A PSYCHOLOGIST VIEW OF OFFICER ZAKARI BIU AS THE COLLECTIVE FACE OF A PROBLEMATIC POLICE INSTITUTION

No time goes by without the news of a  Nigerian police officer being reported as abusing his or her  privilege, or an officer in a scandal, involved in a misconduct, from bad shootings to been drunk on duty or in the midst of suspicious characters.

How the Nigerian people and government, after government continue with such an ailing system with rising and ever-increasing problems need some examinations.

There are the chronic and ongoing misconducts by uniform men and women in the police force, and many of these issues are fully fatal, or avoidable if managed properly.

These systemic problems are so bad that they leave the public open to speculate and draw far-reaching view of disrespect and distrust of an average police officer.
There seems to be lack of adequate mechanisms to check an officer’s psychological or personality functioning in terms of employment, re-entry, promotion or discipline for misconduct.

Could this be part of the reason why police officers’ challenges have not been sufficiently deterred in Nigeria? Could this be the reason why the public may believe that officers cannot successfully police themselves?

It is this psychologist assertion that improving existing police answerability procedures will assist in preventing police misconduct and will provide the public with confidence.
Take the current case of Officer Zakari Biu, a police commissioner who allegedly has a deep and long history of brutality, dishonesty, bitterness, torture, and disloyalty.
In terms of his reported disloyalty, Officer Zakari Biu  in the 1990s was once before the Oputa panel on human rights abuses for his alleged behavior of police brutality under former military dictator Sanni Abacha.

Before his testimony before the Panel he reportedly refused to be put on oath with the Holy Quran, because “he is not pure”. For a man of the law who refused to swear/affirm an oath to tell the (whole) truth for the purpose of testimony, it means there is possibly an integrity problem. And the federal government should have taken note of this grave and unusual behavior highly.

Mr. Biu was once dismissed from the police force irrespective of the circumstances, then he was subsequently reintegrated into the police force, and just recently he was promoted to a commissioner’s rank by Police Service Commission.
And before his current troubles, he was reportedly teaching in a Police Academy, and/or entrusted with monitoring and investigating violence/insurgency/terrorism as part of his official duties.

With this sort of background, the presence of such individual in the service of national security and law enforcement matters like terrorism, he could on the surface generate public fear and distrust for law enforcement agents. This distrust could be more vivid  particularly among known victims, and law abiding communities and in areas where police misconduct remain widespread. 

It is an unusual practice in any recent or modern police force that a psychological testing was not conducted in a case like that of officer Biu.

Routine and periodic psychological assessment of the likes of Biu should have been conducted to determine his personality type, fitness-for-duty, law enforcement professional readiness, and security preparation motives as well as his overall integrity level.

Psychology as a profession places emphases on the state of wellbeing solely in terms using psychometric or assessment measures/techniques to establish proactive, preventive, attitudinal, practical, and fitting behaviors in humans for the continued assertion of a healthy state of wellbeing. And psychological testing is a primary tool for unearthing an individual’s deep seated cultural, emotional, personality and intellectual conditions, and this basic test is what is deemed necessary in healthy police systems.
On the other hand, the profession of Psychiatry and/or Neurology is an end-of-all-purpose deemed as a follow up to Psychology when an individual is psychologically determined to be need for bio-chemical, biological, pharmacological and medication/suppository interventions.

For far too long our national security agents like Biu has been involved in the management of national security even when they may be psychologically unprepared for such sensitive work.

As in the Nigerian police force and other security and law enforcement agencies changing security chiefs, recruiting a multiplicity of candidates or employing individuals with Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in Psychology, and calling them psychologists are all antiquated methodologies and efforts in waste.

We as a modern day society must have in place standards for psychological screening of law enforcement and security agents as their respective emotional stability, and the safe and efficient functioning of a new or serving officer in the law enforcement profession remains essential.

Psychological screenings are usually conducted by licensed Forensic/Clinical Psychologists or Psychologists involved in the objective/subjective test assessment of the screening procedure, and well versed through preparation and experience, in the construct and interpretation of psychological testing instruments.

Psychological testing has a major role to play in detecting and weeding out candidates or officers who because of extreme religious beliefs feel not bound to obey the Nigerian Constitutional authority. As such they act with prejudice when enforcing the law and this has been the silent dilemma facing us as Nigerians.

In general, psychological testing minimizes the admission/reintegration of inappropriate candidates or officers into the police or other national security agencies.

It is now clear that with the mounting security challenges and officials misconduct that there is need to examine the Nigeria’s law enforcement agency’s policies, procedures, and practices. This is essential in order to determine whether the guidelines are, in fact, up to the job of preventing negligence, inefficiency, and gross misconduct. It is time for the implementation of best practices from other law enforcement agencies in regards to psychological fitness-for-duty.

** John Egbeazien Oshodi, Ph.D, is  the Secretary-General of the Nigeria Psychological Association (NPA) , and an expert in Forensic/Clinical Psychology at the  Department of Psychology, Nasarawa State University, Keffi,  Nasarawa. Jos5930458@aol.com. 08126909839.