ANALYSIS:

THE CONCERNS ABOUT STATE POLICE IN NIGERIA AS SENATE PASSED THE BILL

By Bala B.  Bitrus

Now that the Senate has in it’s wisdom okayed the creation of state police, inherent fears and concerns in the hearts of many decerning minds over many things about us as a people and relating to the planned state police should inform our public discourse ahead of the roll out of the approved state police.

For posterity sake, it is proper that such apprehension must squarely and logically be put in perspectives ahead of the flag off of state police across Nigeria.

There are pertinent questions and issues that need to be addressed after which modalities for the state police could be uploaded.

For a start, what would be the parameters or limit of operational threshold for the state police? This is against the backdrop of the subsisting provisions of internal security platforms embedded in the federal constitution of Nigeria.

Also on the lips of many is the concern that if state police are going to be offloaded like State Independent Electoral Commissions, (SIECs) which were created by enabling laws and have been in operation in all the thirty six states of Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, then there would likely be anarchy instead of solutions to the lingering security challenges across states.

There is the undeniable possibility of executive excesses and incumbency powers especially when considered against the background of the kind of democratic system in operation in Nigeria where checks and balances only exist in theory but zero in practical terms.

Many legislative arms of government across many states are rubber stamps and appendages of the state executive arm. The judiciary is no less culpable in this slant. The judiciary has, to the chagrin of the poor, and the less privileged, become the lost hope of the poor and not the last hope of the common and ordinary citizens.

With such state of affairs as it has been in many states,, state police are going to be under the whims and caprises of state executive who can, with a wave of his hand, order for the arrest and incarceration of any of his political enemy using his atrack dogs in the state police and those in his apron string in the judiciary without let nor hindrance.

Equally germane are the issues of the hegemony by dominant ethnic nationalities within a state. If such majority ethnic nationalities are given greater stakes in the recruitment process into the state police, such lopsidedness could lead to loss of sense of belonging, disconnect and apathy in enlisting into state police by minority ethnic groups in a state.

Such marginalization could lead to bitterness, diissaffection, dissatisfaction, hues and outcries against the new security outfit, no thanks to such unhealthy lopsidedness and imbalance in the composition of the rank and file of the state police.

For equity, balance and fairness’ sake, those to be engaged in the force for effective community policing, the local government origin of the personell must be well scrutinized and vetted and all the ethnic nationalities within every state he given equal slots to ensure even spread and representation.

Another factor to critically consider is the diversities in faith identity to guarantee balancing within states with secular, multi ethnic and religious identities in population composition. For equity reason, and for proper community policing strategies, states must check against this to ensure a balanced composition in their state police structure.

In places where subsisting issues of imbalances exist in public sector employment, where undue advantage is tilted to a dominant ethnic group, such lopsidedness must not be allowed to be reflected in the recruitment, selection or appointment of persons in to the state police force.

Persons recruited for community policing should not be used as instruments of coersion or tools of oppression and repression in the hands of some people against others.

To allay fears of ethnic bigotry, domination and marginalization by major ethnic nationalities in states, there should be equal and fair representation of all ethnic groups in any state in the recruitment into the state police.

If this fear is not assuaged, the creation and existence of state police could end up being counter productive in the fight against crime and criminality in states.

And as states await the final nod for the roll out of their own police, policy makers and other think-tanks technocrats must dispassionately evolve modalities for proper and definite delineation of roles, duties and responsibilities for the personnel of state police to mutually coexist along with other existing national security operatives including the Nigeria Police Force, personnel of Department of State Security Services, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corp without friction, rancor and or acrimony.

The fear of overlap in roles and responsibilities should inform quick delineation for a well spelt out limit of threshold for state police which is just coming on the dashboard of the country’s security architecture.

Rules of engagement for community policing with well spelt out areas of jurisdiction and limit of power within a state’s territory should be laid for the personnel to forestall over zealousness, clashes and overlap by greenhorn and zealots.

Care must therefore be taken to ensure that legal framework with clearly defined and delineated borderlines of responsibilities and functions for the new security outfit  as code of conduct and rules of engagement for persons to be so engaged as workforce are well laid down.

The persons to be engaged in to the state police must not be mediocre, opportunists and miscreants looking for white-collar paid job or for flush funds from state governments. This is to avoid employing criminals, drug addicts, or to give impetus to corruption, nepotism and those who could serve as cover for undesirable criminal elements, bandits, and terrorists.

In this wise, proper profiling, mental/psychiatric clinical test, endurance fitness test, ethos, discipline and character test as well as morality check must be carried out on all those to be engaged as personnel into the state police in every state.

Lastly, to guarantee proper and sustainable funding for state police, a consolidated joint funds basket jointly drawn from state and local governments accounts on first line charge, should be established and operated on 60% – 40% ratio remittance by states and local governments.

Bala B. Bitrus is a Veteran Journalist and Freelance Writer Based in Minna