State police: A solution in search of problem
By Nosa Osaikhuiwu
Nigeria as a country has witnessed astronomical levels of violence, kidnappings, thuggery, banditry, and insurgency in the last 20 years plus, and to date, there is the feeling of general insecurity in the land and a yearning for relatively peaceful good old days.
It is in the light of this atmosphere of insecurity that many in and outside the political circle have started the drumbeat for the creation of a state police which according to the advocates will help the nation fully deal with and address the security challenges in the country.
While I acknowledge the enormity of the security situation in Nigeria and the urgent need to bring this under control, advocating for or creating a state police does not in any way help to address these challenges.
State police in my view is a solution in search of a problem. However, what the Nigerian people have been told or have not bothered to ask about is the threats posed to ordinary citizens and their civil liberties by the creation of such an organisation under the control of corrupt and unethical political officeholders in the various states of the federation.
The reported dust-up between the aides of the dancing governor in the southwest and a renowned politician and former senator over sitting arrangements at a mosque celebration of the Muslim holiday recently is a very telling tale of what will become regular occurrences in many states if state police are created.
It was allegedly reported that some of the infantile governor’s entourage even requested that the commissioner of police arrest and bring in the political opponent for interrogation and questioning on the flimsy grounds that the alleged dust-up was an assassination attempt on the governor.
Compatriots, this will only be the tip of the iceberg if state police are allowed to see the light of day.
This nation with its history and the immaturity of the political class cannot and should not allow itself to be cajoled, hoodwinked, or bullied into signing up for this Trojan horse called state police.
Many reasons have been adduced or put forward by the proponents of state police, chief among which is the need for local control, community policing, and the ability to quickly respond to emerging security situations to mention a few.
However you look at some of the reasons put forward by advocates of state police, there does exist some merit, but taken in totality the benefits are far outweighed by the risks and negative consequences that will result from implementing state police across our nation.
Notwithstanding how the state police architecture is set up and implemented across the various states, the final control will rest with the state’s chief executive officers directly or indirectly through a quasi-independent board appointed by the governor.
These outfits will be over-politicised and instead of leading to improved security at the state level will lead to further deterioration of security in our various communities.
For example, recruits will be partisans of the political party in control of the governor’s office, with many having questionable backgrounds and criminal records, and with the instrument of the force being deployed against perceived political opponents of the sitting governor within and outside the ruling party.
Furthermore, creating state police that is bound to be abused by politicians will lead to major opposition parties creating parallel militias to albeit protect their principals from alleged harassment and intimidation by the state police force in the pocket of state governors.
We must consider this in the context of the current breakdown of our society along ethnic and religious lines and the menace from youth involvement in cultism to tread carefully in this haste to create an unnecessary police force for state governments.
The situation in Nigeria is very fluid and challenging and one is not trying to minimise the enormity of the situation, but the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Army, and other security services including the intelligence agencies are well-equipped and capable of restoring order in the country, by working more collaboratively and engaging the public for actionable intelligence in their communities whenever there are uncertainties.
Indeed these security services have made enormous sacrifices to protect and defend this country from all enemies foreign and domestic and thus deserve our appreciation. Consequently, I wish to extend my congratulations and appreciation on behalf of a grateful nation to our men and women of the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Police, the Navy, and other security services for their service and sacrifice to our nation.
We do need to reform our police force to make it respond more quickly to threats by professionalising the force, computerising crime data centres, improving salaries and welfare benefits, but more so passing the necessary legislation to mandate and facilitate intelligence gathering and sharing between the various security agencies to ensure a better security situation in the country.
However, the silver bullet to any improvement in the security situation must have at its core a robust intelligence gathering rooted in a partnership with the public and continuous engagement, because when the public is not fully engaged and on the side of law enforcement then securing our nation will be a mirage and an insurmountable challenge.
Finally, we call on the Federal Government to immediately work to set up a national emergency centre in each state of the federation, if none exists with access to the national database along with a renewed effort to capture the biometric information of every resident in our country for national planning, security, healthcare and general welfare of citizens.
We believe that with a renewed effort, better coordination, and partnership with the public we can better secure our country and stay out of the tragic path of mandating the creation of a state police that ultimately could lead to citizen abuse, political harassment of opponents, intimidation and further violence from cultists who may scheme to control the local police and hound their rival cults.
Nosa Osaikhuiwu is a de-tribalised and decolonized African from Nigeria. An outside-the-box thinker, certified project manager with expertise in change management, the elimination of waste fraud and abuse, and an unapologetic advocate for culture change in Nigeria. He is the Executive Director of the African Council for Cultural and Economic Renaissance (ACCER).
