After years of hesitation despite existential national security crisis, the prospect of state police is looking up, and gaining the right attention at the National Assembly. ROTIMI AGBOLUAJE reports that the concerns of its naysayers are just as valid as the prospective benefits of a decentralised police system.

Regarded as one of the clear features of federalism, the multilevel policing system has been in place across countries of the world where sub-national bodies exist. It is variously termed State Police, Regional Police or Provincial Police.

The mode and form of its operations as well as its relationship with the central police vary from one federation to another. However, in most jurisdictions, the central police exercise wider powers in comparison to those of the sub-nationals.

America, India, Indonesia, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and some others are among the countries that operate state police. As it stands today, out of the 25 federations in the world, Nigeria is the only country without state police. In fact, some unitary states like Britain and Italy practise a multilevel policing system.

Indeed, since the dawn of the Fourth Republic, the call for state police has been on. It, nonetheless, gained traction during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari. However, in the last few months, the decibel has reached its crescendo following the embarrassingly persistent security breaches across the country, which the federal police are unable to contend with. Certainly, the apparent failure of the centralised policing system has made the growing consensus for state police an all-time high.

Against this backdrop, the Federal Government announced that it was considering the creation of state police alongside the 36 states. Though the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, explained that the process was still inchoate, the announcement reignited widespread interest in the subject such that more Nigerians are endorsing the idea and want it kick-started immediately.

Examining the pros and cons of the idea, the former Nigerian Ambassador to the Philippines, Dr Yemi Farounbi, said there would be a need to see the template before considering its workability in Nigeria.

Farounbi said: “One has to see its functions, scope of duties, its structure, organisation, funding and financing. The State Police system is working in other climes. There is no reason it should not work here.

“Decentralising the police is a step in the right direction. Nigeria is perhaps the only federation that I know that has a centralised police force. Even Britain that is not a federation doesn’t have a unitary police system.”

Speaking on the likelihood of abuse by the governors, Farounbi pointed out that “there is no perfect human organisation that cannot be abused. The present Nigerian Police, he pointed out, is being abused by federal, state and even private persons.”

“Should we now do away with the Nigerian Police? It was its incessant abuse that led to #EndSARS protests. It was an abuse of the American police that led to #BlackLivesMatters agitations. Those in the centre and states are Nigerians. None of them are incorruptible human beings. Restructuring of the functions of the police system must be associated with a corresponding review of the revenue allocation formula,” he stated.

Similarly, a University of Ibadan don, Prof. Oyesoji Aremu, said the establishment of state police is overdue, adding that it would help to curb the insecurity ravaging the country.

Aremu said: “It is well thought-out. It should be stressed that Nigeria is about the only democratic country globally with a national police structure. This ought not to be as the country should have embraced the civility that goes with the creation of state police long ago.

“The expediency to have state police to complement the federal police is also very instructive given the spate of insecurity in the country. The concern has always been how it will work. This should not be a problem if the first obstacle, which is an amendment to the Constitution, is addressed.

“Two, there are other fundamentals like devolution of policing functions to the states under the new dispensation. Next, appropriate funding would have to be provided to make it work. Although few states have gone ahead to have state-specific security outfits, these would have to give way to a truly operationalised state policing structure.”

According to Aremu, the workability of sub-national police would also lead to the amendments of sections 215 and 216 of the Constitution, to clearly define, and in clear terms too, the question of jurisdictional functions to avoid conflicts.

He explained that the perceived fear of abuse by state governors should not be a thing of worry. The most important thing, he said, is the security their existence would engender, adding that with time, the perceived fear will fade out if appropriate structures are put in place.

On the issue of financing the outfits, he said: “Many states like Lagos, Kano, Oyo, Ondo and Osun have been doing very well in funding state security outfits. In effect, funding should not be a problem.”

Also adding his voice, a former Chief of Staff to the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi, Prof. Gbade Ojo, said Nigeria’s federal arrangement is an aberration without state police. He believes that the revenue allocation formula would also be tinkered with to create more funds for that purpose.

“There should be no fear of abuse, after all, the Federal Government also has been abusing federal police. The benefits outweigh the demerits,” he added.

For the Head of Department of History, University of Ibadan, Prof. Rasheed Olaniyi, the idea is desirable and workable. According to him, in the context of widespread insecurity, its benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.

The governors, he noted, have security votes, and should use it to secure their domains. “Some governors already have frameworks and platforms for state policing. Examples are Hisbah in Kano and Amotekun in the Southwest states,” he pointed out.

A lecturer at Emmanuel Alayande University of Education, Oyo town, Sgt. Araoye Adeola (rtd) believes that state police would work but might have issues at the beginning. He is of the view that there would likely be a superiority contest between the state police and the federal police at the commencement of the outfits.

Adeola, however, said it is the job of the President and the Senate to delineate the functions of each of the organisations to avoid conflicts of duties.

He cited the example in America where the Federal Investigation Bureau (FIB) is the federal police, which undertakes major security tasks like inter-state investigation, while every state like Washington DC, Texas, Colorado and Philadelphia has its own state police units. He added that local governments have their police that work with the local authorities and there is no conflict among them.

On the flip side, a public affairs commentator, Prof. Olabode Lucas, disagrees with the idea of a state police. This, he said, is due to the “low level of political temperament of our politicians at State levels.”

He stated that the lack of sufficient funds required to operate such outfits efficiently is a major drawback.

His words: “My fear of the establishment of state police is based on our political history and our present level of political temperament. During the first republic, there were state police in the Northern and Western regions of the country.

“These police formations were used as instruments of political oppression. They were used by the governments of those regions to oppress and silence opposition parties. I was a witness to these barbaric actions.

“How are we sure that we are not going to have a repeat of what happened during the first republic? It may even be worse because, in the present dispensation, state governors have turned themselves into local dictators. They muzzle local government councils, pocket and control the State Assemblies. It is even such that local government elections are won 100
per cent by the ruling party in states.” According to him, the Federal Government should employ more police officers to check growing insecurity.

In the same vein, a lecturer at the Lead City University, Ibadan, Dr Sybil Olufunmilayo Akinfenwa, insisted that the establishment of state police is not the solution to the state of insecurity. She said what the country needs is community policing, where what she described as peoples’ policing would thrive with community members from all walks of life partnering with the police to prioritise and solve crime problems.

Akinfenwa, who is a retired police officer said: “Partnering with the Police by all sectors of the society would work. The creation of security outfits by state governors is not community policing.

“If at all there will be the creation of state police, it must be with the full implementation of community policing without which the problem of insecurity cannot be solved at the grassroots. All community stakeholders must be ready to partner at all levels in solving the problems of crime. The solution is not in just creating state police.”

According to the Criminology and Security Studies lecturer, notwithstanding the expected challenges, to make state police practicable, Section 214 of the 1999 Constitution, which provides that no other police shall be established for the federation, must be amended.