By Ray Umukoro

At the 2022 annual conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) in Abuja, recently, Delta State governor and vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, gave a fresh perspective on the state of insecurity in Nigeria.

He recommended state police as panacea for the growing insecurity. The call for the creation of state police is not new. On that score, Okowa has not said anything new. But the governor who has birthed an ambience of peace in his state gave a deeper insight.

The Federal Government has not been enthusiastic on the issue of state police. Yet, every day, the security situation gets even more alarming. Terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and other brigades of criminals, including highway robbers, assault and assail the citizens. The police are overwhelmed, though they have refused to own up.

Okowa says the lethargy by the Federal Government is worrisome, He, however, assured Nigerians that the PDP administration would make a law to permit states to run their own police formations. He did not call for the disbandment of the existing federal police formation. He says the establishment of state police would create additional buffer against insecurity. Okowa’s argument is lucid. With the current arrangement, the Police have proven that they cannot effectively maintain law and order across the nation. The police personnel are thinly spread across the country with many preferring to operate in the cities. Among them, some are attached to public office holders, high profile Nigerians and business people who can afford to hire their services. This leaves the rural and semi-urban areas unmanned.

Besides, funding the police has become cumbersome for the federal government. The result is an ill-equipped police force, poorly trained and equally poorly motivated police personnel. The direct implication of this is a free reign of criminals stomping the unmanned communities and spaces. The creation of state police will not only add to the numerical strength of the police, but will also create a wider berth for the police (both federal and state) to engage in effective intelligence gathering.

The effectiveness of any police formation is proportional to the quality of actional intelligence at its disposal. It’s the same with the military and other security agencies. This is at the core of Okowa’s prescription of state police as a veritable antidote to the growing insecurity.

Okowa said that “state police will ensure that indigenes of the state will protect lives and property in their areas, criminal activities would be reduced to the barest minimum.”

Particularly, he noted that state police would assist in the effective execution of anti-open-grazing laws in the states.

This has also been the argument of proponents of state police. Recruiting indigenes of the state into the state police command gifts such police personnel the advantage of mastery of the environment. State police made up of personnel from that state means that the police personnel understand the language of the people they are policing; they have thorough knowledge of the environment which is an advantage in intelligence gathering. All over the world, to police a community or state effectively, you need to have people within that locality to be part of policing. In Nigeria, it’s the absence of state police that brought about the mushrooming of anti-crime volunteer groups and cultural security outfits all offering protection services to communities. This is a self-help reaction from communities who feel that the behemoth federal government-controlled police have failed in their duty to protect them.

Besides, recruiting men and women into the state police fold takes such persons out of the job market into gainful employment.

Governor Okowa’s position is in tandem with the general mood in the nation. Recently, the Conference of Speakers of the 36 states Houses of Assembly, while decrying the current insecurity in the country unanimously voted in favour of the establishment of state police and community policing.

The Speakers who converged on Asaba, Delta State, for their second quarter general meeting said state police and community policing offer the best and most reliable repellant against the vicious tide of insecurity.

They argued that when major stakeholders including state Assemblies use the ongoing review of the constitution to endorse the establishment of community policing and state police, insecurity will be tamed significantly in the country.

There have also been counter arguments against state police. Strangely, some of the promoters of such counter-argument are senior police officers, serving and retired. Two things stick out from their argument. The issue of funding and abuse. Some persons fear that states cannot afford the fiscal burden of another layer of bureaucracy in the name of state police. They claim that most states are near-insolvent and unable to meet extant obligations, so why add extra responsibility. They also argue, very strongly, that governors will turn state police to instrument of oppression and torture. Such abuse, they say, would be triggered during electioneering period. Arming state police personnel who of course would be under the authority of the governor may spell an end to dissent and opposition in the states. This is injurious to the plurality of ideas and opinion which democracy promotes.

While their argument appears plausible, they also fail to connect the reality that just as governors are likely to abuse state police and deploy their personnel as terriers to hunt down the opposition or perceived foes of the governor, such abuse has been prevalent even with the Federal police. There have been cases of ‘orders from above’ in which some government officials from Abuja use personnel of the Federal police to hound their kinsmen or settle political scores. The case of a sitting governor of Anambra state who was abducted by a police officer is still fresh in our national psyche.

Currently, the Federal government is broke. It borrows to pay salaries, including the salaries of police personnel. But being broke has not compelled the Federal Government to scrap the police, or stop recruitment into the force. Put simply, both the federal and state governments are hamstrung by lack of funds.

But this should not deter states from owning their police. States risk getting poorer if insecurity persists. Farmers cannot go to farms. Traders are sacked from markets or waylaid on the roads by gunmen. Trade and commerce are jeopardized. In some cases, schools and businesses are shut on account of insecurity. Under such circumstance, the state gets poorer because it loses income from taxes and levies. Money in circulation drops because citizens have lost their sources of income to insecurity. This is why state police is inevitable. Okowa is right. State police is a veritable tool to contain the surging wave of insecurity across the country.

From his submission, it’s obvious that Okowa clearly understands the drawback against state police. It’s the issue of legality bordering on constitutional amendment. He says the Atiku Abubakar government will make legislation that would permit states to have own police. This is the aspect some persons overlook in their argument. There must be legislation backing state police before it can assume legitimacy. May Okowa’s wish become a reality. Nigeria needs state police.

Umukoro writes from Warri