Renewed call for state police in Nigeria

Sir: What brought about the renewed clamour for state police in Nigeria are rampant killings, with particular reference to many parts of northern Nigeria. Insecurity thus constitutes a recurrent decimal on the Presidency of Muhammadu Buhari from 2015 till date. But state police will not solve the problem of insecurity because many of the state governors are also too powerful in their states and can easily abuse the police force to set their states ablaze.

Before state police can work, certain reformations must take place. One, the power to choose electoral umpires must be taken from the partisan people in power and vested in some non-governmental organisations, at federal, state, and local levels, through constitutional reform. Secondly, politicisation of religion must be redressed to put religion in the private realm where the constitution situates it.

Summarily, before state police can be adopted, Nigeria’s leaders must be subjugated to rule of law and both the rulers and the ruled must be, to a large extent, law-abiding. Otherwise, state police will be abused by the political and religious powers that be, to further facilitate election-rigging, religious imperialisms among others and promote anarchy in some states.

Prof. Oyeniran Abioje wrote from University of Ilorin.