Generally, labour productivity in Nigeria is very low and that is why the output per head or by implication, the national output is low. If we are to compare using public-private categorisation, it is clear that the public sector would be far behind the private sector. If we take the public sector’s ministry, department and agency, for example, the unit with the highest productivity within a ministry or department is likely the Accounts section, which has to prepare the voucher or necessary documents to effect payment at the end of every month. Workers in such units take their primary assignments very seriously because without the output from the unit, salaries, including their own, would not be paid, with resultant chaos in every ministry and attached agencies.
In the private sector, particularly in the micro, small and medium-scale enterprises, they also pay far below the worth of the workers’ official emoluments, hiding under the ineffectiveness of labour unions and high unemployment nationally. In some cases, university graduates are paid less than the minimum wage of N30,000! In other cases, the workers are unpaid for some months with the employers claiming that ‘even governments owe salaries’. Workers in Nigeria, either public or private, are the most ridiculed on the continent of Africa, in terms of remuneration and workers’ welfare. That is why foreigners could maltreat Nigerian workers without sanctions from the government.
But salary, though a major motivator in this clime, is not the only thing that motivates workers to improve their productivity. There are other conditions of service that serve as motivation for improved labour productivity and resultant output maximisation. These include work environment, human capital development and technology or applied technical efficiency. If we zero in on the work environment, we should be looking at the availability of tools and equipment to work with; availability of power, water and other input supplies. Actually, increased productivity means that the populace is able to produce and consume more goods and services with the same amount of workforce over time. The individual, the producers (or business owners) and the government are all happy when productivity improves consistently and continuously.
The immediate motivation for this article is the news last week—a category of policemen protested non-payment of 18 months’ salary! What manner of policing would one expect from such policemen? The report said they were 480 constabularies recruited in May 2021 to, among other services, provide intelligence. The spokesperson for the group claimed that despite the non-payment of the salary, they were hopeful and had been performing the tasks assigned with the required efficiency and effectiveness. Who can blame them if they did not perform, particularly when many of them were reported to have lost their wives to okada riders, who would normally provide daily meals. Never mind the category of policemen that protested. I doubt if there is any category in the rank and file that is well-treated. Yet they are expected to protect us.
A friend once said euphemistically that the more the government increases the wages and salaries of the police the higher the naira denomination they demand from motorists on the roads. The implication is that higher salaries, instead of reducing the incidence of bribery policemen would demand at roadblocks often serves as an impetus to ask for more. There should be some research report on this by criminologists. But the issue of police efficiency or effectiveness goes beyond emoluments. In the last six months, I have taken interest in the welfare of the police.
I had the fortune or misfortune of visiting a police station to report a land matter and found the police station environment unexpectedly substandard having visited similar police stations in some other countries, including African countries. No doubt, the environment of the police station had been swept and kept clean by staff employed for that job but the furniture in the various offices must have seen some good old days. The faded paints, the electricity facilities, the potholes on the floor and even the way the policemen dressed up are symptomatic of an unhealthy and unorganised workplace. Albeit, the policemen worked as if they were unconcerned, unmindful or just nonchalant about the environment.
The incident then reminded me of a The PUNCH report some 10 years ago about the parlous state of the environment in which the police personnel were working. The report was not just about the barracks where they lived but also the police stations and colleges. There were some semblances of action at maintenance, refurbishment and general improvement in the state of the infrastructure across police barracks and colleges at that time. Now, it seems we are back at the status quo ante.
So, after leaving the police station where I went to lodge a complaint, I decided to move to the residential areas to observe the living conditions. Fortunately, there was rain the previous day and it was very easy for me to observe the perilous state of the accommodation or the state of living generally. Even the dressing and comportment of the lower-ranked policemen show some degree of insecurity. How can people who are supposed to provide us with security live unsecured?
The outcome of the observation opened my eyes to the rationale for the inability of the police to be effective in this era of general insecurity. I decided to visit police barracks in some neighbouring states and found all of them in the same state of wanton decay and inhabitable, even for criminals. And these are our officers who maintain law and order! The same goes for police vehicles in some states. In the recent past, we often heard of donations of vehicles to police by state governments and one wonders what has happened to those vehicles that one finds police moving around with rickety vehicles that can break down within a short distance. We see them go to petrol stations to get fuel free of charge. How can you arrest the owner of the petrol station in case of breach of the law?
When one visits some police stations to make statements, you are required to pay for paper and possibly writing materials. When they find it difficult to ask for money for writing materials, they would tell you politely the need to mobilise them if you would want action to be taken on your case. Probably someone is sitting on the money they are supposed to use to run their offices. The system has reduced our security men and women to beggars through the inadequate provision of working capital, tools and equipment.
We cannot continue to treat the security personnel with unsecured working conditions, including environment, that is not conducive to performance. By the nature of their job, they are not supposed to complain. At the protest of the constabularies, the Police Commissioner ordered them to stop the protest immediately, reminding them that they were embarrassing the Force and disturbing public peace which they were supposed to uphold. He claimed they were not supposed to complain openly, even when they were not paid. A hungry man is an angry man.
Could it be that the government or their senior officers in the management are taking advantage of the nature of the job to deny the Force necessary support and entitlement that would make them productive? Is it true that they have to pay for their uniforms, including shoes? Is that why there are differences in the type and colour of the dresses they wear at the stations? Have there been capital votes in the police budget to provide more buildings in the barracks and maintain the existing barracks? Do they have a normal running fund for the day-to-day running of each police station?
We have heard and seen situations in which chiefs of the armed forces were found corruptly converting military funds to personal use for investment and consumption. The outcomes of which have been the inability of the military to put the issues of insecurity to rest over the years. Are the top echelon of the Police doing the same thing? The living and working conditions of the Nigerian police cannot enhance productivity and therefore effectiveness. The government must do something about it without further delay. This Nigerian security architecture requires overhauling and the police issues should be part of it.
