Plans are underway by International Alert to support the training of police cadets of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) in Kano state to promote better operational effectiveness within the police.
The Country Director of International Alert, Dr Paul Nyulaku-Bemshima, during a visit to the Police Academy in Wudil Kano state, explained that International Alert is in collaboration with the Nigerian Police Force ( NPF) Department of Training and Development to carry out a learning visit on the application of Police Act 2020 in the training programmes of POLAC as part of efforts to promote the understanding and operationalisation of Police Act 2020.
He said the project funded by the UK Integrated Security Fund became necessary because there are high expectations from the public and recognising the pivotal role that the police plays in our security architecture in Nigeria.
He said the project is funded by the UK Integrated Security Fund.
According to him, teaching and learning processes are so delicate and important that it determines what you will have in the future.
He said “if you do not prepare well, you will definitely have haphazardly produced agents who will, at the end of the day, cause more problems than solve the problems for you.
“It lays out the responsibilities of the police as well as what is needed for them to deliver on their mandate. It also dwells a bit around the responsibilities of the public as well, and some of those critical aspects that are needed to achieve the kind of progress we want to see. On policing generally in Nigeria.
“So, we recognize that the Nigerian police and policing are two different things. Policing is everybody’s business, and on this project we focus on a mutual accountability approach.
“The Nigeria Police Academy is always open. It is an institution. An institution must always have an open way of doing things.
“And I want to assure you that we are going to be open and we are going to be ready and we will be very cooperative in the pursuit of this mission.
“You will agree with me that the development in Nigeria, especially in terms of crime, is becoming sophisticated every day. And therefore, the type of officers you produce should be those that are well-equipped to handle this kind of development.
“The academy with that is built on some philosophies and principles. So it has a vision, it has a mission, and it has a philosophy. And these triangles are all aimed at producing a police officer who will be vibrant, who will be eloquent, morally nurtured, to serve his country or her country as a security operative.
Also, the Commandant of the Nigerian Police Academy, Wadil Kano state,AIG Sadiq Idris Abakar said the teaching learning processes is always important because it helps in building up a person.
He said the Nigerian Police Academy, which is settled with the nurturing and developing of younger ones who will handle the security architecture of Nigeria in near future, I think the collaboration is going to be very benefitable.
He explained that the Academy is a degree awarding institution and like I said earlier, it trains the younger ones who will handle the security, internal security situation in the country.
“So it is positioned in such a way that the cadets will be developed mentally, physically, and morally to contribute their quota into the security situation of Nigeria.
” We have been having strategic engagements with the Nigeria Police and this is particularly focused on understanding how well learning and training is happening around the Police Act 2020 and ACJA, just to understand how training happens and what other support we can provide to make it actually more impactful on the students.
“This is a full-blown university and we know that quite a lot is happening around training, but there’s also something to share and learn on the Police Act 2020 and whether there are any learning tools that we can support with.
“In our team is a group of well-seasoned experts, professors of police studies, professors of security studies, really just to see what little contribution we can bring to this institution with the overall objective of enhancing understanding within the police about the Police Act 2020.
“The Police Act encapsulates all of what is relevant for having better policing system in Nigeria. We recognize that policing is quite different from the Nigerian police.
“So when I say policing, I mean the overall system that guarantees public safety and security and everybody plays a role in that.
“So ensuring that trainees here understand the Police Act 2020, the responsibilities of the police as well as what is needed for better service delivery is very critical because if we begin from here, then they are better equipped when they go out there to apply most of what is laid out in the Police Act 2020 which is Nigeria’s law that guides all of what happens around service delivery on the Nigerian police in Nigeria,” he said.