Kidnapping: Anambra vindicated

By ORAZILUM NEBOLISA
Posted: Monday, August 2, 2010

It has taken the recent abduction of four journalists in Abia State for the Federal Government and the public at large to gain better appreciation of the prevalent insecurity in the country, especially in the South-South and South-East zones. The ordeal of Mr. Wahab Oba and company for obvious reasons attracted heightened media attention which in turn, compelled the Federal Government’s rapid response to the situation. So decisive was the security alert following the kidnap that the criminals had to let go of their victims without further ado, concerned only with beating the ring closing on them. The impressive mobilization against the kidnappers, led by the Inspector General of Police himself, shows that the scourge can be contained with purposefulness and commitment on the part of security agencies. And on the heels of the journalists’ release, the Police in Enugu successfully rescued Laruba Abdullahi, mother of football administrator, Sani Lulu whose kidnap had been equally well publicized.
  This level of engagement by the Police had not been the case in the past. Nor had the Federal Government shown enough interest toward understanding the roots of the upsurge in crime before now. As it were, some factors have come to light.
  The task of combating violent crime had largely been left to the States who being on the ground, found themselves funding and equipping a prostrate police force. State Governments were not just faced with a demoralised police operating with outdated technology; they equally had to contend with the problematic issue of authority of control. The 1999 Constitution designated state governors as Chief Security officers of the States but placed the police under the Federal exclusive legislative list. Thus, while a state governor could give directives to the State commissioner of police, the governor did not exercise disciplinary control over a police commissioner found wanting in his duties.
  Yet, it was under the impression of this nebulous power of governors as Chief Security Officers that they have come under scathing criticism for not arresting the insecurity in our States. Anambra State appears to have received the harshest knocks for supposedly being the playground of kidnappers and bank robbers. In the estimation of critics, this is a consequence of ineffectual security strategies or even the absence of it. The situation it is claimed is further worsened by failure to address the problem of unemployment in the State. These criticisms have neglected or do not appreciate the structural nature of the security issue.  
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu was reported by most newspapers of Thursday, July 15, 2010 to have stressed the need to ‘decentralize the Police to the states and local governments.’ This was against the hue and cry of the journalists’ kidnap and the seeming inability of the Police to rescue other victims in the past. In making the proposal, Ekweremadu obviously recognized the operational difficulties in running the system from Abuja, rather far removed from the localities of activity. Decision-making process was bound to be hampered by time and distance of communication. Besides, the approving authority in Abuja, would hardly be able to assess the situation from the state governors’ point of view and even where this is correctly gauged, may not be disposed to so act.
  Ekweremadu’s suggestion needs to be considered seriously as a pragmatic way of empowering state governors to be real Chief Security Officers of their States. The position offers a middle ground between the conservative order of a single national police and the federalist model that accommodates State Police. Legislated decentralization could serve in the interim until the culture of democratic federalism gradually kills the morbid fears about state police. The unpleasant alternative in the absence of any such restructuring is that frustrated state governors may set up militia groups in the name of vigilante and we would be back to the terror days of Bakassi.
  The need for a more constructive mechanism that will invest state governors with authority over state police commands has become urgent in the face of the indictment of officers by the Inspector General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo. What emerges from the Police Chief’s comments is the disturbing absence of motivation among a considerable number of officers.  National Compass of July 15, 2010 quotes Onovo thus: ‘Why would criminals kidnap people in Abia State and ferry them through Imo to Anambra State unchallenged? Why would kidnappers go to churches and abduct people and go scot free with all the police presence in the State? And why would they cross several police check-points with their victims, yet undetected?’  
It behoves the Police high command to find out why their men lack commitment to the job and quickly take remedial action. For, it naturally follows that without motivation, there cannot be intelligence gathering which is the hallmark of crime fighting strategy. The problem is compounded by poor training and sometimes superior weaponry of the criminals. In the face of these constraints, it becomes clear why the police have been unable to rise to the occasion against the criminal gangs playing with our lives.  
Critics of the Peter Obi administration have advanced youth unemployment as the cause of the high rate of kidnapping incidents in the State without realizing that kidnapping is a luxury crime driven by greed, not want. Like traffickers of hard drug, gamblers, perpetrators of internet scam and bank fraud, kidnappers are interested in living big rather than earning a living. Are the well-connected looters of Nigeria’s treasury unemployed? Several psycho-analytical studies tend to agree that majority of violent crimes and deviant behavior generally, are in part, informed by a desire to dominate the system. In any case, the Obi administration’s subscription to a private sector-driven economy in which the private sector is the largest employer of labour is in accord with the development model of most advanced countries.
  Nebolisa wrote from  Awka.