Each time “State Police” is mentioned, the President would want to know from whose mouth such anachronistic idea is emitting from. The President in particular abhors the mere mention of such idea.
He regards it as an anathema and should be kept away from his administration pending when his tenure expires, then whosoever is his successor can jolly well embrace and approve and sign it into law. President Muhammadu Buhari is a former war General and such homo sapiens hate competition and engaging in public debate on issues. So, should state police be introduced, behind his mind, the President is picturing what critical governors of his administration like Nyesom Wike of Rivrs State and Samuel Ortom of Benue State would be saying about it.
He had severally observed the oppressive and high-handed nature of the governors whenever the national cake (budget) was to be shared. No wonder he was very quick to defend his autocratic stand when asked during a television interview if he would go for the establishment of state police and, like a lion anticipating the next move of its prey, despite the fact that many top personalities like his Vice-President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and the National Assembly have all spoken in favour of the idea as the best security option, yet President Buhari stated emphatically that “state police is not an option” as solution to the myriads of security challenges facing the country.
As far as he is concerned, Nigerians should be more worried over the management of the relationship between the states and local governments than the incompetence of the federal police. He was not done with the question when he redirected the answer to the tussle within local governments, pointing out like a chess player what would eventually become the outcome of the intended demand for state police.
President Buhari urged Nigerians to: “Find out the relationship between local governments and the governors. Are the third tier of government getting what they are supposed to get constitutionally? Are they getting it? Let the people in local government tell you the truth, the fight is between local governments and the governor.”
While the local governments are subdued in their relationship with the state governments, the situation is no better between the Federal Government and the states. Juxtaposing the President’s argument with present realities in the states, one can partially subscribe to his position. However, the world has drastically evolved and the realities around the world make the President’s fear on state police untenable. If the Federal Government is very active and progressive in administration, it would have known that the logjam between the local governments and state governments is not only the failure of government but the inability of the Federal Government to effectively coordinate governance. State police system is all about the decentralization of the police.
The President knows why he is shying away from establishing state police in the country. Even the top security generals lurking around him know within themselves that state police is the world’s best approach to curtailing insecurity. What is difficult in decentralizing the police institution? What was the Federal Government thinking when it created the Department of State Security (DSS), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) out of the police? Was that not decentralization? Does not let go its grip of these agencies? If, after slicing out these agencies from the police’s investigation department and it had allow each to be neutral, then decentralization process has begone.
Even the President’s main supporter and party member, Governor Nasir El-Rufai, had on several occasions said that the APC true federalism committee, which he chaired, recommended multi-level policing, not just state police, adding local government police.
The governor, in October last year, explained why the policing system should be decentralized.
“We have 150,000 personnel in the Nigerian Army. Police were 400,000 by the time this government came on board but has gone down to 300,000 now. All that is needed is the presidential will devoid of any attached sentiments and erasing the wrong notion of a possible hijacking of the state police system by state governors.”
First, the fear is misplaced and unfounded, as there is no such reported incident anywhere in the world. Secondly, if there existed state police structure at the time Mallam Mohammed Yusuf, the founder of Boko Haram terrorist group, was building up the group, the state government would have nipped their activities in the bud and the country wouldn’t have been subjected to the long war it attracted to itself. Was it not the supposedly federal system of centralization of the police that bungled the operation? There are many security cases that had been bungled by the police force because it was no decentralized. State governors are crowned as the chief security officer without an accompanying power. Only recently, the River State gover discovered an illegal bunkering depot being operated by security agents. Imagine a powerless governor only begging that the concerned officers be transferred out of the state, when, if state police was operational, such officers would be dismissed and prosecuted. Same with the issue of banditry. No responsible governor would allow his state to be invaded the way we have witnessed in these past years. Interestingly, the Supeme Court decision of July 7, 2003, ruled in AG Lagos State vs. AG Federation & 35 Ors, (MJSC) P.18, the Supreme Court held: “By section 2(2) of the 1999 Constitution, Nigeria shall be a federation and by the doctrine of federalism, which Nigeria has adopted, the autonomy of each government, which pre-supposes its separate existence and its independence from the control of the other governments essential to federal arrangement. Therefore, each government exists not as appendage entity in the sense of being able to exercise its own will in the conduct of its affairs free from direction by another government.”
From every indication,the President is the person afraid of state police.
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AIG Jimeta: From state to Zone 5
His rise in the police has been accompanied with operational successes. As the Commissioner of Police in charge of the mobile force, he took over the Edo Command, drastically reducing the crime rate and supervising one of the freest gubernatorial elections that brought into office Governor Godwin Obaseki and was transferred to the Police Academy, where he left an indelible legacy by introducing moral standard and intellectual discipline among the students. An officer of the future well equipped intellectually, strong moral discipline with human kindness. Today, he takes over the operation and administration at the Zone 5, Benin. SECURITY FILE confratulates and wishes AIG Lawan Jimeta a successful tenure.