State police: How workable?

On February 8 2018, at a security summit in Abuja, vice president Yemi Osinbajo appeared to endorse the creation of state police.

“We cannot realistically police a country the size of Nigeria centrally from Abuja. State police and other community policing methods are clearly the way to go,” Osinbajo told participants at the two-day National Security Summit organised by the Senate.

“For a country our size, meeting the one policeman to 400 persons ratio prescribed by the UN would require us to triple our current police force, far more funding of the police force and far more funding of our military and other security agencies.”

Then taking a cue from the vice president, the 36 state governors also threw their weight behind state police. Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Abdulaziz Yari, at a security summit organised by the Senate barely a week after the vice president spoke, said “We cannot realistically police a country the size of Nigeria centrally from Abuja. State police and other community policing methods are clearly the way to go.”

He gave example with Zamfara state. “There are about 4 million people in Zamfara and we have fewer than 5000 policemen…We in governance agree that we can find a way through which we can fine tune the issue of state police.”

But Yari wasn’t unaware of the problems associated with state police.  How can state governors who are unable to pay workers salary take on the additional burden of setting up a state police?

Yari has an answer. He 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” and those that can’t can continue with the present arrangement.

“It is something we cannot take off at the same time. We were created differently.”

Of course, we know for now only Lagos and a handful of other states could afford to maintain an effective police service.

It also appears the authorities are coming to a realisation that the current police arrangement cannot adequately respond to the complex security situation in the country such as the Boko Haram, cattle rustlers, farmer-herders clashes, armed banditry, Niger Delta militancy and kidnappings.

But even if states have the resources, the question remains: Is state police desirable in Nigeria?

Although the constitution vests operational control of the police on the president, it still allows state governors to exercise authority and give directions with “respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety and public order within the state” to the commissioner of police. However, it circumscribed the powers of governors by adding in Section 215(4) of the constitution that “provided that before carrying out any such directions… the Commissioner of Police may request that the matter be referred to the president or such minister of the government of the federation as may be authorised in that behalf by the president for his directions.”

While it is true that the powers of state governors to control or issue directives to the police have been severely curtailed, the creation of the Nigerian Police Council by the 1999 constitution was meant to ameliorate the loss and make control of the police a federal affair and not that of the president alone. 

The Constitution defined the powers to include:

•Organisation and administration of the NPF and all other matters relating thereto (not being matters relating to the use and operational control of the force or the appointment, disciplinary control and dismissal of members of the force;

•The general supervision of the Nigeria police force; and

•Advising the president on the appointment of the IGP

Curiously though, since its creation by the Constitution, there is no evidence that the Nigeria Police Council has ever met. Governors seem not to be aware or even interested in the NPC. It appears the overriding interest is in control and not efficiency of the police.

We must realise the dangers of state police. In fact, it was the gross abuse of the local governments and regional police forces by the Nigerian political elite and ruling parties that necessitated the centralisation of the police in the first instance. Even the recent experiment with traditional vigilante/traditional police organisations such as the Bakkassi boys, OPC and others demonstrates the clear danger that the society faces if state policing is allowed. The fact that no state electoral commission, to date, has been able to conduct simple credible local government gives an indication of what goes on in the states.

We recommend the comprehensive restructuring and repositioning of the police and the revival and strengthening of the Nigerian Police Council where all governors and the president can jointly exercise positive policy control over the police.