Defederalising Policing For Effective Security

Recently, the House of Representatives resolved to provide the necessary legislative framework for the establishment of State Police in the 1999 Constitution amendment. The resolution was passed sequel to a motion of urgent national importance on the killing of innocent worshippers in Owo, Ondo State. The resolution was sponsored by Hon. Aderegbe Oluwatimehin. According to the House of Representatives, the dastardly act was allegedly carried out on the innocent worshippers with the use of improvised explosives devices after which the defenceless people were shot indiscriminately.
On Sunday, 19th of June, 2022, a community in Kaduna State was attacked at night and at least three persons were killed while a yet to be ascertained number of villagers was kidnapped, according to media reports. A similar attack was carried out on Motege community in Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State at midnight of Thursday the 2nd day of January, 2022 where farmlands and houses were set ablaze and three persons killed.
On Sunday, January 23, 2022, in the dead of the night, there was a deadly attack carried out on Oketuse Community of Ose Local Government Area also by gunmen suspected to be the same Fulani herdsmen, razing down farmlands, houses and three persons were confirmed dead.
About November 2020,  a group of herdsmen killed the Olufon of Ifon in Ose Local Government Area,  Oba Israel Adewusi. In the last three weeks, 30 persons were kidnapped at different locations in Ose Local Government Area and several millions have been collected in ransom payment. Unless drastic measures are put in place more attacks will be carried out by the perpetrators.
Before the inception of the Chief Nyesom Wike-led Rivers State Government, there had been cases of incessant attacks, cult related violence, kidnapping, banditry and pockets of other social vices with attendant loss of lives and property. The pathetic situation is the same across the country. Calls on the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), to alleviate the suffering of  bereaved families will not give the desired succour or palliative in the dastardly acts as no amount of money equates the value of human life.
It is pertinent to state that the British-oriented policing model has outlived its usefulness in Nigeria, thus making State Police creation a necessity. The Nigeria Police started as a body to meet the British colonial needs. The Consular Guards was established in Lagos in 1861 and later by 1879 became the Hausa Constabulary, an armed force.
Subsequently, there was the Northern Nigerian Police (1886), Royal Niger Constabulary (1888), The Nigerian Coast Constabulary (1894) and the Southern Nigerian Police Force (1906). By 1906, three distinct police forces existed in Nigeria. And in 1930 they were amalgamated, thus the present name of the Nigeria Police. It is therefore, clear that the present Police Colonial Formation in Nigeria was the product of the British.
A restructure of the Nigeria Police along State lines is a paradigm shift from the British concept of policing which does not take into consideration the ethno-cultural, political and religious realities of Nigeria in its framework. Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum and Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu,  said a comprehensive restructuring of the federal government to reflect true federalism especially in the area of devolution of power and the creation of the state police is the way out of growing insecurities in Nigeria.
At a meeting of the Attorney Generals of the 36 states of Nigeria held in Lagos, Akeredolu in a keynote address insisted that the Nigerian police as presently constituted has failed in their constitutional roles of protecting property and lives of defenceless Nigerians, and if the situation do not improve, citizens would be left with no other option but to resort to self help by arming themselves in self-defence. Addressing the AGF directly, in what looks like an affront, Akeredolu said, “We will carry arms very soon, Oga Malami. There is no other way”.
He said the police presently constituted are overwhelmed and urged them to “close shop”  if the FG could not meet its equipment needs. He argued that the mass killings, kidnapping and other heinous crimes and social vices in the country had revealed that a central police command was ineffective to keep Nigerians safe. “The current state of insecurity in the country leaves us with no room for equivocation in the right of states to maintain law and order through the establishment of State Police. The growing distrust in the polity is a direct result of the disconnect between the Federal Government and the constituent units of the country… A unitary system cannot work successfully in a country like Nigeria.
“The 1999 Constitution has been amended twice. There is another promise of further amendments arising from the manifest irregularity in many provisions. The crises created by the 1999 Constitution, as amended, have been unending. There have been agitations that the exclusive Legislative List in the Constitution be limited to Nigeria’s external trade, customs duties, export duties, tax on incomes, profits and capital gains, interstate commerce, external borrowing, mining rents and royalties from mineral resources, among others”.
He challenged states to restructure the country by, among others, setting up their anti-graft agencies. The clamour for State Police or the creation of Security outfits is seen as a veritable measure to check the crime wave in states and regions. It was in view of this that state of South west geo-political region inaugurated the security architecture known as “Amotekun”.
The Eastern states  have also spoken strongly in favour of unified or regional security outfits.
The Lagos State Government was the first to form a state security outfit, in the current political dispensation, following the rising cases of crime and criminality. The present administration of Rivers State under the leadership of Chief Nyesom Ezebunwo Wike also inaugurated the “Neighbourhood Watch” to address the challenges posed by insecurity.
The Neighbourhood Watch in its original concept was to coordinate a network of community vigilantes or community police to check the wanton destruction of lives and property in Rivers State.
Also, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Dr. Samson S. Ameh said the idea of State Police is a good one, but the time is not ripe for it yet. He advocated that the Nigeria Police should be maintained on the Exclusive Legislative List.
