The announced dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) by the Inspector General of Police following days of nationwide protests against brutality and other misconducts of operatives of the police unit; though desirable, is simply over-optimistic and no one should therefore mistake the issue of police reform as settled. The SARS was a rogue police unit infamous for terrorizing and extorting money from Nigerians. The #EndSARS protests that attracted global attention on social media no doubt opened a can of worms and it will not go away until, and unless, the letter and the spirit of true federalism is brought into consideration and inevitably in favor of the creation of state police as part of a devolution of power from the center to the states. As Nigeria passes through these perilous times, the argument in favor of state police as a critical component of nation-building is overwhelming. Apart from other dysfunctions within the polity, the creation of state police is one vexing issue whose time has come. It is just as well that President Muhammadu Buhari himself has acknowledged the need for police reform. He now has a historic opportunity to resolve the issue now, not later. Failure to do so will be most unfortunate!
That the Nigerian police finally buckled under the pressure of sustained #EndSARS protests which saw the daughters of the president and vice-president joining the protests was victory for a social media viral campaign that stayed its course until results were achieved. Prior incidents of police brutality have been muffled by promises of police reform; only to end as business as usual. This time was different as the voices for change left the cyberspace of Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook and spilled over into the streets of major cities across the country, after video of the shooting of a young man in front of a hotel in Ughelli, Delta State, by SARS operatives on October 3 went virile. As if that was not enough another unarmed bystander, Jimoh Isiaq, was shot and killed in Ogbomosho, Oyo State, by policemen dispersing #EndSARS protesters. Scores of Nigerians have been intimidated, extorted, robbed, kidnapped and even extra judicially killed by policemen. Others have been profiled for wearing tattoos and dreadlock and for using expensive phones. With the dissolution of SARS, the battle has been won, but the war is not over.
Opponents of state police have always advanced puerile arguments which are self-serving. For example, the view has been canvassed in certain quarters, that the current unitary Nigeria Police is one of the unifying institutions in the country and it should therefore not be balkanized and subjected to base sentiments and divided loyalty. Another untenable argument is that Nigerian politicians; given their remarkable genius for travesty, are not sufficiently mature to exercise the power of legitimate police force of coercion in a fair and just manner, especially during elections. It has also been said that the states cannot afford the cost to maintain a full police force that will require recruitment drives, barracks, training, equipment, personnel emoluments, including pension. Some have argued that the federal police can be effective if given the necessary resources and that if a poorly motivated federal police is failing in its duty to protect the citizens and enforce the law, there is no guarantee that similarly under-resourced state police units will not but fail to meet public expectations.
All these arguments amount to a cure becoming the disease. For starters, the unitary and sole federal police structure is a post-1966 creation; before then, some regional governments and native authorities maintained their police forces alongside the federal police. And this arrangement worked by and large. Deriving from this, it can be argued that the idea of state police is not intrinsically bad, but its workability is subject to the character of the politicians that control it.
Besides, there is no more debate on the suitability and desirability of a truly federal system for a country of diverse ethnicities, views and values, needs and wants like Nigeria. If so, a centralized, unitary police force violates, obviously, the entire concept and intent of federalism; a system of government in which major executive powers are shared among a central and federated units of government. The structure and policies that govern policing must, ipso facto, be federal. This is how it operates in countries like the United States of America from where Nigeria borrowed its present presidential system. This is how it is done in even the largest federal democracy in the world – India. And, from the experience of other nations, the establishment of state police does not negate the need for a federal police with its unique mandate. Rather, the two complement each other.
That notwithstanding, insecurity it must be admitted, is first and foremost a local issue that, if ignored, snowballs and assumes supra-local dimensions. Insurgency, anarchy and brigandage begin small and within local communities. Therefore, the country needs protection primarily at the local level. State and local policers, living within their communities have a better knowledge and understanding of their various communities and are better positioned to detect criminality and respond in with agility and greater efficiency because they master their environments. This is the essence of community policing.
Furthermore, the principle of Subsidiarity demands that a larger or higher organization should not arrogate unto itself those functions that can be best performed by smaller units of it. So, if the federal government’s effort to protect the lives and welfare of the citizens are to be taken seriously, there is no alternative to allowing states to own and control their security apparatuses.
The standing view is that the Federal Government, for whatever reason, is unable, or unwilling, to maintain an efficient and effective police even in its present unitary form. This explains the huge financial and material support that the states are constrained to lend to the federal police formations assigned to them. This is an aberration even more so because state governors, as chief security officers, have limited authority over the police on which they nevertheless expend substantial funds. Nigerians have with dismay, witnessed elected state governors clash with police commissioners in their states; including the protracted showdown between then Rivers Governor, Rotimi Amaechi and Police Commissioner Mbu, who openly challenged the governor; to the point where Amaechi dared the officer to shoot him during protests in Port Harcourt. These incidents point to a weak governance culture and are indicative of a democracy that is not working.
In the United States of America as befits any proper federal system of government, policing powers and responsibilities are shared between federal, state, and local authorities with the federal controlling the smallest percentage of the nation’s police agencies. And of the estimated 697,195 certified police personnel in America, only about 8% are federal, while 60% are state and local law enforcement officers. In the Republic of India, there is an All India Police Service controlled by New Delhi; but each of the 28 states and seven union territories maintains and superintends its own police force with their respective legislatures making laws on their functions.
If Nigeria aspires to do things according to global best practices, it obviously must run a federal system that includes a truly federal police structure. A situation where officers of the Nigeria Police are illegally deployed and used wantonly by privileged Nigerians (especially politicians and government contractors) to harass and assault other citizens, or address personal grievances reflects the level of impunity in the nation. It also exposes the unprofessionalism and administrative decadence in the law enforcement and security circles.
The Nigeria Police should be held accountable for cheaply availing itself to the self-serving and unpatriotic interests of politicians and government cronies. It is disheartening that despite the state of insecurity in the country, the police, in concert with acclaimed chieftains of the ruling class, continue to act with impunity and promote lawlessness. This unholy union between police officers and the privileged in society cuts across party loyalty, ethnic affiliation, or religious leaning. Anyone who is privileged to be associated with a high ranking police officer can just arrogate onto himself the powers of life and death, courtesy of the dubious efficiency of the police forces.
There is nowhere in the Nigeria Police Act that empowers it to be turned into illegal instruments of brutality and aggression to be employed by the high and mighty against perceived offenders. The Nigeria Police is not a private militia of private individuals. It is a security service to the state, whose primary purpose is to maintain law and order, and ensure security of lives and property of all citizens. The best way to ensure that the police and other security agencies, will return to their primary principles and practice and resist all attempts to be used by privileged individuals to settle personal scores is to decentralize the police. The country stands to lose with the present status quo.
