Image Building Of Public Relations Department Of Nigeria Police Force Before And After The Endsars Protest And Perception Of The Public

1.0 NTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
This popular saying that “police is your friend” has not really been accepted by some peoplein the past in Nigeria. Irrespective of this statement made above, it has not really been confirmed that Nigerian Police Force has good image in the eyes of them asses as the force has bad image problem in Nigeria over the years. Because of what they see as police brutality, extortion, killings and other forms of inhuman activities meted out to the masses by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Police in Nigeria nowonder is believed to have bad image in the country.In a situation where those who are given the onerous task to protect the lives and properties of individuals in a society turn out to be their nemesis, it therefore means that the idea that the police is your friend,cannot easily stand the test of time. In Nigeria today, what most citizens of the country think aboutthe NPF is that,it is a force meant to oppress the hopeless, the have-nots an at the same time, used to protect the haves – the shakers and movers of the country’spolitical, economic, religious and other structures of the Nigerian society.That is why a richman in Nigeria can easily use the police for all sorts of intimidation, harassment and other forms of illegal activities against others because, the Nigerian Police Force can easily be bought over.

Such anti-social behaviour by the Nigerian Police has led to the clamour for the disbandment of a police unit in Nigeria known as Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).Thanks to the role played by the social media, especially Twitter and Facebook and the openness of an international human rights organization known as Amnesty International. These organizations helped a lot to expose the inhuman activities of the operatives of SARS in Nigeria. Nowonder,“Amnesty International (2020) in a report entitled “You have signed your Death Warrant” stated that in one of their visits to SARS detention centre called the Abbatoir in Abuja, the federal capital territory; about 130 detainees were living in crowded cells and that they were regularly tortured with different methods. The human rights organization went further to statethat, such methods of torture included: hanging, starvation, beatings, shootings and mock executions.Such inhuman treatment meted to detainees by SARS led the masses to be mobilized through the social media form of action on the need to EndSARS.

Over the years, public relations experts use public relations not only for image-making and building but for conflict or crisis management.The Nigerian Police Force cannot deny that it does not have a public relations unit which ought toad dress the issue of police brutality within itself before they become dangerous national issues.The above suggests that the NPF could not really make use of public relations which according to Centre and Jackson (2003, p.15) ascited by Ezinwa 2015, p. 10) helps to: “Motivate new behavior, reinforce existing positive behavior and modify negative behavior”

The above could be extended to mean that, had the Nigerian Police Force and its SARS unithad properly used public relations strategies as stated above, the quest to EndSARS and the protests that went with it, would not have been carried out.The year 2020 was a year markedby great division in Nigeria. Notably,politics, ethnicity, economic, religious, herdsmen, banditry, kidnapping, Boko Haram, and EndSARS youths’ protest shortly after COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Although, they ear has come and gone, the catalogue of these problems still remain with us especially the EndSARS mass protest of youths across the federation. In the South-East, Nigeria the story is same. The crux of the matter was the non-implementation of the police reform policy and the continued retention of the Special Anti-Robbery Squard (SARS) which had given the Nigeria police force a bad name over the years. This call firstsurfaced in 2017 as an activity in Nigeria and other human rights organizations sought to abolish a federal police unit called SARS(BBC News 2020).

The SARS unit of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) had existed for more than three decades and subsequently developed a reputation for abusing its power. The activity of the SARS has today become the emerging globalized issues, and has continued to receive mass appeal, interest and followership beyond imagination of many incurable pessimists and skeptics (Obeta, 2007).On the other hand, the police public relations unit has not helped the matter. The image has overrun other related or sister professionals or disciplines in terms of appeal and popularity resulting to apparent injection of bad blood, love, hate and dichotomy between the force and the society.

Unfortunately, the Amnesty International (a human rights organization) said it has recorded eighty-two (82) cases of SARS abuses over the past three years in Nigeria from 2018 to 2020 including beatings, hangings, assaults, water-boarding, mock executions and rape. More disturbing was the video that surfaced online accusing the police unit and reinvigorating the outrage of their activities across Nigeria. The footage, according to (Paquette, 2020), showed some police officers dragging two men from a hotel and one of them shot during the climax of the youths protest. However, what started as grassroots movement to end police brutality with emphasis on Southern Nigeria became a global phenomenon enhanced by the Nigerian youths. The growing pressures coming from all and sundry initially compelled the leadership of the Nigerian Police Force to announce the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and fired two officers as claimed in response to the yearnings of the Nigerian people promoting cheers in the streets of thecities (BBC News, 2020).