The following article by me on the issue of the creation of states police force was first published in this paper in August, 2012. Now that retired General Ibrahim Babangida has made an astonishing ‘Pauline’ conversion in support of the long standing agitation for such a police force, it is being published again, without any amendments, to reinforce the argument for the creation of states police force.
There is a growing demand in the country for the creation of states police force. It is one of the major controversial issues in the current debate on the review of the 1999 Constitution. The state governors are divided over the issue. While most of the Northern PDP governors are opposed to the idea of a state police, their Southern counterparts, particularly the ACN governors in the South West, are in favour of the proposal. The dispute is not about corruption in the Police, or its professional ineptitude. Rather, it is about the powerful role of the Police in future elections in the country. Both the ruling and opposition parties are already thinking of the critical 2015 elections and beyond, when the role of the Nigeria Police will become even more crucial and decisive. An impartial and non-partisan police is crucial to free and fair elections. The political party that rules the country will control the Police. But the opposition parties do not believe that the Nigeria Police, under the control of the federal government, can be trusted to conduct free and fair elections in the country.
The idea of a state police was first raised at the Lancaster House Independence talks in 1959 in London, when the Action Group, the ruling party in the former Western Region, demanded the creation of a regional police in the independence constitution. The party had become dissatisfied with the partisan role of the Nigeria Police in Nigeria’s politics and elections. Specifically, it had serious doubts that the Nigeria Police, under the control of a hostile federal government, could be relied upon to be politically impartial in enforcing law and order in Nigeria, and in ensuring free and fair elections in the country. But the federal government, led by the NPC and the NCNC coalition, that had control of the federal police, opposed the demand for regional police. With the active support of the British colonial government, the idea of a regional police was rejected at the conference. The Nigeria Police had inherited the traditions of the colonial police which was often used to smash political agitations in the colony. The Action Group found itself a lone voice crying in the political wilderness. The AG feared that the federal police would, in future, be used by the ruling party at the centre as a political instrument for intimidating the opposition parties and for rigging elections in the country. Its fears were real and proved justified later, shortly after independence in 1960.
Before independence, most enlightened and educated Nigerians were not in support of a regional police force, which they equated with the notorious and hated old Native Authority police all over Nigeria, but particularly in the North, where it was used as an instrument of oppression against the people and the main opposition parties. It was assumed by the educated Nigerian elite that a sole federal police would be in a better position to enforce the right of free association and guarantee free and fair elections in Nigeria. But these enlightened views and assumptions soon proved unrealistic in the context of Nigerian politics in which, soon after independence, the Nigeria Police became increasingly involved in partisan politics and tended to support the ruling Party. For the NPC and the NCNC, the main coalition partners in the federal government, control of the Nigeria Police was vital if they were to maintain their dominant electoral position in the country. Under their joint control the single Nigeria Police Force could easily be used to advance their electoral interests.
The fears of the Action Group opposition about the dangers to the regions of a sole federal police were soon justified by the 1959 federal elections in which the federal (Nigerian) Police were used massively, particularly in Northern Nigeria, to prevent the Action Group leaders from holding their political campaigns. The opposition parties were often refused police permits to hold political rallies in the Northern Region. Many opposition candidates were illegally arrested by the police, in breach of the electoral laws, and released only after the elections. Then again in 1962, during the internal crisis of the Action Group, the federal NPC/NCNC coalition government used the Nigeria Police which it controlled to intimidate the Action Group, the ruling party in the Western region, and break up demonstrations of public support for the party in the region. Specifically, the use of the police by the federal government to break up proceedings in the Western Region House of Assembly was plainly illegal and unconstitutional. Claiming falsely that there was a breakdown of law and order in the region, the federal coalition government declared a state of emergency in the region. The AG regional government was eventually turned out of office and the party destroyed. Soon after, most of the AG leaders, including Chief Awolowo, were incarcerated unfairly and subsequently tried and jailed on trumped up charges of treason. The Nigeria Police was used to carry out these unconstitutional and illegal acts by the federal coalition government to destroy the AG regional government.
