Police Brutally and Nigerian Democracy: an Appraisal of Buhari’s Administration
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of study
The overall objective study is to assess the police brutality and Nigerian democracy in Buhari’s administration.
Other Objectives
- To determine the level of police brutality in Buhari’s administration.
- To determine the causes of injustice among Nigerian police officers in Buhari’s administration.
- To determine the effect of the endSARs protest on police brutality.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Policing as a Major Component of Democracy
The literature on democracy does not take policing seriously either as a theoretical issue or practical problem because policing is generally misinterpreted. Basically, policing is perceived more as the coercive instrument of control at the disposal of the government and that the police could be utilized for policing democracies but they could not be democratic themselves. Even discussions of political development, changes in the state and democratic processes have more often gone on without considering the role of the police. Worst still, none of the contemporary literature on underdevelopment, modernization or democratization provides a consistently worked out and empirically sustainable analysis of the police as the major component of democracy despite their obvious presence and potential impact on the nature and direction of political change, the nature of group conflicts, or the prospect for democratization and the protection of human rights. In simpler words, failure of democracy – corruption, abuse of authority, violations of law, disruption of electoral competition, denials of human rights or outright killings and disappearances are the actions of the police nearly on a daily basis, yet very little attention has been paid to their remote causes. For example, Seidman and Seidman, in their interesting and innovative analysis of the role of law and the state in promoting development and the failures of policy efforts, only mention the police as incidental accouterment of state power notwithstanding the fact that their argument centre‟s on law and its enforcement. There are however some consoling exceptions like the writings of Bayley who asserted that “the police are the most visible manifestation of government authority performing the most obvious, immediate and intrusive task to ensure the well being of individuals and communities particularly in a free democratic society. (emphasis mine). It is trite that every democratic country depends heavily on its police force. Goldstein agrees when he posited:
Yet a democracy is heavily dependent upon its police despite their anomalous position, to maintain the degree of order that makes a free society possible. It looks to its police to prevent people from preying on one another. To provide a sense of security; to facilitate movement; to resolve conflict; and to protect the very processes and rights – such as free elections, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly on which continuation of a free society depends. The strength of a democracy and the quality of life enjoyed by its citizens are determined in large measure by the ability of the police to discharge their duties.
It is pertinent, however to consider the question whether a country running a democracy automatically qualifies her police force as part of its democratic existence? The answer to the poser is in the negative and this is premised on the fact that a country might be running a democratic government but having a police force that is lacking in democratic ideals or have not conform to democratic principles. For example, during the symposium on Challenges of Policing Democracies held in Onati Spain, in 1995, the representatives from the various countries agreed that the adoption of a democratic form of government does not guarantee that the police will adopt a new organizational structure or change its rules and regulations. What matters is for the police to be willing to act according to law and imbibe democratic behavour in their actions and operations. This is what is called democratic policing and it is from this perspective that this particular discourse will be considered.
Democratic policing in the abstract sense of it can easily be defined but becomes much more complex operationally due to the importance of cultural, legal and political context attached to it. It is however deducible, considering emerging international consensus of what constitute bad policing (e.g. torture to extract a confession) but good policing can take many forms and easily be identified. According to Marenin, “there is no one look to good policing, no one set of practices which are valid in all places and times. What can be specified are general principles and their adaptation to the realities of politics, policing and societal relations in each situation. There are two sources of norms to which democratic policing finds its general principles.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The study used descriptive research design. A descriptive study involves collecting data that test the validity of the hypotheses regarding the present status of the subjects of the study. In this study, the design was used to determine the youth’s perceptions on police brutality, injustice and endsars protest in Buhari’s administration.
Population and Sampling Design
Population
The target population for a survey is the entire set of units for which the survey data are to be used to make inferences (Cooper and Schindler, 2001). Thus, the target population defines those units for which the findings of the survey are meant to generalize. Establishing study objectives is the first step in designing a survey. Defining the target population should be the second step. Target populations must be specifically defined, as the definition determines whether sampled cases are eligible or ineligible for the survey. The geographic and temporal characteristics of the target population need to be delineated, as well (Cox, 2008). Cox and West (1986) describe a population as a well- defined group of people or objects that share common characteristics.
A population in a research study is a group about which some information is sought. Most researchers cannot include all members of the population in their studies and must resort to limiting the number of subjects to only a sample from the population. The target population in this case were youths in Buhari’s administration, Nigeria. The target population in this study was 205 in number.
Sampling Design
Sampling Frame
According to Currivan (2004) a sampling frame is a list of elements from which the sample is actually drawn and is closely related to the population. In the ideal case, the sampling frame should coincide with the population of interest.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
Both male and female youths in Buhari’s administration were served with questionnaire, the breakdown and percentages are given in the above table. A greater percentage of respondents are males while the remaining were females.
