THE CASE FOR STATE POLICE 

State police will improve the management of internal security

The idea of decentralising policing in Nigeria so that each of the 36 states can establish its own received a big endorsement last week from several quarters, including Governors of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Speaking after their visit to Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State, Chairman of their forum and Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed said that the ratio of police to the citizens is very low and “the governors know the peculiarity of their states and how to tackle this challenge. So, we have been advocating for this.” He proposed “a decentralisation of the security apparatus so that we can deliver good governance by having state police.” This, according to Mohammed, would give the governors “opportunity to engage the structure of the security agencies, training our youths and making sure the rules of engagement are not abused and there is no extrajudicial killing.”

And speaking at the passing-out ceremony of the new Community Protection Guard by Zamfara State Government, former National Security Adviser (NSA), General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, also advocated a rethink of the current strategy. “With an estimated population of 223.8 million and a diverse terrain covering 923,768 square kilometres, Nigeria is a difficult country to secure,” Gusau said. “Therefore, expecting a single Police Force to patrol and control such a large and complex nation effectively is a very tall order indeed.” Former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had expressed a similar sentiments when he said, “there is no federation of our size that does not have state police.”

For years, governors have argued that each of the federating units (which the 36 states represent) should have control over their own security apparatus even when there will still be federal police. And the governors have very compelling reasons to ask for the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force as presently constituted. They, as the chief security officers of their states, more or less bear the huge responsibilities for the upkeep and maintenance of the police in form of logistics, allowances and other forms of assistance. But they have no control or power over these police commands, whose men take orders from Abuja. Besides, the current security challenges compel fresh ideas.

Many retired senior police officers have put their weight behind the idea of state police because it would improve the management of internal security and the maintenance of law and order. There is also the belief that such men and officers would have local knowledge of the environment and would be more effective in dealing with local crimes, protecting law and order and in intelligence gathering. The entire police force is so overwhelmed to the extent that a huge slice of the military asset is now deployed to perform police duty with serious implications on professionalism on the military, not to mention the effects of its exposure on civil–military relations. Besides, State police is an extension of true federalism where each federating unit is supposed to have control of its security apparatus.

However, there are also genuine concerns that under a situation in which many of the states cannot pay salaries, to put guns in the hands of policemen whose emoluments are not guaranteed will be dangerous and counter-productive. There are also fears that the governors could turn the police in their states into private armies for fighting political opponents. While we are aware of these potential pitfalls, we believe that the merits of having state police far outweigh its demerits and the constitution should be amended to reflect that reality. We align ourselves with the strong view that the country is overdue for the establishment of state police.