Experts in the security sector, on Monday, held a peer review meeting to assess research report on the changes in the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) since the enactment of the 2020 Police Act.
The workshop, which was organised by International Alert in Abuja, was supported by the UK Integrated Security Fund, Nigeria Stability Programme.
Dr Paul Nyulaku-Bemshima, Country Director of International Alert, made this known at a Two-day Workshop on Peer Review of Research Report on Changes in the Nigerian Police Force Since 2020 and Draft Training Curriculum.
According to Nyulaku-Bemshima, the peer review meeting emanates from a research project.
He said that project was carried out by International Alert in the last three months in 19 states including the FCT, to assess the changes that have happened within the NPF since 2020.
“It brought out very key points in terms of the internal changes that have happened.
The changes relate to policy, the institution itself; the practice and the relationship between the police and the public.
“We brought together a range of actors to present these reports from the different geopolitical zones and to interrogate it to make sure that it speaks to the very issues within the context.
“It is to also track these changes and ensure that what we are presenting in these reports is policy relevant,” he said.
Nyulaku-Bemshima said International Alert initiated a mutual accountability and community scorecard project.
“What that simply says is that public safety and security is about mutual accountability.
“The public have a responsibility as well as the police in the discharge of their responsibilities,” he said.
He said International Alert was currently doing this in nine states, including the FCT adding that the police are happy to engage in the conversations in many locations.
“We have seen the public very excited in Abia, Kaduna, Sokoto and Lagos states .
“We have seen the willingness to sit together collaboratively because the public recognises the importance of the police in internal security,”he said.
Also speaking, Prof. Magdalene Dura, Dean of Law, Bingham University, said that the peer review meeting would also help in drafting training curriculum.
Dura said that having interacted with police academies and colleges of training; the concern was on how to impart the Police Act knowledge to trainees for effective assimilation to translate into operational service.
According to her, they also raised the issue of a gap in gender training.
“So, the training curriculum is supposed to enhance their ability and capacity to transmit knowledge to their trainees.
“It will also help to train them in such a way that they are able to imbibe practical skills for field operations when they graduate. So, the training curriculum now looks at the police act,” she said
Prof. Olu Ogunsakin, Director-General, National Institute of Police Studies, Abuja, said that the Police Act 2020 had helped to standadise police operations in the country.
According to Ogunsakin, in the past, we would say that we have 350,000 police officers, and we have 350,000 different ways of policing.
“But now, we are trying to standardise it.
“I think that what the police act has introduced is to have standard policing, taking into account the differences in different zones and different people and tribes within the country.
“This is because there are different value elements that we bring to fore. So, the strategy itself is to be able to police people according to their needs and values,” he said.
Ogunsakin said that International Alert had been able to bring together experts to dialogue on the best ways to implement the various research works around the Police Act.
“This will assist us to put things into perspective. By putting names and labels on the types of reforms we are advocating for and the kind of behaviour we are trying to change,”he said
Prof. Isaac Albert, Lead Researcher, Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan, said that the research focused on public perception of the police
Albert said that it also focused on the police perception of themselves, and would asses NPF’s response to the Act.
He said that existing studies focused largely on demonisation of the police.
However, the police is playing more roles than the society is aware of,” he said.
He therefore, said that the research would gauge the extent to which the police force is changing, using indicators of the positive changes, the gaps to be filled and how to fill those gaps.
“So the peer review is aimed at assessing these gaps. We want to know the gaps we blame on the police personnel, the gaps we blame on government and the gaps we blame on the society.
“This will help in correcting the misleading impression that all the blames of policing is on NPF,” he said.(NAN)
