Re Time The President Set A Target Incentive From The IGP To The DPOs And Plus Other Chain Of Commands

Recently when President Buhari returned from his 10 days private visit to the United Kingdom, and as usual, one of the reporters at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, posed the following question to him as reported by many newspapers: Question: “Are we likely to see a different approach in the fight against insecurity, especially kidnapping, which is a big issue now?” , And the President answer was: “You know, I have just seen the IG, he is… I think he is losing weight; so, I think he is working very hard.”

Though many people did not see the importance and positive response of the President, because there has been no corroborating results from the police force as led by the IGP, due to the continued prevalence and escalating public disorders, insecurity and other security issues occurring in various places in the country at an alarming rate.

Therefore based on the above, it is on records that both the police force and other relevant security agencies statutory mandated to secure, protect and provide safety of lives and properties of the citizenry have been undaunted with surmounting challenges of recent despite all the expended security measures and adopted security equipments to curb this ugly trends.

Going by universal continuous innovations for such public services and triggering expected law and order in a civil society, provided by the relevant government at the different levels of governance, it be will great to recommend that the President should endeavour to introduce “target incentives” as additional security measures to intermittently curb the increasing rate of crimes which is becoming alarming and seemingly going out of hands in the country.

It is appreciated that, maybe, everything the modern police executive needs to know about performance measurement has already been written, ongoing and executed. This (target Incentives) is a popular security measures adopted in many advanced climes all over the world. And if this system can be adopted in Nigeria, the security climate will definitely change for the better if this can be done.

The target incentives should be based and set to orchestrate reasonable reduction (in percentage terms) of crime in the jurisdictions (eg AIG; CP; Area Commander; DPO etc) assigned and controlled by the “budgeted officers” overseeing that jurisdictions at different levels.

Please note that - this is a performance measurement and it is is different from overtime or out of station allowances normally paid to the officers.

The target incentives being propounded is and should be orchestrated towards reductions in percentage terms, attached to a budgeted officer in a designated location or jurisdiction in the number of serious crimes reported, most commonly presented as local comparisons against an immediately preceding time period. For example, a state Commissioner of Police, will set a monetary “ target incentives” (approved budget by the Police Headquarters, headed by the IGP), to the DPO of a designated police station, covering a local area, to earn a monetary target incentives, which will also trickle down to the officers, who are serving in that police station, on every reported percentage reduction of crimes within their assigned jurisdiction.

The same flow chart of targets, can be set or replicated for all the reporting lines under the police command, from top to bottom. This performance evaluation and measurements will allow successes to be capitalized on and failures to be recognized and corrected. Furthermore, it will also broaden community engagement and result in better service of the police to the citizens at large.

Notwithstanding, the simplicity of this programme, if adopted, the objectives and benefits to be derived will be enormous, evolving and whereby promoting social, political, economic and technological peace in the country. In Human Resources Management and also in Psychology, people increase their performance when motivated by incentive (rewards) programmes. It is recognized that: when incentive measurements or rewards programmes are used, it will attract quality performance, because just like in any other work place environment, the police force, itself, will be seen, drastically changing, and also encouraged to be “thinking smarter”, thriving a positive competition among themselves (the rank and file) to ensure that they mutually meets their set incentive targets.

Furthermore, it should be noted that, when incentives are well thought out and well implemented, people, including the police will work harder to ensure that they meet their envisaged indicators and monetary rewards attached to the results expected, that is real success in crime control — spotting emerging crime problems early and suppressing the escalations etc, will be byproduct that will stem from this performance measurement if adopted as a national programme.

The public does not expect that governments and the statutory security agencies will be able to prevent all crimes or contain all the hazards, but at least, they do expect that both the government and the security agencies to provide the best reasonable protection humanly possible.

Finally, it is in line with this background analyzed above, that the President will also review the performance of the IGP, when he or she reports to the Commander-in-Chief, as the performance indicators, as per state, will transparently report the services delivered, by measuring the police efficiency and effectiveness.

Segun Idahor writes from London - Ontario, Canada.