Journals

It was the Roman satirist, juveniles, who perhaps first raised the question of an accountability structure for the police when he asked, “Who will guard the guardians?” Historically, the people have been largely left alone to keep their house in order, with some external oversight administered by the courts and government. This simple approach has now been found wanting because of widespread citizens’ dissatisfaction with the internal disciplinary procedures of police departments. Numerous researches and inquiries have also demonstrated the vulnerability of the police to corruption and misconduct. While there is no doubt that a majority of police officers are usually untouched by exposes of corruption and other acts of police misconducts, there can be little doubt also that many are neck-deep in smile, thus raising the question: to whom are they accountable? Read more

The business of hiring one man to kill another has emerged forcefully as a national fad in the last two years of democracy, citizens now skip or spurn positive ambition and competitions which could lead to rivalry even as desperate politicians seem to have found willing allies in hired killers. The next election is clearly under great threat, Read More

Hard drugs have not always been banned or controlled! There was a time when countries freely exported and permitted the importation of substances that ate today tagged illicit drugs. This is because of their avowed medicinal values. For instance, pure cocaine was first isolated in the late 19th century and used as anesthetic in eye surgery. It was reportedly useful surgery of the nose and throat because of its ability to provide anesthesia as well as to constrict blood vessels and limited bleeding. Similarly, heroine which was first synthesized from morphine in 1874, was used as a painkiller at the turn of the twentieth century. When its commercial production started. In the same vein, there were no legal restrictions on the importation of opium in the United States until the early 1900s. In those days, medicines often contained opium without any warning

The Nigerian Police Force is a colonial. Its modern history dates back to 1930, when the then Southern and Northern Nigeria police forces were merged under a centralized command structure, by the British colonial government. Ever since, it has operated as a national force, as provided in successive Nigerian constitutions. For instance, the 1963 federal constitution and subsequent constitutions in the country stipulate that “no police force other than the Nigeria Police force shall be established for Nigeria or any part thereof”.

Never in the entire 104 years history has the Nigeria Police been burying more of its members killed in the line-f-duty than in recent months. The body count mounts on a daily basis, both of the dead and the critically wounded as the battle with bandits gets fiercier and bloodier. Sorrows and tears rise in the barracks and stations. Inside story of a disappearing, unsung and unmoored generation of police heroes.

High walls, massive gates, uniformed security men and ferocious dogs are fast taking over the landscapes of wealthy neighborhoods and multinational business districts in Nigeria. Some argue that these are signs of the new rich. Others insist that they are a reflection of the vocal and growing dissatisfaction with the inability of the public service police, to respond adequately to the security and safety needs of the people. Whichever way you look at it, there seems to be an unwritten two-pronged approach adopted by Nigerians in addressing the security crisis in the country:

The rebels’ onslaught since September 18,2002 in Cote d’ Ivoire has imploded the fragile peace and stability of the impoverished West African sub-region. Hundred of thousands of refugees (nationals and foreigners) are moving across the borders into already war-ravaged countries with tales of blood, tears, sorrow and death. Once again, a continental calamity that has haunted African for several decades without solution seems to be reaching a crescendo as it enters into coma stage. From just four million refugees in 1986, the figure has gone beyond 42 million today; with no end in sight. Read more

In a no-holds-barred, full frontal attack, Nuhu Ribadu, new boss of the Economic and financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) takes on the generals of Nigeria’s notorious criminal gang of Advance Fee Fraud or 419 operators. With 26 kingpins behind bars in the biggest arrest ever, and others on the run, the battle seems just headed for climax. But can Ribadu retain the fire?

If petroleum is the commanding height of the nation’s economy, the seaports, rightly described, are the gateways to that economy. Petroleum oils and lubricates that economy so that it suffers little or no friction corrosion and wear and tear from the menacing threat of globalization. But the ports constitute the ineluctable valve through which the oil gains passageway for maximum effect in the nation‘s economic engine open. Shut or partially obstruct the ports valve and what you get is either the jump-starting, or stifling, or stopping or even, a studied regulation of the entire economic engine. Read more

The last four years of elected civilian government in Nigeria has offered the people an opportunity to rebuild the rule of law and the process, after fifteen years of uninterrupted military dictatorship.
 However, a major index of functional democracy is that law enforcement agents, especially the police, as the most visible agents of government are expected to rely on public goodwill and co-operation to carry out their duties, operation within the limited of their duties, operate within the limits of their legally define powers and are particularly answerable to the judicial branch of government for any excesses in the exercises of their powers. Their ability to work closely with the people in a respectful and co-operative manner devoid of egregious hostility are prime indicators of whether the Nigerian society, is actually, undergoing a democratic transformative process. Click here for the story of CLEEN

In many developing countries, the fear of crime and perceptions of increasing social disorder are widespread. Anxiety about personal security is fast crossing the boundaries of race, class, sex, age and other sociological variables. The failure of the state and its public order and criminal justice institutions to respond adequately and provide some protection of basic needs is glaring.

The threat of organized crime to corporate existence nation-states is fast becoming regional threat, once viewed as a local or at most regional threat; organized crime has become a highly sophisticated transnational affair. As the 1999 Global Report on Crime and Justice notes: “Form the perspective of organized crime in the 1990s, A1 Capone was a small time hoodlum with restricted horizons, limited ambitious and merely a local fiefdom

If petroleum is the commanding height of the nation’s economy, the seaports, rightly described, are the gateway to the economy. Petroleum oils and lubricates that economy so that is suffers little or no friction, corrosion and wear and tear from the menacing threat of globalization. But the ports constitute the singular ineluctable value through which the oil gains passageway for maximum effect in the nation’s economic engine. Open. Shut or partially obstruct the ports valve and what you get is either the jump-starting or stifling, or even, a studied regulation of the entire economic engine. Politics, social relations or interactions, and all things else in the society revolve round the economic pendulum.