Nigerians Divided On Creation Of State Police

Nigeria
By Tayo OLU
Ibrahim-Idris-
Ibrahim Idris, Inspector General of Police

Whether or not Nigeria should embrace the creation of state police, otherwise known as provincial police, to address the security challenges facing the country has fueled national discourse.

The debate is coming at a time that the Federal Government is under intense condemnation for allegedly not being able to address the Fulani herdsmen killings that have become widespread across the country.

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Wikipadia describes state police as “a type of sub-national territorial police force” or a “force whose area of responsibility is defined by sub-national boundaries from others which deal with the entire country or a restricted range of crime.”

The calls for the creation of state police in Nigeria was bolstered after some suspected herdsmen killed over 70 people in Logo and Guma local government areas of Benue State on January 1, 2018.

The state governor, Samuel Ortom, had recently told a joint Senate committee on Police Affairs; and National Security and Intelligence that the “over 100 people killed in Benue would not have died if security agencies were responsive” and had taken warnings to prevent the incidents seriously.

Ortom had suggested that Federal Government was not doing enough to address the menace of herdsmen attacks across states.

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The governor’s claim connotes that if Nigerian states were allowed to have their own police, the chief security officers of the states would not have to write to the federal government requesting for extra security to forestall impending predicaments.

Opposing Ortom’s notion, however, was a section of the north which on Monday kicked against the idea, saying governors may use state police to oppress their oppositions.

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) said yesterday that “Given the experiences where state governments use state electoral commissions to kill democracy at local government levels where no opposition party wins a seat in the local government council, there is the high possibility of state governments abusing state police with dire consequences, especially in states with many ethnic groups and religions.”

In the same light, the Lagos State chapter of the National Conscience Party (NCP) argued over the weekend that the creation of state police would give rise to political manipulation by governors.

“We at NCP are opposed to the idea because the country is not ripe for such, especially in a country where politicians can be desperate,” said the NCP.

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The party had said, “We believe that if states are allowed to have their own police, politicians would manipulate them to fight or crush the opposition, rather than fight security challenges,” adding that “Just like governors are using the state electoral commissions to achieve their political whims and caprices in their respective states.”

But Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, at a recent security summit organised by the Nigerian Senate in Abuja, posited that the Federal Government cannot effectively secure the country from the centre.

“We cannot police a country the size of Nigeria centrally from Abuja. State police and other community policing methods are clearly the way to go,” said Osinbajo.

The Vice President held that for the country to accomplish the United Nations prescribed ratio of 1 policeman to 400 persons, establishing state police was inevitable.

On its part, Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, said “the handling of the killings by herdsmen across the country has shown that the Federal Government is misusing the Nigeria Police Force.”

Tackling the Arewa Youths, Afenifere said: “There is the need for supervisory channels to curb the excesses of the governors,” but that the “justification for the state police is the success story of the joint civilian and military operations in countering insurgency and extreme radicalism in the North – East. State police system is an idea whose time has come to tame the increasing criminality of the new age.”

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President Buhari’s true position on the creation of state police, however, remains indeterminate as of now.

Meanwhile, reactions on social and the mainstream media further indicate that majority of Nigerians mostly from the north are against the creation of state police.

While some have expressed concerns of what becomes of security agencies like the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) if state police are created, some, however, believe that instead of allowing the indigenes of the states to form their own militia for self-defence, state police would serve as a better option.

Others wonder how the states would manage to pay their security agencies when they allegedly owe workers’ salaries.

Some of the reactions:

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