Law enforcement

The Speakers of the 36 Houses of Assembly have endorsed the push for establishing state police forces to address the country’s insecurity…

The Speakers of the 36 Houses of Assembly have endorsed the push for establishing state police forces to address the country’s insecurity. They urged the National Assembly to include the state police proposal in the bills considered during the ongoing constitutional amendment process and pledged their readiness to approve the bill if included. They called on President Bola Tinubu to take further measures to alleviate the current hardships faced by Nigerians following the removal of the petrol subsidy and other economic policies. These statements were signed by the chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria, Adebo Ogundoyin.

The endorsement of state policing by Nigerian state legislators represents a potentially significant step towards curbing the country’s insecurity challenges. However, this demand is not new, and it dates back to constitutional conferences in the 1950s. The Action Group, which controlled the Western Region, led the agitation. At that time, only Nigeria and Malaya (now Malaysia) had centralised police forces among federal governments. Today, the Southwest’s push for “true federalism” often includes state police. With President Bola Tinubu from this region, there’s an expectation of support for state police legislation. An effective state policing model could empower local authorities with a deeper understanding of their communities’ security needs and foster better police-citizen relations. This could lead to more targeted crime prevention strategies and improved response times in combating terrorism and other criminal activities. However, since the creation of the Nigeria Police Force as a unified system in 1930, subsequent attempts to reform the police have been met with a brick wall. As a matter of fact, in 1976, with the country’s devastating civil war in mind, the military further centralised the police in the hands of the federal government. The military could do so because the prevailing national sentiment at the time was towards unitarianism, which the constitutional drafting committee keyed into, and partly because the federal government had enough financial resources for such centralisation. However, the times have now changed. The federal government is poorer as revenues have dried up. This weakness has opened the door for both state governments and non-state actors to erode the federal government’s powers, and non-state actors have been duly obliging. However, there is still no consensus on what state policing would entail. The chief concern so far has been the possibility of potential abuse by the constitutionally powerful state governors. This is why an attempt at reforming the current structure must not stop at a simple transfer of power from Abuja to various state capitals. Issues at divisional police stations are not solely due to centralisation or directives from Abuja. Human rights concerns persist, and if the debate on state policing focuses only on decentralising power to the state level, ethnic minorities will fear dominance and persecution by major groups. This echoes the 1957/1958 Willink Commission’s recommendation against regional policing in Nigeria’s 1960 independence constitution. If this happens, discussions will hypocritically focus on why the experiment failed, leaning towards restoring a centralised police force. Studying how other countries in the Global South, facing social, political, and economic realities similar to Nigeria’s, have implemented state police systems is crucial. While successful in their contexts, focusing solely on Western models like the US or UK might not be optimal. These systems emerged from vastly different circumstances. By learning from countries that have grappled with comparable challenges, Nigeria can identify patterns and best practices that can be realistically adapted to its specific situation. This will increase the likelihood of establishing state police that effectively addresses the country’s security issues.