With nationwide debates on vital issues affecting our country, it seems Nigeria has arrived at a stage where most of the people can now decide the fate of our country. National discourse on vital issues is not new to Nigerians, but recent events show that our country, for good or for ill, now wants to indicate the direction which we should go.
One of the latest issues on our plate is the need to fully operate a federal system of government which will devolve responsibilities among the components of the federation. It is now generally believed that the centre is loaded with too many responsibilities some of which it cannot carry and which should be shared among the components of the union. The current attractive subject is the need to create state police to enable the country achieve a higher level of security and surveillance.
The arguments for state police are very strong. One is that much of the personnel constituting state police must be indigenous to the environment. The personnel are expected mostly to be indigenes of the state who know and appreciate the needs, complexities and ethnic configuration of the state. It is also believed that Abuja is too far away as police command headquarters to be able to effectively move its personnel around especially in times of emergency. Proponents of state police also refer to other countries especially in Europe and the Americas where police force is structured into three – national, state and municipal. Nowhere, people say is a central police system in operation. Finally supporters of state police refer to the distinct if not mutually exclusive ethnic configuration of the Nigerian nation as to make a central police system inoperative, oppressive, inconvenient and inefficient. All the above postulates are right.
But let us look back a bit and recall what happened in our remote past when there were more or less three tiers of policing in Nigeria especially in the northern and western regions of our country. The east was saved from the destructive and confusing effect of national, state and municipal police system. In the west, there were problems of politicians at regional and municipal levels confronting each other, interpreting differently the roles to be played by these security outfits and generally engendering disorder and confusion which they were set up to avoid in the first place. Some of us can remember concepts like ‘Akintola Police’, ‘Balewa Police’, ‘Shagari Police’ etc. These were derogative terms meant to downplay the usefulness and impartiality of these security bodies.
Now let us examine the present Nigeria and its tempestuous, self-serving and sometimes irrational politicians who are at the head of various political and governmental institutions. To put it straight, Nigerians are not having the best political operators today. Much of our governmental activities at federal and state levels are geared towards self-aggrandizement, glorification and self-propelled esteem. Many things happening in recent times illustrate vividly the negative effect to which politicians in power can deploy a security outfit. Some few examples. Security operatives accompanying big men especially ministers and governors in an attempt to clear the road for their paymasters usually cause havoc by creating confusion on the road or outright demobilizing or killing hapless citizens who did not do their bidding as quickly as they wanted; some innocents citizens have lost their lives when police men think they are serving their masters by pushing vehicles and humans off the road.
Overzealous security men watching the offices or homes of big men occasionally assault innocent people whose only offence is that they move near the big man’s house. More recently a section of this country has been battling with a state governor who ordered his men including security police to pull down buildings and structures belonging to political opponents. One can imagine what would happen in a restructured security outfit where the governor has his own police force over which he assumes supreme command. He could order political opponents to be slaughtered at will, quoting relevant portions of state law.
The above black situation notwithstanding, Nigeria as it is now is too large, too ethnic-conscious, too unwieldy and perhaps too different one from the other in culture, orientation and civic approach to life to accommodate a single policing system. It is therefore a problem of choosing between the devil and the blue sea. Both can result into death. But doesn’t the man who prefers plunging into the blue sea to instant death by the devil have a chance, however slim of accidental safety? This may sound pedantic but it can also be real. Some have said that decentralizing police outfit may aid disintegration of the federation. It is doubtful whether any state or regional police may be strong enough to support or ignite each unit of the federation going its own way. Several states, municipalities and organizations have established their own local security outfit variously called vigilante, neighbourhood guards etc. These bodies are meant to serve as State or Local Police, but without enforcement power.
With the pros and cons and contradictions steering us in the face, many think that policing Nigeria will not remain what it is for too long. Parliaments all over the world are usually hesitant to make fundamental changes that will reorder societies. This is particularly so on issues concerning security. Nigerian politicians know their onions. Many of them know how they got to the National Assembly and they would be hesitant to make fundamental changes in the constitution that might affect their hold to power especially at local level. Many of our men and women at the National Assembly know that they are not there by merit but by one subterfuge or the other. Some rely on godfathers at national level hence they can confront local demi-gods. These are not the people who would put the interest of the nation above personal survival. But it appears time is running out in Nigeria. The nation may have to decide sooner than later whether to operate a true federal system of government or to continue our present “patch-patch work”.
- Asiwaju Fasuan MON; JP writes from Ado-Ekiti.