This regrettable development increased existing fears regarding the impartiality of the police in Nigerian politics and the use to which it could be put during elections to suppress the opposition. After the long military interlude, the partisan role of the Police in the 1979 federal elections and subsequent elections reinforced the growing feeling, particularly in the South, that the Nigeria Police was being used to rig elections in Nigeria in support of the ruling party. The classic case was that of the former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Adewusi, who, in the 1983 federal elections, announced publicly without any authority, and even before the results of the elections had been announced by the electoral commission, that President Shagari of the NPN had won the elections. He could barely conceal his brazen and ardent support for the ruling party, the NPN, in the elections. He threatened to arrest and detain any opposition leader who challenged the results of the elections which, by all accounts, were massively rigged. His role, as the head of the Police, was clearly partisan and a clear negation of the Constitution. The Nigeria Police had become increasingly corrupt and professionally inept in discharging its statutory functions. It was no longer an independent and neutral national security institution, but an extension of the federal government, controlled by the Northern political elite. Most of the Inspectors General of the Nigeria Police have come from the North. Public confidence in the integrity and professional competence of the Nigeria Police had fallen sharply. Now it was held in contempt by the public.
There can be little or no doubt that in 2003 and 2007, the Nigeria Police was used by the PDP federal government to rig the elections. The Obasanjo PDP federal government certainly used the police as an instrument for the rigging of the 2003 elections, the ‘do or die’ elections, particularly in the South West where the PDP, except in Lagos, unbelievably swept the polls. This is the background to the present demand for the creation of states police, in addition to the existing federal police, now considered to be highly politicized and inherently incapable of being neutral in handling elections in the country. The truth of the matter is that the Nigerian Police has been made a political instrument of the federal authorities for subverting free and fair elections in the states and the nation. It is no longer trusted by the opposition parties.
In different circumstances, there is a lot that can be said in favour of a sole federal police in the country. But this is only if the professionalism and political neutrality of the police can be guaranteed. This is by no means the case now. The Nigeria Police are answerable to only the federal authorities. In normal circumstances, the internal security of the nation should remain the constitutional responsibility of the federal government. But even in this case, the state governors are designated as the Chief Security Officers of their states. Obviously, there is an anomaly here as the state governors are not responsible for the police even in their states where the Police Commissioners are answerable only to the Inspector General of Police and, through him, to the Minister of Internal affairs, or the Minister for Police Affairs, a federal agent. In other words, the state governors are assigned responsibility without power. The case of the former governor of Anambra, Dr. Ngige, illustrates the dilemma faced by a state governor who has no control over the police in his state. The fear that the state governors will abuse the state police in the same manner as the federal government has been abusing the federal police is real. But that should not be advanced as a reason for opposing the demand for the creation of states police in Nigeria, a federal state.
In the context of Nigerian politics, the case for a state police has become increasingly clear and urgent. With a population of over 150 million, Nigeria is too large to have a single police force. The point has been made repeatedly that Nigeria is currently under policed. This accounts for the sharp increase in Nigeria’s crime rate. There is no country with a comparable size and population that has a single Police Force; not the USA, India, Australia, Switzerland, nor Canada, all of which have federal constitutions. Even Britain, now a quasi-federal state, does not have a single Police Force. Each region, even Metropolis, has its own separate police. At the moment the Nigeria Police is under funded, under equipped and lacking the resources needed to ensure effective internal security in the nation. It is overstretched. It simply cannot cope with the increasing crime rate in the country, not to even talk about effectively tackling the menace of terrorism in the country.
In addition, the Nigeria Police lacks the required local intelligence to tackle terrorism. Only a state police can fill this gap. A neighbourhood police is the most effective way to gather such intelligence. If the states are allowed to have their own police forces, it will relieve the federal police of its enormous security burdens, and allow the federal government to fund and equip it better. Broadly, the Nigeria Police should have functions similar to those of the FBI in the United States. The time has come for those states that would like to have their own police force to be allowed under the proposed new Constitution to do so. This will reduce the pressure on the federal police force and the high crime rate in the country.
