Disu’s call
I AM NOT AN enthusiast of state police, but the overwhelming clamour for it by those who mean well and those who may not mean well has set me thinking.
I AM NOT AN enthusiast of state police, but the overwhelming clamour for it by those who mean well and those who may not mean well has set me thinking. Like many others, I have reasons for my phobia for it. On paper, state police sounds good, but the practicality of it gives me the goosebumps because of the nation’s experience with the native authority (NA) police, a relic of colonial rule which politicians of the First Republic bastardised in the sixties before it was scrapped in the wake of military rule.
Those in their sixties and above still remember the atrocities the NA police committed under the guise of enforcing law and order, particularly in the Northern and Western regions. No police no matter its cognomen should become such a willing tool in the hands of political leaders and their friends. The NA police was a monster; but it was made so by unscrupulous political leaders. It was supposed to be the public friend and not the fiend it became when it turned into politicians’ tool.
How will the state police be different? This is the question I have asked and asked myself as the debate for it hots up. In answer to my question, I have been assured by those in the state police vanguard that there would be guardrails against any abuse. Despite their assurances, I still have my doubts, even though I agree that the present Nigeria Police structure is inadequate for the country. Nigeria is under policed, we all agree. What is more, the police are not well equipped and kitted.
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With an estimated workforce of 372,000 to a population of over 200 million, you do not need an expert to tell you that such a figure cannot adequately police such a large population. If state police will address this personnel challenge and related issues, I am for it, but its managers, especially the governors, must be properly checked so that they do not turn it to their personal army. There must be something in the statute to curb the tendency of the governors to misuse it.
Where many of his predecessors rejected the idea, Olatunji Disu, the new Inspector-General of Police (IGP) has embraced it and made a bold move towards its birth. According to him, state police has come to stay. He added that it is necessary and inevitable. I cannot agree more with him. Even before Disu became IG, I have come to realise that there is need for a state police that would support and not suppress the people; a state police that will truly be the people’s friend, not only in sloganeering, but in action. A state police that will complement the national police.
Is Disu ready to give us such a state police? It appears he is. Few hours after he took his oath of office, he swung into action by constituting an eight-man committee on state police. The committee is charged with laying the bricks and mortar for state police. As I said from the outset, the fear over state police and its inherent dangers is real. The bitter experience of the past is fresh in the memory of those who witnessed how the NA police was used by leaders to settle political scores.
It is easy to say that times have changed as some are wont to do. They say that such a thing cannot happen again; Nigeria has outgrown that. I look at them and laugh. Have we really learnt from the past? Have our politicians changed? There is no state police yet, but we have seen some governors cross state boundaries, that is go outside their jurisdictions, to use the present federal police to terrorise perceived enemies. These ‘enemies’ are driven inter-state and brought before the almighty governors to face trial in a court that has no choice than to do their bidding.
I am not saying this to bury Disu’s plan for state police, rather it is to alert him and the ‘Eight Wisemen’ to the danger ahead. They have an uphill task preparing the framework for state police. They have an advantage though. They have the President in their corner. He has been making a case for state police and pushing the National Assembly to amend the Constitution to accommodate it.
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How will state police not be misused by governors and wealthy Nigerians who use the federal police as their private property is a major concern? Who can stop a governor determined to use the state police that he funds for political vendetta? Is it the House of Assembly? I laugh in Afenmai! We have seen how these houses of assembly become lame ducks where governors are concerned. They kowtow to them. They can even prostrate for their excellencies in full public glare to show their ‘loyalty’. Can these lawmakers act as checks on governors who they side always whether right or wrong?
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Something good can come out of state police, whether some power-drunk governors like it or not. Apart from the houses of assembly, there should be a Police Control Board (PCB) comprising apolitical eminent members of the society constitutionally empowered to review at intervals, and as often as the need arises, police operations and recommend disciplinary action against erring personnel. It will not be wise to entrust the control of state police to governors, without a check in place.
The jury-like PCB comprising professionals, faith leaders and traditionalists who can be trusted to uphold truth and speak it to power, even at the risk to their own lives, will step in the breach because the houses of assembly cannot be solely saddled with this task. Many governors today may be calling for state police because they see in it an opportunity to use an instrument of state to oppress others as well as settle personal scores, and not to fight terrorism, banditry, insurgency, kidnapping and armed robbery which are giving them sleepless nights in their respectice states.
Disu can only chart the path to state police as the nation’s Chief Law Enforcement Officer, its workability and success remain the responsibility of every law abiding Nigerian. As Disu told the committee: “If properly designed and implemented, state policing will bring law enforcemwnt closer to the people, enhance local knowledge of security dynamics and enable quicker responses to emerging threats”.
As former Commander of Lagos State Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Disu knows what he is talking about. He has shared snippets of his insight of policing at that level with us, as it were. It remains for the nation to take it up from there to make state police work and not allow its leaders, especially governors, to hijack and turn it to a monster of political weapon.
