Nigeria’s joke about State Police: Myopia in their eyes

[MrVan]

By Jide Ajani

It would only magnify the spectre of chaos in the land  whichever way.

For a people long accustomed to playing politics with virtually everything, the debate about the propriety of state police in Nigeria is already following the same pattern; and the chaos in the land is bound to continue.

The ordinary Nigerian would rather have a police force that is service-driven first, instead of one with the toga of state, federal or community police.

But because this is God's own Nigeria, where politics intoxicates, any national issue not politicized is of no real consequence.  But throw in politics, the polity becomes charged and a band of pundits emerge.

At an annual conference of the Nigerian Political Science Association in 1981, Professor Claude Ake had observed: "We (Nigerians) are intoxicated with politics; the premium on political power is so high that we are prone to take the most extreme measures to win and to maintain political power..." Expounding further on that, Martin Meredith, in his seminal work, The Fate of Africa, A History of Fifty Years of Independence, said: "As things stand now, the Nigerian state appears to intervene everywhere and to own virtually everything including access to status and wealth.  Inevitably a desperate struggle to win control of state power ensues since this control means for all practical purposes being all powerful and owning everything.  Politics becomes warfare, a matter of life and death".



Therefore, the sudden division in the ranks of state governors over the propriety or otherwise of state police  is purely laughable because it defies logic.  Pray! How come governors of the part of the country where peace and calm have run for cover, and violence appears to have been enthroned, are the ones rejecting the idea of state police; and, conversely, governors of states that are relatively peaceful are the ones rooting for the idea?

Again, how come President Goodluck Jonathan, under whose administration Nigeria is experiencing one of the worst forms of insecurity, is insisting that the country is not ripe for state police?

To demonstrate how unserious we are as a nation, there had been many committees set up to look into how best the Nigeria Police can be repositioned.  There was one in 2006, another in 2008, the Uwais Committee proffered solutions on how best the police can be repositioned for effective roles during elections; and now the Parry Osayande Committee.  In all of these, nothing serious has been done or may be about to be done.

Quoted in F. Gilot's and C. Lake's LIFE WITH PICASSO, the Spanish painter, graphic artist, sculptor and ceramist said: "God is really only another artist.  He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat.  He has no real style.  He just goes on trying other things".

The other things God tried remain functional and have life.  Nigerian governments have mastered the art of always trying other things for deceptive purposes.  There were three sets of recommendations on how to effectively reposition the police before the Osanyande committee was established.  Why weren't any of the recommendations worked on with a view to repositioning the force?

Still, some fundamental questions beg for answers:  The individuals who would make up the state police, would they not be Nigerians?  Where would the funds to maintain the state police force being clamoured for by some states, come from? How many states in Nigeria are viable enough to establish state police?

How does President Jonathan plan to ensure that the Force Headquarters in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, respond to the security needs and challenges at the state and local government levels effectively? When last did Mr. President or his friend, the Minister of Police Affairs, Olubolade, pay a visit to a divisional police office?

If any of them do, he would be confronted with the shame and embarrassment that Nigeria's shambling federal system has reduced a once proud, efficient and purposeful police force into.  So, to sit in the comfort of Aso Rock Presidential Villa or the Federal Secretariat and pronounce "unreadiness" about state police is nothing but misplaced pontification.

The truth, if it be told, is the point Ake and Meredith made, about politics and the quest for and retention of power.

Whereas there is ample justification for state police in the light of the growing insecurity and huge resources some state governments are deploying to maintain law and order in their domains, there is a world of difference between augmenting police activities in a state and actually running a full blown machinery of state police – logistics, accommodation, equipment, weaponry, forensics, salaries and allowances, requirements.

There is a tincture of selfishness in the rejection of the idea of state police by some governors of the North.  They see in the idea a possible backlash of breakaway syndrome at some point by states in the South.  Yet, indulged over the years by a mentality which feeds on federal might to both appropriate and enrich few private pockets, they, in another breathe, embark on an expedition which seeks to enthrone a paradigm shift in the sharing formular per derivation.

On the other hand, some of the governors in the south are more interested in having state police for bragging rights pursuant to the general elections of 2015 – although some are genuinely in need of state police.

Arguing against and for state police on needs that are at once selfish, warped, vain-glorious and sentimental would sustain the shambles of today as well as lead to chaos occasioned by insecurity, the magnitude of which Nigerians have never witnessed, respectively.

The sensible first thing to do is revamp the present police structure in such a manner that service delivery would not only be improved but respectability and dignity of labour would be enthroned.

Vanguard Nigeria