There is a need to design and develop a strategic human resource management framework for effective policing, contends Felix Oladeji
The contributions of any institution to a country’s socio-economic development rest on the performance of its human resources. The management of these resources is vital to attaining the set goals and objectives. Globally, the police force plays a significant role in national development, as they constitute the pillar of peace and stability, which government builds its social and economic policies. The role of the police is essential as the absence of peace and stability deter the economic and social progress of a country. The vital institution is accountable for maintaining laws and public order. The Nigeria Police Force, which is under the jurisdiction of federal and state institutions, has the responsibility of law enforcement and maintaining order in the country. This responsibility is regulated by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Nigeria Police Act, international conventions, professional ethics, and other acts of the National Assembly.
However, over the years, the Nigeria police force has been tagged with several accusations that reflect the institution’s inefficiency. This is evident through reports such as unprofessionalism and gross misconducts of police officers, loss of trust in the force, and incessant record of insecurity in the country. Obviously, there is a lack of public trust for the police institution for security of lives and properties, human treatment in accordance to fundamental human rights, which is a cornerstone for economic prosperity and political stability. There is also a high level of deviance among police personnel, which has made police protection a luxury unaffordable for the general public and the non-existence of toleration of fundamental human rights of the people in the eyes of the police.
Police deviance is considered an aggregate of negative behaviors of the Nigeria police, which negates their constitutional and moral duties. These behaviors include corruption in the habit of demanding and collecting inducement, police misconduct through deliberate attempts to break internal rules and procedures, police crime involving aggressive and excessive violence on the citizens, and police brutality. Evidence report by Amnesty International reveals that Nigeria police has been responsible for large numbers of extrajudicial execution, deaths in custody and torture, and a sum of 1,049 people killed by the police as of 2009. The deviation of some police officers from expected norms, duties and standards shows a need for an overhauling of the approaches of the institution. Recently, this act of police deviance, which is largely construed as police brutality, led to mass protest across Nigeria against a police unit called Special Anti–Robbery Squad (SARS). The protest was named ENDSARS, which encompasses the SARS unit’s dissolving and an end to Police brutality. The SARS unit was known for unlawful and extrajudicial killings, extortion of citizens (mostly youths), degrading and inhumane treatment of citizens.
Furthermore, there are several limitations faced by the NPF. These limitations can be categorized into two dimensions of resource inefficiency: the inadequate numbers of police officers suitable for Nigeria’s population and the poor welfare of available police officers. Nigeria is under policed, with a capacity of 371800 police officers to a population of 200 million. Also, the Nigeria police is underfunded to fulfill its constitutional duties of protecting the citizens. They lack operational vehicles, modern forensics equipment, inadequate firearms, and a poor working environment.
These run concurrently with the poor welfare of police officers. This is evident from the terrible living conditions of police officers, such as the dilapidated state of the police barracks, lack of meaningful insurance, inadequate provision of working tools such as uniforms, shoes, and even writing materials, lack of promotion of police officers, and poor remuneration. Considering the NPF state only a well–equipped, morally upright, political force and physically fit police force can safeguard a community. All these problems in the NPF indicate a deficiency in the institution’s human resource management. Consequently, this calls for a need for Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) practices to reform the institution to optimize the purpose of its creation.
This change of approach in the management of the NPF is imperative as the fundamental principle of trust for the institution has been lost. This can be corroborated by stating that public institutions need public trust for optimal performance and a strategic management approach in its human resource functionality, especially in economic trends, technological influence, socio-cultural tendencies, and geographical trends. Hence, this approach is required to address the several issues faced in NPF, optimize the effectiveness of NPF towards integrative cooperation between the institutions and the people and enhance the performance of police personnel in the force. In the 21st century, this become significant in managing the conduct of the police service and developing modern police with the required relevant skills to respond to evolving security threats and novel types of crime.
Strategic police reforms in Nigeria’s pre-military rule and post- colonial administration never existed because the policing in the country was not directed to protecting lives and properties but to defending a regime, fighting opposition, and oppressing others who refuse to bow to the federal power. The gross misuse of power and political misconduct from the early post-colonial times gave rise to the military taking over a government that letter resulted in the neglect of the Nigeria police force. The NPF came to light at the end of the military rule in 1999 after years of negligence by the military regime and because of the constitution.
It was clear that NPF needed more to satisfy Nigeria’s safety needs, which led to reforms channeled to reorganize and restructure the NPF.
The NPF reforms were majorly directed towards core safety and human rights issues such as the extrajudicial killings, torturing of suspects, absence of victims protection, etc. Other physical reforms were directed at the technicality needed for successful operations. This justifies the prevalence of challenges faced in the Nigeria security forces, which include inappropriate equipment, insufficient quality control (and transparency) of recruitment processes and promotions, delays in paying salaries, and lack of functionality of internal and external oversight institutions.
Also, general underfunding and the deficient financial and infrastructural organization of the police force are generally perceived as some of the main reasons for the security agents’ lack of professionalism or involvement in corruption. The effort to reform the force was like a waltz, with no decisive steps forward and a superficial veneer. Historically, this inefficiency in NPF is rooted in the ideology of the policing system, which shows that systems have not entirely departed from their original colonial philosophical template.
Circumventing replacement for a not-working mode of operation or patching a spoilt system is the clear case of NPF reforms. You can hit as many times as possible with so many reformed styles as possible, but the outcome would still not fix the ache. For any reform to be effective, there is a need for a solid and radical ideological detachment from the old ways (colonial philosophical template) rebuilt of a new system.
According to their duties, Nigeria’s police system lacks the operational tools, resources, and machinery to provide adequate security to society. The police system has a poor forensic capacity (in terms of staff and laboratories), poorly equipped police stations, messy police stations, and insufficient security equipment such as bulletproof vests, sophisticated arms, and handcuffs. Furthermore, Nigeria police officers are victims of inhumane treatment evidenced in their poor accommodation facilities, dilapidated police barracks, and poor wages and salaries in comparison to their counterparts in other parts of the world.
Moreover, according poor welfare condition in Nigeria police force impedes effective performance.
Also, the ineffectiveness, dishonest implementation, and lip service to various police reforms in Nigeria since the inception of the Fourth Republic show a need for a strategic approach to reform Nigeria’s police force. Hence, the adoption and utilization of a strategic human resource management approach are vital in reforming the Nigeria police, especially in situations where the primary focus of the reformation is on: exploiting the knowledge base of human resource management, enhancing the potentials of police officers (as human resource asset), and encouraging the police institution to fulfill its constitutional, moral and societal duties. There is a need to design and develop a strategic human resource management framework for effective policing and security management. Moreover, the police institution as a public institution and open systems needs human resource strategies to function optimally. It encapsulates economic perspectives, technological perspectives, and socio-cultural perspectives for performance. Therefore, this will boost public confidence, enhance cooperation, increase collaboration, and stimulate integrity in the Nigeria police force.
Oladeji writes from Lagos
