DPA SYMPATHISES WITH POLICE OFFICERS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT BOKO HARAM

Ordinarily, if we were to take into consideration the brutality of the Nigerian police or the atrocities they commit against the citizens, the right thing to do would be to send every corrupt policeman to the war front against Boko Haram where they would be slaughtered by the terrorists. After all, Nigerians have nothing to lose if a corrupt officer is removed.

But DPA is a humanitarian organization. We care about human suffering and we don’t want people to suffer. Therefore we sympathize with the plight of many Nigerian police officers who are refusing to fight Boko Haram. We understand than many of them are deserting the force to avoid being shipped to the front.

The following are some of the reasons for our sympathy:

(1) If the officers desert the force to avoid deployment, most of them will become full-time armed robbers (instead of part-time seemed robbers that they currently are and that will worsen the crime rate in the country).

(2) The Nigerian police officers are not well trained and they grossly lack combat training. Sending them against the hardened and fierce fighting men on Boko Haram is liking feeding chicks to a meat grinding machine. Currently, Nigerian police officers run from armed robbers in any shootout. How can they face  Boko Haram fighters?

(3) There is low moral in the Nigerian police force. The officers do not trust their senior commanders whom they believe are deeply corrupt. Given the current state of affairs where senior police commanders embezzled funds meant for the welfare of police and leave the rank and file officers without even basic necessities, the officers do not trust their commanders. Some fear that their Commanders will make deals with Boko Haram sponsors and have the police officers slaughtered like chicken.

(4) If any of the police officers dies in battle, the Nigerian government will abandon his family in worse poverty. We already noticed that Nigerian government buried soldiers killed by Boko Haram in mass graves. Any nation that buries its heroes like that cannot be trusted to protect policemen killed in battle.

(5) The Nigerian police force does not have the culture of hard work and patriotism. They have been used to easy stuff like besting market women and killing unarmed civilians on illegal checkpoints. To suddenly place them in combat situation with the toughest fighters in Africa will be a culture shock for the officers. They will abandon their posts and flee at the slightest rumor of Boko Haram approach.

(6) The average Nigerian police officer lacks discipline and courage. He is too corrupt to be trusted in battle situation. Many are likely to sell their guns to herdsmen and cross over the Chad or Cameroon to hide or simply blend in with refugees.

For the above reasons, DPA does not support the planned deployment of the Nigerian police personnel to fight Boko Haram. We are aware that most Nigerians want every police officer deployed against Boko Haram where they would likely taste the same cruelty they met out to Nigerian civilians on daily basis. But DPA will rise beyond such popular sentiment and oppose the deployment of police officers against Boko Harami