In spite of initial foot dragging about the desirability or otherwise of state police, stakeholders have endorsed the decentralisation of Nigeria Police Force.
The Federal Government, via Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo led the pack when he spoke at a recent National Security Summit, organised by the Senate Ad hoc Committee on Review of Current Security Infrastructure in Nigeria.
“But for a country our size to meet the one policeman to 400 persons – the UN required ratio – we will need to nearly triple our current police force, far more funding of the police, far more funding of the military and other security agencies are required.
“We cannot realistically police a country like Nigeria centrally from Abuja, state police and other community policing methods are clearly the way to go,” the vice-president, stressed.
State governors, taking a cue from the Federal Government and their personal experiences as chief security officers of their various states, also backed the creation of state police.
The Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Abdulaziz Yari, said creation of state police would help in addressing insecurity in the country.
Yari, who is the Zamfara Governor, spoke at the end of the two-day summit on Review of Current Security Infrastructure in Nigeria.
“Today we have reiterated the position of Vice- President Yemi Osinbajo.
“And the position of the security summit we held in August, that there is a need for state police; we can say it is the only answer.”
The governor said that internal security was supposed to be handled and managed by the police but that today the police were inadequate.
“There are about four million people in Zamfara and we have fewer than 5,000 policemen.
“We in government agree that we can find a way through which we can fine-tune the issue of state police,” he said.
On the cost implications, Yari explained that, “it is not all the states that are supposed to have the state police, those that could, should be able to have it.
“It is something we cannot take off at the same time. We were created differently.”
As a result of the inability of federal security agencies to handle security challenges in Zamfara, Yari said he had dropped his responsibility as Chief Security Officer of the state.
Yari told newsmen in Talata-Mafara, Zamfara, said his decision stemmed from the seeming helplessness of the state government and the people over recurring killings in the state.
He deplored the prevailing situation where as the chief security officer of the state, he could not take decisions on strategies for protecting the state and its people and have them implemented.
“We have been facing serious security challenges over the years, but in spite of being governor and chief security officer of the state, I cannot direct security officers on what to do nor sanction them when they err.
“As chief security officer, the nomenclature is just a name,” he said.
The governor said it was disheartening that killings in the state had continued in spite of President Muhammadu Buhari’s order to security agencies to end incessant blood-letting across the country.
According to him, since the president’s order, the killings have not stopped. In a week there were attacks in this state which claimed over 30 lives.
He said that the state government was spending huge amount of its resources on security with no tangible results.
The governor is alluding that if the police are controlled by him, they will take his orders on how to confront the security challenges in his state.
Also taking a cue from the position of the Federal Government and the governors, the National Assembly is considering a bill on the creation of state police.
The bill was sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, the Deputy President of the Senate, while Rep. Kayode Oladele, sponsored same in the House of Representatives.
The bill has passed first reading in the House of Representatives, while the process of the amendment has already begun in the Senate.
The national lawmakers endorsed the creation of state police, which they earlier rejected because of the reality, that Nigeria as a country could not be effectively policed from the centre.
The APC committee on restructuring headed by Gov. Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, also recommended the establishment of state police.
According to el- Rufai, who presented the report to the then APC National Chairman, Mr John Odigie-Oyegun, the recommendations were based on opinions of Nigerians.
“ We have also moved to the concurrent list. We are recommending that police should be both federal and state.”
A survey conducted by NOIPolls shortly after Osinbajo endorsed state police showed that 61 per cent of Nigerians were in support of decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force.
According to NOIPolls, the proposal got surprising boost shortly after it received the blessings of Osinbajo and the 36 state governors.
“The survey revealed that a larger proportion of Nigerians, 61 per cent pledged their support for the creation of state police.
“The clamour for state police in Nigeria surprisingly got a boost on Thursday Feb. 8 2018, when Vice President Yemi Osinbajo publicly backed the call for the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police during a National Security Summit organised by the Nigerian Senate in Abuja.
“It is worth noting that the North-West (69 per cent), the North-East (68 per cent) and the North-Central (65 per cent) zones, accounted for the largest proportion of Nigerians who showed their support for the creation of state police.
“This is not surprising as these regions have had a fair share of security challenges.’’
The Chief Executive Officer, NOIPolls, Dr Bell Ihua, said the endorsement of state police “shows that our leaders are now listening to the opinions of Nigerians”.
A clergyman, the Rt. Rev. Tunde Adeleye, the Bishop of Calabar Diocese, Anglican Communion, says Nigeria needs to fight crime at the foundation level through the establishment of state police.
Adeleye spoke recently in Calabar at a media briefing to mark the commencement of the 2018 Synod of the diocese.
The clergyman said that state police structure was one of the characteristics of true federalism.
“Each state or even local government should have its own police. This is done all over the world where we have true federalism.
“Let us have a state police so that we can fight crime from the foundation, ‘’ he said.
He said that situations where state governors were regarded as chief security officers of their states but could not give directives to the commissioner of police, was contrary to what obtain ined a federal system of government.
According to him, such situations had made it always impossible for the governors to curtail insecurity in their states.
“There is too much concentration of powers at the federal level. Power has to devolve to the federating states, ‘’ Adeleye said.
A former Senate Deputy Leader, Jonathan Zwingina, who is seeking re-election to the Senate, said establishment of state police was the ultimate solution to insecurity in the country.
Zwingina spoke when he paid a courtesy visit on Alhaji Umar Sanda, Paramount Ruler of Ganye Chiefdom in Adamawa.
According to him, the creation of state police is the ultimate solution to insecurity in the country.
He said the idea would not undermine the authority of the federal police.
Zwingina said that state police would rather complement the operations and activities of the federal police.
He said that the police to citizens’ ratio was about one police man to 1,000, instead of the global standard of one to 400.
The former deputy senate leader also said that half of the police personnel were attached to very important personalities, limiting efficient security coverage.
Analysts say that those opposed to state police usually hinge their argument on perceived inability of state governments to finance the force and abuse by state governors. They, however, say the argument does not hold water, as establishment is based on ability to finance the force, while the perceived fear of abuse by governors cannot be substantiated.