At no time had a president been more emphatic on a State Police system in Nigeria more than now. During the 14th National Caucus Meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) recently in Abuja, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared that the APC will make State Police happen even as he revealed that it was his promise to his foreign counterparts.
The issue of state police has generated heated public debate among the citizenry. While some, including state governors, vehemently advocate the creation of state police to decentralize security operations and make them more manageable in a vast country such as Nigeria, those in opposition fear that the outfit could turn to a tool of repression in the hands of the governors who might use it against their perceived political enemies.
The cacophony over the issue points to the fact that all is not well with the present system, which vested all powers in the federal government to control the police. Indeed, had a central police system been living up to expectation, no one would have raised a voice to call for another system that could deliver the desired services.
A police force, in essence, maintains public order within a community, detects and prevents crime, and ensures the security of lives and property. In general, the police enforce rules of conduct that we call the laws. A high crime rate and the prevailing general insecurity are indications that our police force, which takes orders from Abuja, has not been working hard enough. This has prompted the creation of extra-constitutional outfits to help. In the South east was the Bakassi
transformed into various brands of vigilante groups such as Ebubeagu and Agunechemba. Today, the Amotekun operates in the South West and Hisba in the North.
Opponents of a state police system may have been thinking about those unduly mistreated by these quasi-police agencies on the orders of the politicians that created them. References can be made to incidences of assassination, extrajudicial killings, and vendetta by the vigilante groups. Of course, the quasi-police personnel, in the first instance, were not formally recruited and trained. When the state policeman sees himself as an employee of government who is fully protected and is liable to the overall legal and moral regulations of the land, the story would change.
The other fear that there could be a clash of functions between the federal and state police can be taken care of by a clear delineation of functions and operational territories, just as it is in the countries that run a three-tier police system in the federal, state and local government.
A policeman is more effective in a terrain he understands more than in an environment he hardly can comprehend the people’s language, let alone know the hideouts in the remote areas. These days, when hoodlums and bandits have infiltrated our bushes and made them their base to launch attacks, no system can be more helpful than state police.
Perhaps the strongest point for a State Police is that a recent poll by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) showed that 70 per cent of Nigerians want it. This is an overwhelming majority. However, rather than dissipate energy in arguments for and against state police, it would benefit the nation more to think of other lasting ways to combat crime than overdependence on the police.
The inglorious Anini days in old Bendel State, among other instances, revealed to us that those to whom we surrender our lives for protection could be comfortable allies of the enemy. In his celebrated trial, Anini, the notorious robber who was finally executed, implicated some police chiefs he had placed on his payroll in exchange for cover and supply of weapons for his nefarious activities. It is also known that the present-day bandits get their supply of weapons from some bad eggs in the police and the Army.
There is the notion that this excessive focus on the police as custodians of our peace and order might have, paradoxically, contributed to the rise in crime rate. Seeing that there is over reliance on him, the policeman is likely to relish a high crime situation which gives him a sense of worth, just as a no-crime-no-police situation is likely to make the policeman feel irrelevant. Somehow, crime unwittingly becomes the policeman’s goldmine.
It would be naïve to think that the police do not enjoy the funds, vehicles, and materials that the state governments shower on them, which they sometimes convert to personal use. With the creation of state police, all that would be directed to the respective state police services that are likely to emerge. Therefore, there could be minimal cooperation from the ranks in matters of state police.
Clearly, the crime rate in the country is indicative of how bitter the youths are over their continued marginalization by corrupt leadership. The youth do not see for themselves a future in this country as no plans are made to create jobs. The so-called leaders pay lip service to proposals to fix our ailing power sector, which is unarguably the pivot of massive job creation and economic boom.
Many bubbling industries in the country have packed up, while some among them have relocated to neighbouring countries because there is inadequate electricity to power their plants. This has resulted in massive job losses. The employed youths are exploited and sometimes are not sure of their pay at the end of the month. It is no better for the rural farmers who are constantly harassed and killed by bandits and herdsmen with sinister motives for the country.
What the youth witness is a systematic stifling of merit as those perceived to be connected walk on paved paths of life while the majority is left to wallow in misery in a land blessed with all kinds of natural resources.
The daring ones who cannot take it anymore may have been pushed into a suicide mission of make it or break it. They can’t watch those they are better than, or even miscreants of their ilk, build mansions and ride flashy cars simply because they are allies to some political bigwigs. They throw morality overboard and feast on the lucrative business of kidnapping, internet fraud, and so on.
We may sermonize till the end of time and condemn the criminals for taking to crime because they have no jobs, but it is better to note early that we are witnessing a revolution which, if allowed to snowball, leads to destruction.
Let’s have state police. But, more importantly, the nation should focus on bringing the economy back to life to be able to engage the youth meaningfully and turn them away from crime. Unfortunately, efforts in the past to create jobs through the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP), among others, hit the rocks. Nothing creates jobs more than adequate infrastructure that attract foreign investments.
The best police are not the ones bearing arms and running around in siren-blaring armoured personnel carriers. The best police are good politics and good governance, a system that holds merit over and above other qualities, a system that respects the law and not the person, a system where it is not monkey-de-work-baboon-de-chop.
It is not profligacy but prudence that leads to a stable economy. Prudence comes with the right politics. In a stable economy, we would be able to sift the pathological criminals among us from the circumstantial ones.
Dr. Odu can be reached through [email protected] or SMS 07016722929.
