security for lives and property There are factors that can limit our expectation.
It is the focus of today and is actually the citizen’s voice” he said.
He listed the focus of the programme to include
1.To collect comprehensive citizens inputs regarding police reforms to ensure citizens voice are heard
2.To identfy challenges Police face in South-South zone especially Rivers
3.To develop evidence based solution for Police reforms
4.To establish framework of improved collaboration and communication between the Police and the community.
HRC Mene Magnus Lesor Edooh,Paramount Ruler of Dee-Eowa village in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State in his goodwill message said ” as we talk about reform of Nigeria Police Force, let us talk about the reform of Nigeria Correctional Centre.Let reform characters of the officers before talking of the entire force.
Secretary of Nigeria Labour Congress in Rivers State,Comrade Elvis Oraka in his his goodwill message said “We believe that at the end of the programme all that will be said will be put into practice”.
Our correspondent reports that Civil Society Organizations,Traditional Rulers,Representative of the Nigeria Police Force were all in attendance.