#ENDSARS Protest in Nigeria: All you need to know

Nigeria needs to do better when it comes to the welfare of her heroes, civil servants, and workers who have served the Country with integrity or brought glory to the Country in one way or the other. More honour and reverence is usually given to the wealthy (who are into shady businesses) than it is given to hardworking citizens working with honesty and integrity. This has made a couple of people think that the only way to make it in Nigeria is by cutting corners because honesty and integrity do not really pay off in the Country. Sad but TRUE!

If a police officer in the UK or the USA dies in the line of duty, the honour given is beyond words and the family of the deceased are sure to be well taken care of. There is dignity in dying for your country in such countries. This is not the case in Nigeria. Many families of heroes in Nigeria are on their own. Many families of police men suffer after the death of their husband or father. They cannot afford school fees anymore and sometimes it becomes difficult to feed as the wife probably just had a small business before her husband’s demise. This is one of the reasons a police man might consider it a waste of life if he dies for his country as his family would be left to suffer after he’s gone.

The salary of the Nigerian Police is also nothing to write home about, especially considering the kind of work expected of them. This could be one of the reasons they also support themselves with bribes from road users, young people or collect bribe before a bail is processed whereas bail should be free. These policemen are also human and deserve a decent life, a decent pay, should also be given due credit, and should be given assurance that they won’t die for nothing and if they do die in the line of duty, their families are in safe hands. It is normal human instinct for a man to want to protect and take care of his family at all cost.

The barracks where many of these policemen live is another eyesore. Most of these buildings lack maintenance, and don’t look like a place anyone would want to live if they had a choice. This leads to another problem observed from studying the Nigerian Government; They lack a maintenance culture. This can be seen in bad roads, electricity infrastructure, water corporation, Government Schools, secretariats, etc. The lack of maintenance culture can also be seen in Research Organisations in the country that are left to deteriorate. These are Organisations that could contribute positively to the economy, put the country on the map for good, and even contribute to the world at large but they are left to deteriorate in standard and structure. Though some of these Organisations also suffer from bad internal leadership and internal funds mismanagement; this just follows after the leadership style of the country and we all know that work ethic starts from the top to the bottom. Some Universities and Research Institutes in Nigeria are examples of a result of this kind of poor management.

Not to digress too much, another challenge with the Nigerian Police force is the lack of adequate training and lack of motivation. Some Nigerian policemen have joined the force because they cannot find jobs elsewhere in the Country not because they want to serve the nation. If we are to be honest, we know policing is not for everyone and if you join out of frustration, there is no doubt that you will find a place to lash out your anger and frustration. You cannot lash it out on your boss in the force, neither can you lash it out on your fellow policeman who also has a gun. So where do you lash it out, the un-armed citizens innocently going about their business. This leads to questions such as:

• What sort of evaluations are being done before you are allowed to join the force?
• What is the probation period?
• What kind of interview is done?
• Do you pay attention to their motivation or reason for wanting to join the force?
• What training do you give them?
• Who trains them and what training does the trainer have that makes them qualified to train the trainees or new recruits?
• Do you do background checks and criminal records check? etc.