The cut in the budgetary allocation to the Nigeria Police in 2014 budget proposal is a potential threat to the forthcoming general elections scheduled for 2015.The allocation for personnel cost fell from N292billion in 2013 to N279 billion in 2014, i.e. N13billion decrease. While in 2013 Police formation and command received N7.6 billion as overhead cost, in 2014 budget N1.2billion is budgeted for the same purpose – a cut-off N6.4billion.
No reason has been given for the decline in Police allocation. One thing is, however, clear: the situation is bound to affect the state of preparedness of the Police to carry out its duties.There are several possibilities. The effectiveness of policemen may be hampered. If the salaries are not paid, the personnel may decide to go on strike. So far, the Police have not been able to pay salaries in the first quarter of the year. The shortfall in Police allocation is like a banana peel, capable of derailing the electoral process. It is frightening because it is happening preparatory to 2015 general elections.
However, the diminution may be acceptable if government is saying that about 3,000 policemen and women have been killed or have died within the past one year. There are 370,000 policemen and women with additional recruitment in the offing. Already, the Senate Committee on Police Affairs has saidpoor funding of the Police may hamper a free and fair election in 2015.Committtee chairmen, Senator Paulinus Nwagwu, warned that if salaries of policemenare left unpaid, it may lead to a strike action.
Supervising Minister of Police Affairs, Olajumoke Akinjide, during the budget defence, told the senators that her ministry had already made a representation to the ministry of finance about the shortfall in the ministry’s allocations, particularly as regards the drop in personnel cost.She assured that the Police ministry was ready to deliver on free, fair and credible elections, because it is a cardinal policy of the present administration.
Poor funding of the Police is unacceptable. Even at good times, the Police have been partly blamed for electoral malpractices in the country. Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has named the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and the judiciary as conspirators in electoral fraud and impunity in the conduct of elections in Nigeria.In its investigation of election petitions filed at the various election petition tribunals in the six geo-political zones, the commission found the three culpable of promoting electoral offences, saying they are a threat to the nation’s democracy.
Entitled, “An Independent Review of Evidence of Gross Violation of the Rights to Participate in Government to Public Service and to Fair Trial Through the Election Petition Process in Nigeria Between 2007 and 2011”, the report showed evidence of how the judiciary sanctioned criminality in the electoral system.Cases listed include unlawful substitution of candidates by political parties and INEC, inflation of the numbers of the ballots cards, forgery of election returns, and intimidation of voters and election officials at polling centres.
The report, which was presented in Abuja by NHRC chairman, Chidi Odinkalu, and Chairman of Senate Committee on Human Rights, Umaru Dahiru, concluded that the problem of falsifying election results was much in place. As the 2015 general elections draw nearer, we urge the various bodies that will be engaged in the electoral process to live up to expectation. Government should put everything possible in place to give us a free and fair election. The success of the election should be the priority of all of us.
