Human rights activist and lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, has blamed the worsening insecurity in Nigeria on the mismanagement of Police resources and systemic corruption within the Force.
Speaking during a press conference alongside other activists in Abuja on Friday, Adeyanju criticised the deployment of Police officers to protect the nation’s elite, leaving ordinary citizens vulnerable to crime and violence.
“One of the reasons why we have insecurity in Nigeria is because out of the about 350,000 policemen we have, almost 200,000 are following big men, Yahoo Boys, and all kinds of people they call VIPs,” Adeyanju stated.
He lamented the ease with which wealthy individuals can access police protection, describing scenes from nightclubs in Lagos and Abuja where “young boys with six, seven MOPOLs” accompanying them. He added, “All the celebrities in Nigeria have MOPOLs attached to them, all the governors, the deputies, their wives, their concubines.”
Adeyanju argued that the misallocation of security personnel has contributed significantly to rising insecurity across the country. “This is the reason why we are having insecurity in the country,” he said. “Let us stop beating around the bush as if we don’t know why they are killing people in Benue, Plateau, Kwara, Gombe… It is because there has been a collapse of policing in the country.”
The activist also condemned the commercialisation of Police services, accusing officers of abandoning their constitutional duty in pursuit of personal gain. “The other 150,000 policemen that should be protecting the citizens are collecting bribes on the road, so nobody is really policing in the country,” Adeyanju said.
He further alleged that corruption has crippled police operations at the divisional level, forcing officers to generate revenue informally. “The police have abandoned their constitutional responsibility of policing, and all they are interested in now is revenue generation to maintain the divisional police heads because money meant for them is stolen by some people,” he explained. “If we address corruption, insecurity will stop.”
While acknowledging that VIPs require protection, Adeyanju proposed two solutions to the crisis.
“Yes, we concede that the VIPs need some form of protection, so it will be unreasonable on our part to say don’t protect the VIPs, even Americans protect their VIPs,” he said. “I will be making two recommendations: number one, let us use the elite corps of the Civil Defence to protect the VIPs. The police must go back to policing the nation, that is the only way that we can stop this growth of terrorist groups all over the country.”
Adeyanju’s second recommendation was more radical: to legalise gun ownership for ordinary citizens. “If we have reached a consensus that security groups all over the country have failed, let us allow people to carry guns,” he suggested. “Let us give licences to citizens to carry guns like in America. If we all own guns, who will come to Plateau to terrorise anybody? Who will come to a community in Benue to terrorise anybody?”
He concluded by asserting that if the government was unwilling to reform policing and redeploy officers back to public service, Nigeria should openly admit failure and empower citizens to protect themselves.
