Despite the Nigeria Police Force budgeting over N2.8bn between 2015 and 2020 for local and international training for its personnel, including the recently dissolved Special Anti-Robbery Squad, there is a growing concern among many Nigerians that policemen in the country are poorly trained.
This concern has been part of the issues raised by the #EndSARS protesters, who have for days been staging demonstrations across the country.
The protesters, whose actions compelled the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to dissolve SARS on October 11, alleged that the manner SARS personnel violated people’s rights and subjected people, especially the youth, to harassment and brutality showed that the training of policemen in the country was faulty.
Meanwhile, documents on the website of the Budget Office of the Federation revealed that the amount budgeted by the police for local and international training of personnel in 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020 totalled N2,833,674,510.
A sum of N1,444,348,560 comprising local training – N1,025,877,847; local travel and transport training – N268,352,974; international travel and transport training – N150,117,739, has however been similarly budgeted for in the 2021 Appropriation Bill, currently before the National Assembly for approval.
The training expenditure for 2016 and 2017 were not reflected in the documents on the website, but in 2015, the police budgeted N489,210,100 for local and international training of personnel, including the cost of transportation.