Okiro: Nigeria Should Adopt Canadian Policing Model

A former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, in this interview with Chuks Okocha, advocated the adoption of the Canadian policing model where there will be zonal police formation instead of state police

There has been a clamour for the creation of state Police. Do you support that call?

Police are supposed to be a federal institution. Nigeria has a federal structure and Nigeria Police are supposed to be neutral. Nigeria police are supposed to cater for everybody. In a state police, there will be clashes among the different states of the federation. 

It was because of this that Gen Yakubu Gowon (rtd) formed the unitary police and people rejoiced that regional police was abrogated, giving way to a more united, more national police force. For me I think that state police cannot work now. 

 Your position is in line with the position of all the former Inspector Generals of Police. None has supported the idea of state police. Why?

 I don’t know why they also took the same position but what I know is that all of us, the former IGs, wore the shoe and we know where it was pinching us. All of them who spoke against state police did so from their own experience. We know that state police are not the answer to our problems, it will rather add to our problems.  

But is there no way that we can fix the problems of politicians hijacking the system?

I tried to look at a model that will encompass the issue to state police and federal police which I called regional police. I did a study of the Canadian model and it is the type of model we need right now in Nigeria. 

The problem with the Nigerian police right now is that it is a federal institution, funded and equipped by the federal government. The federal government has many contending issues in the budget; it has so many other problems to tackle and police happen to be just one of them. There is a pressure on the federal government to give the police its due among other requests and demands and even at that, the police are not well funded. Officers don’t have good welfare; officers are not well paid; they are not well trained. These are the things that make an organisation very effective. If any of these three is lacking, then the organisation may not perform optimally. 

Having been an IG myself, I know the problems and I felt that for the Nigerian Police Force to be effective, we must remove some of these problems from the federal government and divest it to the states. 

I proposed a letter to former President Goodluck Jonathan when I was the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC) on what I called ‘Geo-political Police’. I felt that instead of having state police, we should have geo-political police. 

What I am proposing is that the police are a federal institution and should remain so; the constitution should not be amended; rather we will now have geo-political police and each of the regions will be headed by a DIG. 

Note that the police force will be a unitary force, employed by the federal government, equipped by the federal government but deployed to the zones. For instance, in the South-South, you can post someone from Edo to Delta, from Delta to Rivers or Rivers to Bayelsa within the zone. They understand the language and culture of the people and even the geography of the place. That makes it easier for the policeman to operate effectively. 

What we have now is a federal structure where you can post a constable from Kano to Bayelsa. He does not understand the language and he is going to arrest somebody; how can he do it?

But if you post somebody from Bayelsa to Rivers to go and arrest somebody, he knows the culture; he knows the language; he can swim. This is the beauty of having a people within a geo-political zone.

Secondly, the police are staff of the federal government and are being paid by the federal government. But the equipment which is a big challenge now should be provided by the state governments – governors have the money. As you can see in the news, you will see some governors buying equipment for the police, which the federal government cannot do but the governors can do. 

The problem of the police is a problem of command. These DIGs you are advocating should head the geo-political police, where will they take command from?

In my proposal, I made it clear that if a DIG is going to take over the ‘geo-political zones’, there will be a little deviation because the DIGs will be posted to the zones but not necessarily the zone of their origin. A DIG from North-west can be posted to the North-east or North- central. You can pull a DIG from North-west to South-west.

 But all the junior officers up to the rank of CSP should rotate within their zones. When they get to the rank of AC, then they can be posted out to Area Commands not necessarily within their zone.  

The IG will be at the Force Headquarters while the most senior DIG will be 2i/c. In case the IG is away, the DIG will deputize for the IG. All the sections now headed by the DIGs will now be headed by AIGs. 

The implication is that we will have more AIGs now than before. You don’t need to amend the constitution to implement this because we still have one Nigeria Police Force. This is just for operational effectiveness of the Nigeria Police Force. In the operations of the DIGs and AIGs, you don’t need an amendment of the constitution to do it. The IG just needs to tell the president and it is done; you don’t need to amend the constitution to get it done, you don’t need to pass a bill, you don’t need to debate it. 

The fear is that the IG will still control the DIGs. Is there any model where the command and control structure will be isolated from the control of the IG?  The Constitution calls the governors the Chief Security Officer in the state but in actual fact, they don’t have powers. They cannot command the police on security matters unless they get authorisation from the IG. Why?

One of the demerits of the argument for state police is that if you allow the governors to control the police just as they control the political structure, some governors who do not like opposition, will use the police to push them away. 

The fact that the state Commissioner of Police does not owe 100 per cent allegiance to the governor makes it possible to have peace, justice and equity in the state. If the governors have all the powers, then political opposition will not be there. In this model, the DIG is in-charge of the six zones; so the governor cannot overrule the DIG. 