“We should remember that Nigeria started as a British Colony indeed, a creation by a foreign power and thereby any institution like the Nigeria Police which emphasises our image as a nation, as one country should be encouraged for now”, Ameh said.
For Dr. Daddy Ibulubo, the Rivers District Superintendent of Assemblies of God, Nigeria, the idea of State Police is welcome if it will stem the wave of incessant killings of innocent people and destruction of property by people whose antics suggest that they are either above the law or being sponsored by highly placed public officers to unleash mayhem and destabilise the country.
“The idea of State Police is in tandem with true federalism. As a nation with federating units of States, it is legitimate to allow the real template of federal system as operated in other countries to have its course in Nigeria”, the man of God said.
He decried the claim that the idea of State Police will be abused by governors arguing that if State governors were the Chief Security Officers of their states, and they are not in control of security machinery in the state; then the system has made them impotent, toothless and mere ceremonial heads in security matters.
He reasoned that the absence of State Police has resulted in several mushroom Vigilante groups across the country with communities, states and regions establishing their security outfits with a view to checkmate the unwarranted attacks on lives and property.
“However, the establishment of these security outfits which predominantly consist of untrained civilian youths, sometimes pose threat to the people as well because there are cases of  alleged gross abuse of office and responsibility and flagrant deviation from statutory roles and functions”, Rev. Ibulubo said.
Nella Andem-Rabana, also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) argued that “unless Nigeria thinks through the necessary amendments and provisions to be made with regard to the following: (a) 2011 Constitution (as amended), (b) The revenue allocation formula, and (c) Infrastructure, and until it puts into effectiveness those amendments for effective State Policing, it may not be expedient to whimsically dismantle the existing Police Structure”.
The fact that the Nigeria Police is under the command of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), an appointee of the President of the Federal Republic, means that all commissioners of police report directly to him, and have limited powers/authority to make on-the-spot far-reaching decisions and in maintaining and securing public safety and order. This is a Constitutional matter which must be expressly addressed in order to decentralise the Police Force.
“Also of Constitutional significance are matters such as purchase of firearms, ammunition, explosives, banking, financial crimes, fingerprinting, Identification and nominal records, all of which are on the Exclusive Legislative  List in the 1999 Constitution (as amended). These matters should be put on the Concurrent list to give States necessary and relevant power to enable them to prevent, investigate and prosecute such crimes, independent of Federal Police”.
She opined that strengthening the Police to cope with the hydra-headed and multi-dimensional security breaches in the country goes beyond verbal expressions but proactiveness and optimal professionalism.
“The need for up-to-date technological and scientific expertise, robust and comprehensive criminal justice training especially in areas like psychology, forensic investigation, report writing, handwriting analysis, voice analysis purchase of hi-tech equipment, interrogation, negotiation, fingerprinting, analysis of study of bomb composition and disposed cybercrime deep sea diving etc, have to form part of the Police training programme”, she said
However, some have expressed dissenting views on the clamour for establishment of State Police. They argue that the creation of State Police is an invitation to anarchy, because in their opinion, even if we create State Government, Local Government, Clan, Community or Family Police, it is the same corrupt Nigerians and corrupted institutions they will manage.
One of the vocal opponents is the Attorney-General of Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN). According to him, “State Police will not work because State governors will abuse it. Imagine what will happen if they control the police”.
Chief Parry Osayande in a paper, argued that the system is susceptible to abuse by dictatorial State governors, who wield enormous and overbearing influence over their subjects.
A report released on the 16th August 2012, during President Goodluck Jonathans’s administration by the Presidential Committee on the Reorganisation of the Nigeria Police and the Forum of Former Inspectors General of Police, warned that the establishment of State Police in Nigeria will be a prelude to the disintegration of the country.
Former Inspectors General of Police including, Alhaji Muhammadu Gambo-Jimeta, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomasie, Mr. Sunday Ehindero and Sir Mike Okiro were of the view that State Police is not in the interest of the nation because it was an “invitation to anarchy”. It was not in the interest of the nation’s democracy. According to them, the most unreasonable thing for any administration to do at this time was to allow State Police. They posit that with the current political trend in the country, a State Police would only be a tool in the hands of political leaders at the State level.
While the facts marshalled by these Police high chiefs seem cogent to discard the idea of the creation of State Police, what is the fate of “common” Nigerians who live at the mercy of herdsmen, bandits, kidnappers, insurgents, terrorists and militants? So many lives have been lost and property destroyed in what so many analysts blame on the alleged ineffectiveness of the Police, lack of adequate motivation and staffing, lack of provision of security gadgets, state-of-the-art hi-tech equipment, 21st Century-Compliant Police and lack of modern arms and ammunition. The Federal Government is blamed for the deficiencies evident in the police.
The fears expressed notwithstanding, State Police has several advantages. According to some schools of thought, it will curb the rising wave of insecurity and other social vices; it will reduce the rate of unemployment, check criminal activities and corruption; it will prevent unwarranted attacks and imposition of a “preferred” religion on Nigerians. It will institutionalise True Federalism.

By: Igbiki Benibo