President Muhammadu Buhari, recently, in Owerri, the capital of Imo State, charged the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to put in place credible plans to guarantee credible outcomes of the 2023 general elections.
The President, instructively, called on the police to remain, as they ought to, apolitical, firm and loyal to democratic values and practices.
Declaring open the three-day Conference and Retreat for Senior Police Officers, the President directed the police to review the evolving internal security threats, warning that they could, if left unattended to, impact the cherished peaceful and successful elections.
“As I have often observed, elections are local and it is only when the votes truly count that the faith of the citizens in the democratic process can be demonstrated and government legitimacy assured,” he said.
Of course, it can be said that democracy is defined by broad values involving participation and formal rules about procedures such as elections. But for most people and most of the time, these are removed from daily life. That is not true for the police, the agency of government that citizens are most likely to see and have contact with.
All industrial societies use police to control crime and to contribute to public order (e.g., mediating and arbitrating disputes, regulating traffic and helping in emergencies). But the conditions under which police operate, the means they use and the ends they seek vary greatly between democratic and non-democratic societies.
Police are a central element of a democratic society. Indeed, one element in defining such a society is a police that is subject to the rule of law, rather than the wishes of a powerful leader or party, can intervene in the life of citizens only under limited and carefully controlled circumstances and is publicly accountable.
Thus, it is ironic that police are both a major support and a major threat to a democratic society. When police operate under the rule of law they would protect democracy by their example of respect for the law and by suppressing crime. Police are moral and legal actors.
In a democratic society, police must, therefore, as the President tried to highlight, not be a law unto themselves. Despite strong pressures and temptations from especially politicians, to the contrary, they are not to act in an explicitly political fashion, nor to serve the partisan interests of the party in power, or the party they would like to see in power.
Their purpose must not be to enforce political conformity. Holding unpopular beliefs or behaving in unconventional, yet legal, ways are not adequate grounds for interfering with citizens’ liberty. When opponents of democracy operate within the law, the police must protect their rights and the rights of others.
What the President tries to show is the fact that democratic societies strive for equal law enforcement, an ideal that cannot be attained without the professionalism of the police.
Under democracy, citizens are to be treated in equivalent ways. Police are trained to behave in a universalistic fashion. Should their attitude depart from the demands of the role they are playing, this must not affect their behaviour.
Police, as the President urged them to do, should show neutrality, if they simply enforce the rules, regardless of the characteristics of the persons or group involved.
Against this background, the role of the police encompasses what they are expected to do before, during and after elections. Succinctly put, the role of the police in the organisation of elections covers all the stages or phases of the election which include constituency delineation, the nomination of candidates, campaign, voting, vote counting, a compilation of results and the announcement of results as well as the declaration of the winners.
By implication, the police personnel, being the leading security agents, are expected to energetically exhibit proactive and reactive efforts towards public peace and safety. In other words, the police are concerned with the protection of the environment where the election is expected to be conducted, the electorates who are to vote in an election and the officials who are to hold the election as well as the sensitive and non-sensitive materials meant for the election.
Concerning election administration in Nigeria, the responsibilities of the police are well captured in the 1999 Constitution as amended, the Electoral Act and the various guidelines of the INEC and the Police Service Commission.
In a nutshell, the structural and procedural dimensions of election administration and the roles of the police during elections ought to provide all stakeholders with a level playing field where they can freely exercise their political rights.
Unfortunately, over the years, part of the constraints to the democratic process in Nigeria is rooted in the inability to have hitch-free, fair and credible elections. There has not been any election in Nigeria whose outcome has not been contested and accompanied by a series of litigations.
Thus, strengthening all democratic institutions and structures, not just the police, is critical to the enhancement of the integrity of the electoral process. In this context, an apolitical police force is needed to deepen democracy in the country.
This objective can best be guaranteed, as President Muhammadu Buhari has called for, through a well-policed election and security operations that are impartial, firm and professional.
…As Buhari backs redesigned Naira notes
President Muhammadu Buhari said that the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to launch and redesigned Naira notes had his approval and support.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, recently, announced a very important but dramatic decision to redesign, produce, release and circulate new banknotes of N200, N500, and N1,000.
According to the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, the decision was reached due to persisting concerns regarding the management of the current series of banknotes and currency in circulation, particularly those outside the banking system in the country.
He said that in recent times, currency management has faced several daunting challenges that have continued to grow in scale and sophistication with attendant and unintended consequences for the integrity of both the CBN and the country.
According to the CBN Governor, one of these challenges is the significant hoarding of banknotes by members of the public, with statistics showing that over 80 per cent of the currency in circulation is outside the vaults of commercial banks.
He said that as of the end of September 2022, available data at the CBN indicates that N2.73 trillion, out of the N3.23 trillion printed currency, circulate outside the vaults of commercial banks and, supposedly, held by the public.
“Evidently, currency in circulation has more than doubled since 2015, rising from N1.46 trillion in December 2015 to N3.23 trillion in September 2022,” he said. “This is a worrisome trend that cannot be allowed to continue.”
Other challenges listed by the CBN Governor include the worsening shortage of clean and fit banknotes with the attendant negative perception of the CBN and increased risk to financial stability and increasing ease and risk of counterfeiting evidenced by several security reports.
The CBN Governor said that recent development in photographic technology and advancements in printing devices have made counterfeiting relatively easier.
“In recent years, the CBN has recorded significantly higher rates of counterfeiting, especially at the higher denominations of N500 and N1,000 banknotes,” he said. “Although global best practice is for central banks to redesign, produce and circulate new local legal tender every five to eight years, the Naira has not been redesigned in the last 20 years.”
The new and existing currencies, the CBN Governor said, shall, simultaneously, remain legal tender and circulate together.
Thus, accepting the arguments put forward by the CBN Governor, speaking in a Hausa radio interview with the famous journalist, Halilu Ahmed Getso, and Kamaluddeen Sani Shawai, aired on Tambari TV on Nilesat, President Muhammadu Buhari said he is convinced that the nation would gain a lot by withdrawing the current and introducing redesigned Naira notes.
Specifically, the President said that the reasons given to him by the CBN Governor have convinced him that the economy stands to benefit from a reduction in inflation, currency counterfeiting and excess cash if the Naira is redesigned and the bulk of it gets back to the control of the banking industry.
On the issue of time allotted for the process of change to last, the President said he does not think that three months is inadequate.
“People with illicit money, buried under the soil, will have a challenge with this but workers, businesses with legitimate incomes, will face no difficulties at all,” he said.
However, while most Nigerians do, as the President does, believe that the nation stands to benefit from this development, the trouble remains that people who are holding huge amounts of cash outside the banking system for nefarious reasons will go to the parallel forex market to buy hard currency and, in the process, put further downward pressure on the value of the Naira as too much Naira will be chasing too few dollars.
