There have been series of arguments by several state and non-state actors for and against the establishment of State Police Forces or Services, as the case may be.
In my considered opinion, the arguments both ways are quite persuasive. There is no doubt that state police services may ensure deeper grassroots penetration by operatives of the police due to greater understanding of local conditions and provide governors more de-facto supervision of security and create employment opportunities.
However, given the peculiarity of our country we must, however, balance them against fears of proponents of strict federal police.
The arguments became stronger when the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo last week threw his weight behind the adoption of state police as the way to go in meeting security needs of the country.
The Vice President at a National Security Summit organized by the National Assembly stated that “state police and other policing methods are clearly the way to go.’’
I agree with the Vice President that every Nigerian was entitled to adequate security by government and that the security failures of the government were not deliberate. But we must not take hasty decisions to address the security challenges.
It will be important to take a critical look at the current police structure and institution and carry out a surgical operation in the system and make it work. In the early 1970s and even eighties, people hadn’t much problem with the Nigeria Police Force. Security Challenges were not as rife as well.
First, we must study what has led us to where we are with security challenges. When Boko Haram started, they were killing and maiming Christians, burning churches and their houses. The Muslims in the North were happy and celebrating them. They were not condemning their actions. Some were even funding them and provided cover for their atrocities. They didn’t know they were growing a monster and that if you ride the tiger you will end up in his stomach. Months later, they started killing their fellow Muslims and slaughtering Imams that did not toe their extremism. They were now bombing mosques and even made a fatal attempt on the life of Muhammadu Buhari in Kaduna. That was when they began to feel that it was wrong to have bred the insurgents.
Today, it is the issue of herdsmen. Like their Boko Haram counterparts, they started by killing Christians and some powerful Northern Muslims were siding them, even those in power. Now they have taken their madness to Zamafara where they massacred 36 people in a farming community last week and all Muslims.
When government want to deal with security challenge posed by IPOB it was done with military precision. I do not know why such a precision cannot be used to deal with the herdsmen.
So, we need patriotism from our leaders who should not be perceived to be practicing nepotism and take decisions in the interest of the nation and not because the problem is being caused by a leader’s ethnic group or religious clan. So, if we enthrone justice and equity and discard nepotism and favouritsm in our approach to security matters, then we would have less problems to contend with. In like manner, our security apparatuses would not be overstreched.
The Chairman of the Governors’ Forum, and Governor of Zamfara State, Abulaziz Yari at the end of the security summit in Abuja also said the Governors’ Forum had endorsed the idea of state police since 2015 but the division within it at that time made it difficult for them to marchal further action on it. The position of the governors also tallies with the resolution of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on restructuring.
With all due respect to my compatriots, I beg to differ because I am of the strong opinion that State Police would become a weapon of coercion if left in the hands of State Governors. The arguments that if Governors are not doing that to State Courts does not mean that they would not do it with the state police. Who even said that some state governors are not meddling in the affairs of state courts? There are several cases that could be cited where State Governors used their vantaged positions to pervert justice or curry justice to their favour.
Let us look at the issue of State Independent Electoral Commissions. There is no state as at date that is known to have conducted Local Government election and lost. The reason is that the State Independent Electoral Commissions all do the bidding of the State Governors and when aggrieved parties challenge the outcome in courts controlled by the states, judgement has always been given in favour of the party in power at the state level. This has now led to the clamour for return of autonomy to local governments and that the federal INEC should be the one to conduct elections at the local level. This is clearly as a result of failure of state governors to divest their personal or party interest from the state’s.
I do not expect anything different with state police. Innocent people who are not in the good books of the party in power at the state level would be arrested, traumatized and possibly annihilated. There would be uncontrollable crises everywhere which might lead to anarchy.
I also foresee a situation where there would be unhealthy rivalry between the federal and state police. The federal police would want to lord it on the state police while the state police would not want to succumb to the intimidation of the federal police. We are talking about persons wielding arms and ammunition which could just lead to pogrom of some sorts.
Even amongst the federal security agencies there is cold war going on amongst them and some unhealthy rivalry. There are even instances where we had army/Police Clash, Police/NSCDC Clash, Airforce/Police or Navy/Airforce clash. We have also had rivalry between DSS and Police and some of these led to loss of lives and property. Now we are considering a situation when people wielding arms as State Police would be polarized along partisan party lines. Certainly not as an apostle of doom, but I see it as a time bomb once it comes on stream.
I subscribe to the views of the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, Abubakar Malami, who has advised proponents of state police to balance it against fears of politicisation of police activities, arms proliferation and bias.
At a two-day retreat organised by Southern Senators’ Forum in Calabar recently, the AGF notes that while there was no doubt that state police services may ensure deeper grassroots penetration, the fears of abuse should not be undermined.
Our focus should therefore be to continuously improve our military and police into an apolitical, professional and efficient force to carry out their responsibilities under Section 217 (2) (a) (b) (c) and (d) of the constitution. The effort to gather and collate views of critical stakeholders from the country on the simmering issue of restructuring and national unity must be lauded but a lot of caution is needed on the issue of state police.
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Mr. Dan Owegie is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Edo State.
