Banditry: The Treachery and Deceit of Community Policing

Members of vigilante groups in Nigeria

Banditry attacks became an everyday headline in Nigeria shortly after the start of the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency in April 2015. Though Boko Haram activities spiked in the first few years of the administration, it subsided in the later parts of Buhari’s first tenure. 

Unfortunately, with the subsiding of Boko Haram’s terror came the birth of a new menace; banditry. Killings and kidnappings by bandits have attained heights never seen before in Nigerian history.

The Buhari government announced its community policing project on 28^th April 2020. 

What is Community Policing?

Community Policing is generally defined as a law enforcement philosophy that allows officers to continuously operate in the same area in order to create a stronger bond with the citizens living and working in that area. 

It never entails pushing civilians to the front line.

However, in Nigeria, the project simply entails pushing the job of the armed forces to the hands of civilians most of whom are untrained and inexperienced. 

It is seen as a move by government to silence calls for an upgrade of the armed apropos of number and equipment. The Nigeria police force has been demanding the recruitment of an extra 155, 000 personnel, better equipment and better welfare and remuneration for years. 

On 26^th November 2018, the Buhari government approved an increment of salaries for the Nigerian police; the increment is yet to be effected. 

The treachery in community policing is seen in the fact that civilians who risk their lives working as vigilantes do not get anything close to what  regular members of the armed forces get in terms of remuneration and when they die ‘in the line of duty’, their families get no compensation worthy of mention. 

On 22^nd April 2020, a bandit attack in Rafi local government of Niger state led to the death of 9 vigilante personnel. Some of these men were breadwinners, what happens to their families now?

Muhammadu Buhari made three major promises during his campaign in the 2015 elections; the most prominent one was providing security for the populace especially in the north.

Genesis

Rural communities of Zamfara state became killing fields, thousands were killed and tens of thousands others forced to flee. However, a change of government from the APC administration of Abdul Aziz Abubakar Yari to the PDP administration of Bello Matawalle on 29^th May 2019 has seen a marked decline of the menace in Zamfara albeit occasional killings. 

As at the time of writing this piece, the last killings by bandits in Zamfara state took place on 28^th June 2020, 12 civilians were killed. 

As the Zamfara state government stepped up administrative efforts to end banditry in Zamfara state, some of the bandits are said to have migrated to Niger state.

However, banditry has been a scourge on the people of Niger state since 2017; the most affected areas have been the local governments Shiroro, Rafi, Munya and Paikoro. The states: Kaduna, Benue, Sokoto and Katsina (Buhari’s own state) have also been hotspots. 

From rough estimates, banditry and other acts of armed violence has claimed twelve thousand lives and led to the displacement of over 200, 000 across northern Nigeria in the last five years. 

UNHCR documented in 2019 that there are 244, 000 Nigerian refugees with over two million displaced internally.

The Niger state government has documented that over 13, 000 people have been displaced by bandits since the menace started.

Futility of ‘Heavy’ Defense Spending

In the 2020 Nigeria national budget, the Buhari administration slated N975 billion for defense. This makes the total defense budget in the last five years N3.3 trillion. The Ministry of interior, which is also a security organ, has gulped over N1.7 trillion between 2016 and 2019. 

Adding the amount also gulped by the office of the National Security Adviser, it can be categorically stated that the Muhammadu Buhari administration has sunk well over N5 trillion in what it calls ‘securing the country’ in the last four years. 

It calls for the question, has this been effective? It could also raise the question, has the Buhari government actually spent N5 trillion on providing security?

Funding of Vigilante Groups and Insecurity

On 8th February 2017, the Niger state government under Abubakar Sani Bello distributed 90 motor bikes to vigilante groups in Shiroro, Rafi and Munya local government to fight insecurity in the areas. Again on 27th January 2020, the state government distributed 120 motorbikes and 12 vehicles to vigilante groups in the region.

On 16th February, the chairman of Rafi local government, Isma'il Musa Modibbo of the APC, inaugurated two thousand five hundred (2500) local vigilantes personnel to assist in what has been called ‘community policing’.

Similar ‘efforts’ have been made in other states battling with banditry. Have these spendings been worth it? What we know for a cert is that banditry in northern Nigeria is showing no signs of abating.

Months back, there were calls by the government and those clerics loyal to it for nationwide fasting and prayers. The clerics constantly drummed it into the ears of the masses that the insecurity menace was the result of persistent sinning by the masses and not really leadership flaws. 

On 20th February, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sad Abubakar III, who is referred to as the leader of Nigerian Muslims, asserted that the growing insecurity in Nigeria is driven by the sins being committed in the country. Represented by Idris Musa, the emir of Jiwa, at the 5th international conference on “Love and Tolerance: Countering Violent Extremism for Peaceful Coexistence” in Abuja, the Sultan is quoted to have said, “If we cannot listen to what the Bible and Quran have taught us and we continue in our bad ways, what do we expect? It is part of the punishment we are receiving based on our sins. If we can stop committing sin and abide by God’s words, things will change.” 

The prayers and fastings have done nothing to end insecurity.

It leaps off the page at those who care to observe that the community policing project of the Buhari administration is only intended to divert attention of the masses away from the fact that the trillions of naira budgeted for defense has gone into the private pockets of Buhari loyalists hence the need to make insecurity appear as the fruit of the wrong doing of the common man.

It is also an attempt to get the masses to do for free what the government is supposed to be paying for. When there is a preponderance of vigilante groups, it obviates the need for the recruitment of more standard security personnel living corrupt government officials with more money to loot.