The DIG in as much as he has to take instructions from the IG, also has some responsibilities to perform. He cannot go outside the constitution. So, the governors in their zones can decide on what to do in their zones but no particular governor can force his way to control the commissioner of police in the state. The Commissioners of Police could be rotated within the zone but no particular governor will have the authority to remove him. There will be checks and balances. If you allow the governors to control the state, control everybody, control everything, then there will be problems. With this arrangement, the geo-political commanders, the DIG will still be taking instructions from the IG.

Recently, we saw a situation in Rivers State where the IG instructed the police on what to do and the governor said that he did not need the services of the police. Under this arrangement, how can this type of situation be avoided?

 This is exactly what we are talking about. You can imagine what could have happened if the governor had powers to remove the Commissioner of Police. If the governor had the powers, what happened in Rivers State could have been worse. 

That is the essence of democracy, different from autocracy and despotism where one man comes and what he says becomes law. If there is a situation where anything the governor says, the CP will accept then there will be anarchy in the country.

 Every crime they say is local. We have seen situations where several state governors donate millions of equipment to the police. If they can make such humongous donations to the police, why can’t they control the police because he who plays the piper they say, dictates the tone?

 Yes, the governor buys the equipment for the police but he does not pay them; they are paid by the federal government. The policemen are paid by the federal government but equipped by the state. Both authorities have powers over the Police and Police have allegiance to both powers. But if the governor comes with an order for CP to execute, which is against the constitution, he will be told politely that what is saying is unconstitutional and cannot be executed. If the governor complains that a Police Commissioner is not dancing to his tune, then the DIG may remove him and bring another Police Commissioner but not that he will be sacked.

The governor has powers to sack his commissioners but does not have powers to sack his Commissioner of Police. So, who do you think the CP will owe his loyalty, the IG or the governor?

One thing that you must realise is that police officers are Nigerian but employed by the federal government to protect life and property, defend the constitution and enforce laws. If the governor tells you to do something that is unconstitutional and you as Commissioner of Police refuses to do it, he can’t sack you as he sacks his commissioners or dissolves cabinet. But if the governor says that he does not like a particular commissioner, you can remove him and bring another person. If the commissioner of police is at the beck and call of the governor, then there will be anarchy in this country. 

The IG will be too powerful if regional police are created. Why can’t we remove some of the powers of the IG and give it to the DIG?

In the Nigeria Police Force, the DIG cannot be independent of the IG. If the DIGs do not take instructions from the IG, it means that they are on their own. Everything must come from the IG because it is still the same unitary Police Force. So, the DIG will take instructions from the IG but when it comes to finance, the Police budget will be divided into seven parts. Six parts will go to the geo-political zones and one part will be managed by the IG to take care of administrative functionalities and other areas like Force CID, Marine, Air wing etc.

Do you think this proposal will be accepted by the federal government?

The police invited me, invited the police IG, Chief of Staff, Secretary to the Federal government, Minister of Police Affairs, Minister of Defence, appraising the paper, it was debated; it was discussed but the IG said no. It was later that I found out that his anger was that his budget will now be divided into seven and he will only be handling one part of the budget out of the seven. six parts will go to the six geo-political zones and one part to the IG. That was how the proposal was abandoned. It almost scaled through. 

The six geopolitical zones will be getting budgets to run the police and the governors will also equip their police. Although there are some governors that might not be buoyant enough to equip the police and the IG will supplement. 

But in the state police, I see a lacuna somewhere. There are some governors that owe their civil servants; that owe their nurses and doctors. You can’t try it with the police. You can’t owe the police for one month; they won’t come to work. So, you can imagine a situation where police do not come to work because you owe them salary. But the federal government has money to pay the police and states will do other things for the police. 

The fear of Nigerians is that the IG is appointed by the president. During the period of politics and campaign, the president uses the IG to do things that are unconstitutional. Can an IG disobey the president?

In one of my memos when I was the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, I proposed that the IG should come with the government and go with the government. But some people disputed it. They said that the IG being a civil servant is amenable to the civil service rules and should leave office after 35 years of service or 60 years of age. 

If an IG is appointed, he should not be removed except by a two-third of the Senate. That will make him more independent, more national in his thinking. The IG is the most endangered species in Nigeria. You can just wake up in the morning and hear that an IG has been removed. It cannot happen if the IG has a definite term of office. It is also to the advantage of the police.

If an IG starts a programme and after two years he is removed, a new IG will come and abandon that project, abolish it and start something new; he will do it half way and another one will come. So, there is instability in the programme and welfare of the Police. 

If an IG knows that he is going to stay for four years, he focuses on what he is going to achieve in four years and ensures that whatever he starts he is going to complete it in four years. This will also ensure that the IG will not be a stooge to the government. 

The IG is appointed by the government, to work for the government and for the people. If for any reason the President feels that the IG has done something that is not proper and wants to remove the IG, he takes it to the Senate. If the Senate is convinced that what the IG has done is wrong, they can then remove him. If they feel that the order given to him by the president is not proper, then the IG will continue with his office.