By Kemi Yesufu
The new Economic and Financial Crimes Commssion (EFCC) chairman has banned night raids.
It’s good news to people like us, who severally condemned the gestapo style of the EFCC in recent years.
But the EFCC still needs far-reaching, institutionalised reforms.
The EFFC needs to be modernised to level that it regularly comes up with policies which culturalise transparency and accountability especially in government and corporate Nigeria.
I remember interviewing former EFCC chairperson, Farida Waziri, and she revealed that she modelled the EFCC headoffice after Scotland Yard, especially how Scotland Yard’s HQ personifies its model of operations.
Britain’s Scotland Yard is a good example of an ever evolving security agency which Nigeria’s static and crudely managed security agencies can emulate, not only by building a Nigerian version of Scotland Yard HQ.
I read days back about the IGP Egbetokun introducing a rapid response app which is to be managed by a special squad. I was disappointed despite not having such high expectations of President Bola Tinubu spearheading a revolution of our criminal justice system, especially the modernisation of our security agencies. His body language, so far, shows he is comfortable with the archaic and sometimes unlawful ways our security agencies operate.
As a citizen who believes that maintaining law and order is the foundation for accelerated development and economic growth, I would only see a President as modern and revolutionary when he carries out sustainable reforms of all the players/institutions in the criminal justice system. Nigeria more than any other developing country needs modern policing which scientifically prevents and solves crimes. I probably would be more confident to see an IGP announcing that he will establish and train personnel to manage forensic labs, improve intelligence gathering, deal with the endemic problem of Sexual and Gender Based Violence and generally improve the perception of the Nigerian Police.
Words like ‘squad’, expressions like ‘rapid response’ are a trigger for Nigerians in different ways. For me, it triggers disappointment over the resort to stagnated ideas, for young men it means another Police unit which will soon turn oppressive.
We desperately need new thinking for our security agencies.
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