10 tasks the newly-appointed inspector general of police Zanna Mohammed Ibrahim should set himself

Ayo Akinfe

(1) For starters, the United Nations average policemen to citizens is 300 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants. In Nigeria, the figure is a dismal 300 policemen to 350,000 citizens, so massive recruitment is needed

(2) Policemen in Nigeria are renown for bribe taking because of their poor remuneration packages. Police constables should be started off on the graduate salary of N50,000 per month. They risk their lives for our security so should have a special pay structure

(3) The minimum educational qualification to join the police should be City & Guild or OND. There is a desperate need to elevate the cultural level of Nigerian policemen and women

(4) Mr Ibrahim should set himself the goal of ensuring that at least one third of all police personnel are women by 2023. It is compulsory he addresses the thuggish macho image associated with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF)

(5) Every single one of those ghastly police barracks in Nigeria must be demolished by 2025 and all the policemen and women rehoused. Even in the worst refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, the accommodation is not as bad as what prevails in Nigerian police barracks

(6) Mr Ibrahim must enter into agreements with property developers to build houses for the men and women of the Nigeria Police Force. I am looking at decent housing of the same standards as estates on which the elite live in say Lekki. Let them pay for it through a special mortgage scheme

(7) If 20% of Nigeria’s budget goes on security, Mr Ibrahim should insist at least half of this comes to the NPF. Constititionally, the military has nothing to do with the internal security of Nigeria

(8) It is clear that the NPF alone cannot address the security concerns of Nigeria. Mr Ibrahim should immediately call a meeting of all potential regional security networks like Amotekun and thrash out a working arrangement with them. The NPF should issue these bodies with standard arms and draw up guidelines to prevent them being used as private political armies

(9) Mr Ibrahim should ask the National Assembly to pass a bill guaranteeing the operational independence of the NPF. At the moment, politicians use the police to hound opponents. Do you know that some Fulani herdsmen have even bragged that nobody can touch them because they have the backing of the powers-that-be

(10) Mr Ibrahim should upgrade the existing training programme the NPF has with countries like the UK, US, Germany, France, Canada, etc. Ideally, we want to very NPF employee to match the standards of security personnel in all these countries by say 2030