A Case For State Police

By Alex Enemanna

The National Assembly must take urgent steps to embark on constitutional amendment to accommodate state policing.

This has become very crucial in view of the rising incidents of violent crimes such as terrorism, rural banditry, armed robbery and kidnapping which has obviously become an indictment on the central policing system and indeed an open advert of their lack of capacity to provide a potent solution to these nagging challenges. According to a 2018 public opinion survey by NOI Polls, 61% of Nigerians are in favour of the establishment of the state police. It is higher in the most affected regions of Northern Nigeria, where almost 70% of the people favour this option.

Cashing into its nearness to the grassroot and indeed a good knowledge of the terrain, this system of policing in Nigeria will be a virile tool for intelligence gathering and tracking down elements who cause mayhem in the community. It is obvious that these individuals co-habit with the community dwellers where the operatives will come from, speak the same language with them, use the same market and share many things in common. When the Police Force is peopled by those who come from the locality, it becomes way to manage the situation better.

Deploying a police officer from Zamfara for instance to fight kidnapping, cultism and sundry crimes in Imo without the involvement of the locals is the major reason no significant success has been recorded in reducing crime rate across the country. In US where we borrowed our governance structure, there is no centralised police system. Policing is organised on a state and local basis and they have made a huge success of it.

Some states in Nigeria also have a semblance of state policing system but have adopted a different nomenclature. At the peak of herders-farmers clashes in Ekiti, the then governor of the state, Ayodele Fayose promulgated anti grazing law as a way of mitigating the constant confrontation between both parties. He raised security teams for enforcement. They work in conjunction with local hunters and respond to attacks upon receiving distress calls. This tremendously improved security in the state and reduced drastically the orgy of killings.

Lagos State which hitherto had a startling crime rate has began to receive some reprieve with the introduction of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) to complement the efforts of men of the Nigerian Police Force. Traffic management which is a core duty of the police in advanced climes like the US has received an impeccable sanitisation in Lagos courtesy of the efforts of Lagos Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA).

In Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory which houses high profile political office holders including all heads of the three arms of government, diplomatic corps, heads of all military and paramilitary agencies in Nigeria and indeed world class businessmen and women, the vigilante security system is seriously gaining momentum in highbrow areas of the city. This is not just a status symbol but a marshaled out plan to provide security to residents of these estates. This is a glaring pointer to how much grassroot policing has been adopted even among the elite.

The argument against state policing has always been hinged on the fear of abuse by state governors. The progenitors of this line of thought have anchored their scepticism on the assumption that state chief executives will use the system as a tool to intimidate and harass opponents and perceived political enemies. While I do not totally dismiss this, it imperative to state that the central system of policing has its it own glaring faultlines. It has also been used to perfect hatchet dealings by state Chief executives and indeed powerful individuals in the society. In 2003, the then governor of Anambra State and immediate past minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige was abducted under controversial circumstances for obvious political reasons with the full knowledge of the police. Few hours after his abduction, his purported letter of resignation was read on the floor of the state House of Assembly.

This again makes it more crucial for our institutions to be strengthened. The state Houses of Assembly are there to serve as a check to the excesses of the governors. We must also remind ourselves that power is temporary. No Governor will remain in office beyond eight years. Expressing a palpable fear in a system we have not experimented means that we are not ready to move forward.

Adorning the toga of chief security officer on a governor who cannot give instruction to the least police officer is counter productive. The complex bureaucracy and flow of authority from Abuja to the grassroot in the central policing system can no longer meet our current needs as a nation. Imagine having a Commissioner of Police who wants to frustrate you as a governor, your chief security officership becomes valueless.

The issue of funding of the State Police won’t be a problem. All that needs to be done is to recalibrate the revenue allocation system in such a way that whatever is used to fund the Police currently will be given to states for the same purpose.

I’m strongly of the opinion that the current central policing system has overstayed its welcome in the annals of our history in view of the octopus security challenges our country has been deeply mired into. Section 214(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which states that:

“There shall be a Police Force for Nigeria which shall be known as the Nigeria Police Force and subject to the provisions of this section, no other Police Force shall be established for the Federation or any part thereof.” must immediately be amended to dislodge the centrality of our police force.

I believe in so doing, our country will record unprecedented success in tackling the new wave of insecurity threatening our corporate co-existence.