Before state police comes on stream

LIKE the proverbial idea whose time has come, everything is building almost inexorably toward the reality of state police in Nigeria, something that, just a few years ago, seemed totally unattainable. Just last week, President Bola Tinubu transmitted to the Senate a constitution-alteration bill “designed to provide a legal framework for a dual policing structure in Nigeria, allowing states to establish and operate their own police services alongside the federal police.” Following the transmission, the bill was read during plenary by Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

Although the idea of state police has always been popular, until recently, skeptics who insisted, and not without reason, that it could end up making already unaccountable state executives even more lawless had always won the day. However, as the security situation in the country has worsened, and as the human toll from a decades-long jihadist insurgency and rampant kidnapping has mounted, the idea of having states preside over their own security rather than wait on the government at the centre before making life and death decisions has gained more converts. To that extent, the embrace of state police is a child of necessity, and Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, who led debate on the bill, was not exaggerating when he said that it “represented one of the most important reforms in Nigeria’s democratic evolution.”

We enthusiastically and unreservedly welcome the idea. Over the years, this newspaper has vigorously argued the case for state police, seeing it as quintessential to the achievement of true federalism in the country. Therefore, for us, the moment could not be sweeter as it provides a vindication of the ideals that we have stood by from the get-go. It always seemed to us that federal control of policing and the federalist ethos were a contradiction in terms, and we couldn’t be more thrilled that the political elite have finally come to their senses on the matter. Indeed, for us, what is at stake is more than policing; on the contrary, what we are witnessing is yet another important milestone in the dismantling of the legacy of military rule in the country, a rule marked by the persistent accumulation of power by the centre and the attendant moral impoverishment of the federating units. State police is yet another vindication of the foresight and acuity of our visionary founder, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.  

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Nevertheless, while we welcome an idea which always seemed inevitable to us, we do not want to be seen as downplaying its potential pitfalls. First, it is worth keeping in mind that state police, while absolutely the right way to go, is no magic wand for the country’s multilayered security problems. Matter of fact, there is no magic wand where any modern country’s security is concerned, and this is no different. What state police does is fundamentally change the structure of policing in the country in such a way that it gives state executives greater flexibility, and it is important that it be regarded as such. While it may not stop bad behaviour on the part of those executives, it does not change the fact that the idea itself is fundamentally sound.

Furthermore, some sections of the bill would seem to be controversial. For instance, the provision empowering governors to appoint state police commissioners has been singled out by critics who argue that it could be weaponised against political opponents. Experience suggests that such concerns should not be taken lightly.  These potential problems notwithstanding, there is no doubt that this is the right thing to do, and the Tinubu administration deserves credit for successfully pushing through with one of the most divisive issues in Nigerian politics.