STATE POLICE IN NIGERIA- IS NIGERIA TRULY MATURED?
With the high rate of insecurity in Nigeria, most especially the rate of kidnapping in the country, it indeed has become a cause for concern to me as a citizen. On some occasions, these kidnappers are caught while on many other occasions they were able to collect the ransom they requested for and finally abscond. Even though I have never heard of a kidnapped victim dying in the custody of the kidnappers I sometimes asked myself saying “hope this will not start soon.”
From the angle of the kidnappers I observe that the motivating factors that drives them to commit these atrocities is 1) POVERTY 2) GREED) 3) INSECURITY 4) FAMILY TRAINING BACKGGROUND e.t.c. For the purpose of this article insecurity is our main focus.
Insecurity as mentioned earlier is the inability of the government via the security agencies to provide protection to the teeming population in the country. Failure to provide this insecurity can lead to incessant criminal activities in the country. With the population of about one hundred and eighty million, Nigeria has less than ten thousand police officers to protect his citizens can this really be adequate security?. The vast land of Nigeria is about 993square with different nooks and cranny that need monitoring how can such number of officers protect the citizenry. Nigeria operates a federal system of government where the centre is strong and he's holding the states or the regions. With the peculiar nature of Nigeria, where oil remains the mainstay of the economy, it will be very difficult for the regions or the states so to speak maintain a state police because equipments needs to be provided training and most importantly is the salary of these officers.
It is with no doubt in my mind that Nigeria deserves to have a state police most importantly, when you look at the Boko Haram menace currently threatening the security in the country and the emergence introduction of the civilian JTF who are helping the military to fish out the suspected Boko Haram members among them. The road block even mounted by the civilian JTF in some areas in the north east is a sign that exposed the inadequacy of our security operatives in Nigeria. If the state police is allowed by the current administration it will legally empower our teeming youths who are unemployed in the society and are zealous to serve their country.
In as much as the advantages of the state police has been analysed, it is also characterized with some disadvantages which I believe are not insurmountable. 1) Total control of the state government – the state government where the state police is created may want to highjack and control the state police for his selfish interest which may not go well for the future of the state. In this situation the federal government may make some enabling laws where the federal police will still have some controlling powers over the state police. The state police will understand the terrain of the state better than the federal police because it is the indigene of the state that will be employed to protect the state. 2) Tribal sentiment is another factor which may threaten the existence of the state police because since they are the indigenes of the state they definitely will share some tribal sentiments which may affect their sense of judgement in occasions when insecurity is caused by the other tribes in the country. In this case courses and orientation needs to be given to these officers to re orientate them showing reasons why they must be fair to all men.
In spite of the challenges and solutions mentioned above, is Nigeria truly matured for a state police? My answer to this question is that Nigeria is technically not matured for a state police but practically we are matured.
Practically, we are matured because the insecurity in Nigeria has forcefully evolved so much so that to protect lives and property, the importance of state police cannot be over emphasized . Nigerians must not loose confidence in the current administration most especially on security otherwise impunity will reign and anarchy will set in. However, if we as a nation can quickly adapt to the introduction of the state police we may be able to conquer or overcome some of our insecurity problems and steady the ship of Nigeria to a safe shore. A word is enough for the wise.
