Terrorism prevention consultant Temitope Olodo urged the federal government to introduce a key performance indicator (KPI) mechanism into the country’s security system to measure the performance of all security officers in the country, from most low to highest rank.

Olodo, who is the Chairman of the African Security Forum and a retired Metropolitan Police Officer in the UK, gave his advice at a virtual meeting hosted by the Nigeria Diaspora Network (NDN), UK Chapter United Kingdom (United Kingdom), and monitored by journalists in Abuja. .

The title of the meeting was: “Security challenges and community policing”.

“I was a former public servant. If you ask me today, I have never seen the IGP (Inspector General of Police) job description and I do not make it personal.

“I don’t know what kind of KPI it is measured against, but I can tell you that we know the KPI of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner of Police, we know the KPI of New York, Australia, and so on.

“We know how the police are measured.

I used to be a police officer and have KPIs.

“When I left the metropolitan police on secondment, I was measured on KPI.

“They took out my KPI and that was the basis on which I’m entitled to other benefits, in terms of my salary increase.

“But I don’t know what the KPIs are for the Nigerian police. If there are no KPIs, what are you measuring them with? ” He asked.

Olodo explained that if there were no KPIs, the performance indicators of security guards would not be commensurate with their work.

“Let me give you a good example, the new IGP came out to say that they did a lot of things, that they recently collected 231 assorted weapons and that they congratulated themselves.

“In a country where the former head of state said there were around two million small arms in circulation and where it is known that there are around 60,000 AK-47 rifles in the hands of ‘about 120 bandits, what are 231 weapons?

“On a daily basis, if the IGP is serious, if the IGP locks my small village in Osun State, I tell you that it will obtain more than 1000 weapons in a day when a check, search and thorough verification will be carried out.

“So when we talk about a KPI, people will measure themselves against the lowest performance type if you don’t give them the correct KPI,” he said.

Olodo said all stakeholders should be prepared to take community policing seriously if the system works.

He said community policing was the easiest way to keep the police going, but corruption had been the scourge.

He said people have to own community policing to work.

“Community policing is about telling authorities what the security needs are and channeling efforts and resources to those areas to deal with them,” he added.

He also said that in order to resolve the issue, the country needs to look at the past and how it got to where it is today.

“Nigeria got where it is because the foundation was weakened, and the good book says when the foundation is weak what can the righteous do.

“For a number of years, we have allowed our institutions, especially the security institutions, to deteriorate.

“And due to these weak institutions and our failure to speak to the ruling power, we found ourselves in a situation where degradation is endemic, the situation now goes beyond the simple transfer of these institutions to the unit of intensive care.

“When a patient is taken to the intensive care unit, you have to download a lot of procedures. But it may not work at this point because there are many spare parts that need to be changed in this system.

“We need practical changes that we can reverse and say, this is the change we want,” he said.

According to Olodo, in Nigeria we do not police by consent, we police by force.

“If we do policing by consent, a lot of things that are happening in Nigeria will not happen. I think that’s where we went wrong, ”he said.

Global community policing security expert Dr Aminu Audu was optimistic that if adopted in line with international best practice, community policing would work in the country.

Audu also said that the issue of insecurity was not new in the country.

“What we are seeing today is the product of a series of activities that have taken place in the past. So it’s a construction, ”he said.

He said that although there is insecurity in Nigeria, the way forward is community policing.

“According to Freeman in 1992, community policing is about policies and strategies to achieve more effective crime control, reduce fear of crime, improve quality of life, improve policing and police legitimacy. by proactively drawing on community resources that seek to change the conditions that lead to crime. ,” he said.

He added that community policing would ensure the need for greater police accountability, greater public participation in decision-making and greater concern for civil rights and freedom.

Audu said it was disheartening that when it comes to community policing, “what comes to mind is forming a vigilante group and arming them with weapons so that they begin to delve into damaging assassinations and mistreatment of crime suspects.

“No, it’s not so. Community policing is about the police, the community that comes together to solve problems, especially the conditions that lead to crime.

“Now we are talking about insecurity, what happens to poverty? How is poverty tackled?

“Who are the people who sponsor those who carry arms?”

“For example, I read sometimes that around 400 people were arrested on the pretext that they sponsored Boko Haram, I don’t know what happened to them?

The expert, who recognized the influence of the foreign factor in the security challenge, said community policing would not be successful if the problem of poverty and other factors were not addressed.

He also said that over the years, community policing had not functioned effectively in the country due to a large communication gap between the community and security providers.

He urged people to stop politicizing the initiative.

“Are we really practicing community policing with precision?” So the problem is, it’s been a matter of guesswork, ”he said.

Audu, however, praised President Muhammadu Buhari for his support for community policing.

“I really commend President Buhari for taking the step to implement community policing with a financial investment of around $ 26 million.

“But how many governors or presidents of local communities are responsible for implementing these policies according to specifications?

“I am happy that the federal government is implementing based on empirical research. Now, at the moment, they are undergoing a process, ”Audu said.

Cyber ​​security professional Deji Adebayo, who is one of the NDN coordinators in the UK, said the meeting was organized as part of efforts by Nigerians living abroad to see how the security challenge could be resolved in order to create a better and secure society for the country.

Other NDN members present at the meeting include Dr Aminu Ahmadu, lecturer and academic consultant to UK universities; Offor Okpanachi, an AML professional, among others.

NDN is an association of Nigerian professionals, who have come together to see how Nigeria can move forward.