I was listening to a radio programme yesterday and my heart sank when I realised the staggering amount of money the police need for their operations.
Although I caught the program halfway, it was clearly a police officer explaining the role of the Police Community Relations Committee. He was asked why sometimes the police said they had no means of transport or the vehicle had no fuel when they were invited while a crime was being committed.
He said that excuse was usually valid and unfortunately true. He painted a graphic picture when he said imagine a state that had just 10 local government areas. That means at least 10 divisional districts which would be allocated at least one vehicle each. Assuming it was at night in a local government headquarters and their assistance was required in a village away from the local government headquarters and the only vehicle was sent there. Before it returned, another crime was being committed in another place, how could they go to the second place?
He said such things happened, unfortunately. He said sometimes there wasn't even paper to write down a statement until the complainant provided money for it. He said such things happened even in courts!
The question is, is there no money provided for such things or is the money inadequate?
Obviously, the vehicles are far inadequate and if more are to be provided, each local government would require more than 3 times the number of vehicles they currently have. If you multiply that by the number of local governments in the country, 773, that will give you an idea how huge the amount is. The logistics for maintaining the vehicles is no less huge!
Is Nigeria financially capable of satisfying this demand? And that's just one sector of the security apparatus of the country!
This is really scary! It set my mind thinking that we have a long way to go...