By Our Reporter
This recent report released by World Internal Security and Police Index International (WISPI) making the Nigeria Police Force the worst in the world is unsettling the current leadership led by Ibrahim Idris.
Idris, the Inspector -General of Police is currently locked in a controversy with a former police personnel, now a senator, over allegations of mismanagement of funds meant for the police and other scandals.
According to the 2016 report, the Nigeria Police Force was rated the “worst” globally in terms of its ability to handle internal security challenges.
Sources close to the police hierarchy told armadanews.com that Idris had complained bitterly to some of his senior colleagues about the bad image the report will bring to the police just as he urged them not to allow the report affect the reforms and gains so far recorded by his administration.
Idris had directed that a rebuttal be put up immediately by the Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood.
A statement by the Force spokesperson, Moshood said the police is the best in Africa.
Said Moshood: “The Nigeria Police Force after a careful study of the report and the news items emanating from it, wishes to state categorically that the report is entirely misleading, a clear misrepresentation of facts and figures and essentially unempirical, considering the area of coverage of the report which was said to have been carried out in 2016 by the above mentioned associations.
“The report did not take into cognisance the significant improvement in the areas of Capacity Building, Training and Re-training of the entire personnel of the Force as provided for by the current Federal Government of Nigeria and other Foreign and Local NGOs which has greatly improved the efficiency and service delivery of the personnel of the Force throughout the country.
“Furthermore, in the UN Peace Keeping System, the Nigeria Police Force is rated as the best in UN Peace keeping operations in the world. This clearly shows that the Nigeria Police Force is not and cannot be the worst in the world under any known scientific yardstick or measuring instrument.
“Currently, the Nigeria Police Force is one of the only two African Delegates representing the whole of Africa continent on the executive committee of Interpol, a position the Force attained based on high performance, merit and sustained good track records.
“However, it must be pointed out that the Nigeria Police Force sees the report as a clear demonstration of mischief, ignorance and calculated attempt to distort the feat being recorded by the Force in ensuring adequate security and safety of Nigerians. Nowhere in the report were references made to either the improved capacity or achievements recorded by the Nigeria Police Force across the country in the recent times. The Force therefore implores all Nigerians and international community to disregard the report as unfounded and misleading.”
But some members of the public are full of praises to the body for reiterating what they already know about the police in the country.
A Nigerian who resides in Port Harcourt Rivers State capital told this medium on Saturday that “the allegation against the Minister of Transportation’s security details trying to cause problems for the governor is one of the numerous things the police do here. The police in Nigeria are noted for impunity and doing the master’s bidding instead of the bidding of the tax payers.”
The International Police Science Association (IPSA) and the Institute for Economics and Peace, a non-profit organisation that brings together experts, researchers and scholars concerned with security work from all over the world released the report recently.
Indices used in assessing 127 countries from four key areas, namely, capacity, process, legitimacy and outcomes, aim to measure the ability of the security apparatus within a country to respond to internal security challenges, both now and in future.
In the said report, the Nigeria police performed worst on the index on all the four domains, with a score of 0.255 ranked 127 below Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda and Pakistan.
The report indicated that countries with protracted civil conflicts were not eligible for the index.
Said the report: “There are 219 police officers for every 100,000 Nigerians, well below both the Index median of 300, and the sub-Saharan Africa region average of 268,” the report reads.
“This limits the capacity of the force to measure up to its law and order mandate.
“In terms of process, legitimacy and outcomes, the story is not different which makes the force fall short of the required standard.
“High levels of political terror have been an issue for Nigeria since 1993, with the country scoring a 4 on the Political Terror Scale every year since then.”
“Terrorism remains one of the greatest threats to internal security. Terrorism has increased dramatically over the last three years, with more than 62,000 people being killed in terrorist attacks between 2012 and 2014. The biggest rise in the last year occurred in Nigeria.”
According to the report, the top 10 performing African countries are Botswana which ranked highest at 47, followed by Rwanda which took the 50 position.
Others are Algeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa and Mali, in that order.
The 10 least performing African countries are Madagascar 111th, Zambia 112th, Ethiopia 115th, Sierra Leone 117th, Cameroon 120th, Mozambique 122nd, Uganda 124th, Kenya 125th and Democratic Republic of Congo 126th.
The report showed that Singapore performed best on the index, followed by Finland, and then Denmark.
There were only four non-European countries in the top 20. The United Arab Emirates was the highest ranked country from the Middle East and North African, MENA, region as it ranked 29th overall.