INSECURITY IN NIGERIA: STATE POLICE TO THE RESCUE

cover, Editorial

A Nigerian military officer directs civilians at a checkpoint along Sapele-Warr road in the Niger Delta region May 26, 2009. Nigerian security forces repelled an attempted attack on an offshore oil drilling platform operated by French energy company Total on Tuesday, a security contractor working in the oil industry said. Around five attackers in a speedboat exchanged fire with security personnel shortly after dawn close to the platform at Total’s 125,000 barrels per day Amenam field, located around 30 km (19 miles) from the coast of the Niger Delta. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde (NIGERIA CONFLICT ENERGY POLITICS BUSINESS CRIME LAW)

Incessant security breaches and subsequent killings of innocent lives in Nigeria have practically reduced premium on the lives of the citizens to near zero especially with the obvious helplessness of the law enforcement agencies.Though the ugly trend didn’t start newly, it is evidently getting worse by the day.The media space is awash with sad stories of dastard waste of human souls and wanton destruction of valuable property by criminals across the country.These agents of terror masquerade as unknown gunmen, ethnic militias, kidnappers,ritualists, rapists, arsonists, cattle rustlers , bandits, extremists and the likes.
The rich as well as the poor are not spared but it appears that their targets have shifted to the traditional rulers, clergymen, the uniform men and politicians.No doubt , the Spates of such heinous criminalities now threaten the fragile peace of the country thereby prompting the urgent need for us to revisit the abandoned issue of State Police.OPEN BUSINESS recalls that during the sitting of the ninth National Assembly (NASS), considerable effort was made by 75 out the 109 Senators that co- sponsored the Bill seeking to amend the 1999 Nigerian Constitution to allow for the creation of State and Community Police .The rising cases of insecurity have renewed calls for the Federal government to listen to the popular request of the citizenry.This is compelling as the flawed centralised policing system has woefully failed us.The regional security outfits —Amotekun, Ebube Agu, Hisbah—-are complementing the efforts of our incongruous federal police but they are miserably under- funded and statutorily hampered to operate as enforcers of law and order.
Though there has been divided opinions on the establishment of the state police which is a crucial aspect of power devotion and restructuring call,it is an auspicious time to do the needful to save the country from possible dismemberment.The opponents of State police say that Nigeria is not yet for the ideas the state Governors could misuse it against their political rivals.They equally express the fear that because many states are insolvent, asking them to float state police would amount to indirectly stifling them due to finding challenges.While the fore going arguments are plausible, they are sufficient to vitiate the merits and urgency of State and Community Police especially in a multi-tribe nation like Nigeria.Given the federal police force where power is absolutely concentrated in the hands of the President to control the entire criminal criminal justice system in Nigeria from far away Abuja, he can hardly much.But state and community policing system as it obtains in such advanced climes would ensure the decentralisation of maintenance of law and order to other tiers of government.
The proponents of State policing say the idea should be modelled after the judiciary where the National Judicial Council (NJC) reserves the exclusive power to control the feared excesses of any Judicial officer at the federal and state levels.

In the case of State police,the Governors could appoint state Boss to be confirmed by the State Houses of Assemblies.Once they are set up, the state police should be made to work in synergy with the federal police to effectively combat criminalities at different levels.Locals with the the adequate knowledge of the history and geography of the communities in the states should by recruited, trained and deployed for the assigned policing jubs .This is unlike the current structure where police personnel without the slightest knowledge of a given particular part of the country are posted to go and fight criminalities.On the issue of funding, states that are financially buoyant should be allowed to go ahead with the establishment of State and Community Police .Of course, the unready states should align with the quasi-police arrangements, to be urgently supported with necessary federal legislations.In fact, we strongly believe that the answer to the country’s of ethnic, religious and other forms of crises lie with the creation of State and community police.