From the above table as we observed the 27.3% of 110 respondents attained B.Sc./HND level in their educational background, while 22.7% obtained HSC/NCE/OND certificate. Also 20.0% of the respondents possess professional qualifications while 4.5% have post graduate degree. 28 respondents were primary and secondary school certificate holders.
From the table above, majority of the respondents indicated that there is a high level of police brutality in Buhari’s administration (47.27%), while 30% indicated that the level of police brutality in Buhari’s administration is moderate, 22.7% indicated that there is a low level of police brutality in Buhari’s administration.
CHAPTER FIVE
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
Recommendation
The involvement in violent acts may not be unconnected with lukewarm attitude demonstrated by political leadership, extravagance behaviours exhibited by the politicians and socio-economic inequality permeating the nation. The widespread of employment and underemployment, poverty, poor sharing of resource and police brutality, extortion, exploitation, extrajudicial killings, have created a series of emotion and frustrations, thereby influencing the angry youths to agitated for changes or indulge in violent acts. The EndSARS protest has affected government, economic of the country, individual, group and many youths sustained different degree of injuries and some loss their lives.
Considering the implication, the negligent attitudes by the government against the Nigerian youth and what the youths can do, the paper, therefore, recommends the following:
- Government as a matter of urgency should reform the entire Nigerian police force and fetch out the bad eggs among So that the institution will regain its confidence from the public in general and Nigerians youths in particular. So that to avoid the future occurrences of EndSARS or any youth unrest in the country.
- The police organization should establish a strong committee that will look into any complaint of misconduct presented against SARS or any policeman. However, the perpetrators should have brought to book. That will be a deterrence to other rank and file in the police
- The youths on their part should engage in schooling, petty business, small and medium business to avoid idleness. In other words, you should invest their energies in productive activities capable of brightening their future life chances so that they can contribute implicitly to nation
- Also, the youths in the country should be allowed to express themselves and integrate them into governance, economic and any decision for the development of the country.
- The parent should take up their role seriously in terms of training, guarding and guiding their children. To keep their eyes on which friends are they moving with, where they are going. This will contribute immensely in preventing and protecting the children not to found themselves into moving with bad eggs youth, taking drugs, anti-social vices, violent acts
It is important to recognize that the judicial commissions of inquiry have started sitting in various states of the country. However, what will unfold next round of #EndSARS largely depends on the willingness of the Federal Government to investigate the Lekki Tollgate shootings of the #EndSARS protesters openly and transparently, and in good faith. Concerted efforts by the Federal Government to address the concerns in the 7-point agenda submitted to President Buhari would also boost the trust of the #EndSARS protesters and the supportive Nigerians in the diaspora.
Conclusion
The paper examined the issue of the youth’s movement concerning EndSARS protest to the challenges confronting or facing the Nigerian youths. Therefore, the public confidence should be resuscitated towards the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), this will protect the future reoccurrences. The relationship between Nigerian police and Nigerian youths are on the verge of deterioration. The poor attitude of the government of Nigeria and the Nigerian police brutality against the citizenry are the factors responsible for the EndSARS protest. This makes youths to create violent means to express their anger and grievances in form of violent acts.
There is a great need for improvement of surveillance equipment, protective equipment and sophisticated weaponry as indicated from the findings for proper performance and strengthening of the police work force. Other than that paramilitary training, civilian intelligence, use of civilian confidential information has been seen as being crucial in the performance of the police force in their operations. Most of the police officers have confidential informants and most see the information from the confidential informants being very effective in their execution of their duties. The confidential informants are used in getting of viable information which is to be used in their work especially in crimes to do with gangs and groups.
The powers and authority given to the police are very important in executing their duties especially in the curbing of the alarming increase in the insecurity in the country. There is high need to strengthen power to detain and jail any suspect of crime by the police officers. The major challenge facing the police officers is poor housing and long chain of commands the least challenge was that of delay of information and unfair treatment of female officers. The best solution to the challenges facing police officers is building of standard houses and also better payment of the officers while the least solution being increase in police training and proper training.
REFERENCES
- Amnesty International (2020). Urgent Action, EndSARS: Investigate Killing of protesters https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/AFR4432542020ENGLISH.pdf
- Gann, B. (2011). The Nigerian Youth Movement (1934-1951). Retrieved from https://www.blackpast.org/global-africa-history/nigeria-youth-movement-1934-1951/
- Oluwola, O, Youth protests for police reform in Nigeria: What lies ahead for #EndSARS, Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2020/10/29/youth-protests-for-police-reform-in-nigeria-what-lies-ahead-for-endsars/
- Aliyu Tanko How the End Sars protests have changed Nigeria forever, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54662986
- Aina, F. (2020). Young People and Police Brutality: Generational Leadership in Nigeria. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/youth-and-leadership-in-nigeria/
- Benjamin. B. O, The Role of Nigeria Police Force in the Administration of Justice: Issues and Challenges A Thesis Submitted to the School of Postgraduate Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Award of Master of Laws Degree Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
