Nigeria has moved a step closer to creating state police, with the Federal Government saying that work on the required constitutional changes is nearing completion after months of discussions among government officials and security agencies.
The update was given on Thursday after a meeting at the State House in Abuja involving representatives of the Presidency, the National Assembly and security agencies. The meeting was attended by Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau, Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi, Inspector-General of Police Tunji Disu and other senior government officials.
Officials revealed that there have been significant progress and they are now focused on changing the Constitution to allow state police to become a reality.
The Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila said discussions on state police started several months ago and have now reached an advanced stage.
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“We started deliberations in the last three or four months on how to go about the establishment of state police as directed by Mr President,” he said.
Gbajabiamila explained that setting up state police is a major legal and constitutional process that requires careful planning.
“Establishing state police is not something that you do with the snap of the fingers. There is a lot involved in terms of constitution and legalities, and thank God we have now gained a lot of traction,” he said.
He said that attention is now on amending the Constitution before other laws are put in place.
“Right now, what we are looking at is the constitutional amendment itself, and then the enabling law would follow thereafter. That is what we have been deliberating on in the last couple of hours,” he said.
The development, many believe, could lead to one of the biggest changes to Nigeria’s security system in many years.
Some have argued that states should have their own police forces to help tackle local security problems more effectively. They believe officers who are familiar with local communities, languages and terrain can respond faster to threats and gather better intelligence.
The argument has intensified because of continuing security challenges in different parts of the country.
Nigerians have expressed concerns about the proposal, as there are questions of how state police would work alongside the Nigeria Police Force.
What Nigerians are saying
Not everyone is happy about the development because there have been mixed reactions.
Facebook user Enobong Oton is against the idea. He pointed out that if the law is passed today, state police cannot be set up and running quickly enough to make a real difference. He sees it as the government looking for a way to pass the blame rather than fix the problem.
In his words, “Framing state police as the silver bullet that will tackle the prevailing hostage taking and ransom collection activities is a mischievous attempt to abdicate responsibility and shift the burden of the parlous security situation to the states whose policing mechanism even if passed into law now cannot hit the ground running operationally.”
On the other hand, Joe Ogbe, another Facebook user, is in favour of the proposal. He thinks it will be Tinubu’s greatest achievement. However, he also points out that once governors control their own police, they — not the President — will be held responsible when security fails
He wrote, “I support this initiative 100%. If established, it would be PBAT’s best legacy. State governors will now use the security funds to fund the state police. And the insecurity blame game will shift from Mr President to the governors.”
Chidi Godwin on Facebook also supported the move. His argument is that developed countries already do it, saying that security should be a shared responsibility and not left to one person at the top.
He said, “I support Tinubu on this state police because that’s how it works in other developed countries because security of Nigeria as a country should not only be for the President but for everybody so I support state police 100%.”
X user Onuagwu Onuegbu is sceptical of the timing and motive. He suspects Tinubu’s real reason is political, that giving governors control of police, after already bringing most of them into his party, would strengthen his grip on power ahead of the next general election.
Onuegbu said, “Bat thinks handing over state policing to the Governors ahead of the general election will boost his chances having bullied 31 of them into his party . . .”
