The murder by the police of at least tens of protesters in recent days has raised the issue of the role of the police in our society. We hope that the police will be there to protect us when we suffer from acts of criminality. But we also know, even in normal times, that the police regularly arrest innocent people, torture them and in some cases even kill them.
The fundamental role of the police should be to protect the common people. Unfortunately, in most parts of the world, they only protect the rich and the powerful to the detriment of the poor majority. In normal times around a third of the police in Nigeria are assigned to directly protect VIP’s. Some of this protection was recently removed to make more police available to try and control the mass protests.
As the protests started, even on the first day, the police immediately used lethal force. For example, perhaps half a dozen protesters were murdered by the police at Suleja, just for blocking the road to Kaduna. Amnesty International estimated that 13 people were killed last Thursday in Suleja, Kaduna, Kano and Maiduguri. The violence escalated so much that by Sunday evening the police were shooting live ammunition into crowds in Kaduna and driving their anti-riot vehicles at speed, resulting in many deaths.
In Abuja, on the first day of protests, the police used tear gas against people who were trying to reach Eagle Square. On the second day tear gas was used extensively to disperse any small groups of protesters at Berger roundabout. On the third day the DSS used live ammunition to shoot wildly at protesters and journalists by the National Stadium.
Obviously, Socialist Labour condemns this killing of innocent protesters by the police. The police and the senior officers should be held to account, but we know they are supported by the political leadership. We know that they are regularly issued with live bullets rather than rubber bullets. We should know that the true role of the police is to terrorise the common people and to try and stop them opposing the corrupt elite.
We should accept that the leader of the police in Kaduna is less likely to be disciplined for the murders that he supervised, than the leader of the police in Edo State who was seen dancing with the protesters. The Edo police commissioner deserves praise for enabling the protesters to exercise their constitutional right to protest.
This behaviour by the police has only become clearer in recent days. But we all know that the police have to be settled to solve any crime we suffer. We all know that the police regularly arrest innocent people and then demand bail. Is this not just routine kidnapping?
The Police have never been the friends of working people. The origins of the Nigerian Police Force lie in the British Colonial period when the police were used to suppress uprisings for freedom against colonial rule. Despite 60 odd years of independence, the role of the Police Force has hardly changed.
Despite the police doing the bidding of the rich and powerful, they are also treated just as badly as the unarmed citizens they continuously harass and extort bribes from. Their barracks are a hell-hole, uniforms torn and dirty, with irregular pay. This year, the police have not received the 35,000 naira monthly allowance promised to Federal workers by the government.
The protests over recent days have clearly shown the role of the police as the armed wing of the state. The police and the whole state apparatus is designed to protect the rich from the poor majority. That is why socialists say that we cannot just take over this state – we will have to completely dismantle it and create a more democratic peoples’ state as the basis for socialism.
