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Tag: STATE POLICE

  • Some posers on state police

    Some posers on state police

    SIR: There have been back and forth arguments about the creation of the state police and its subsequent incorporation into the constitution.

    The imperative of creating a state police can never be emphasized although it has its demerits. The creation of state police will localize policing and will make it possible for easier crime fighting.

    However, some posers need to be addressed before their establishment.

    First, will the existing police force still be solely owned by the federal government even when states contribute significant resources for their upkeep through security votes controlled by the governors?

    Second, what will the nature of relationship between federal and state police?

    Read Also: Fed Govt: governors slowing down work on state police

    Will there be clear delineation between them on the issue of who should arrest and prosecute?

    On election days particularly the presidential and National Assembly elections, will the state police participate to maintain security or would it be strictly for federal police and other federal security agencies?

    Will the federal police have any role to play in gubernatorial and state Houses of Assembly elections, or it will be strictly for the state police?

    Will there be clear constitutional delineation on the jurisdictional power between states and federal high courts on the issue of prosecution?

    The creation of state police even with its inherent flaws is long overdue. Nonetheless, the above mentioned grey areas and others that might subsequently arise need to be straightened up before the creation of state police.

    • Ifeanyi Maduako, Owerri, Imo State.
  • State police: borrowing a leaf from the human body

    State police: borrowing a leaf from the human body

    Many people are falling ill nowadays, and doctors cannot tell them why. Such  conditions are psychosomatic or psychological. Psychosomatic illnesses present symptoms in different  parts of the body without medical explanation. Such symptoms may include headache and migraines, fatigue, hypertension, indigestion, shortness of breath, impotence, insomnia etc. Doctors describe the cause(s) of such condition(s) as idiopathic…of no known cause!

    This season is a season of troubling, high impact and  fast moving events which are heavily impacting on  our minds and causing brutal psychic  injuries. Three-year-old babies are raped. Fathers are  forcing their under age daughters. One mother of six went to cut plantain planted by another woman. When the  owner complained, the thief cut her to pieces. A woman boarded her two school-age children in a tricycle taxi for a school run, bade them bye but never saw them again. A man went to the home of his elder brother when he was out, and invited his nephew and niece to accompany him somewhere. The children never returned home,  as they becamevictims of ritual killings. Nine policemen were killed in a forest better known  inside out by kidnappers they went to arrest.  In the Niger Delta,  two Army Majors, a Commanding Officer and 13 other soldiers have just been killed by armed young men in a village traumatised  by communal violence  and murders. Several residents have fled into the unknown for fear of military reprisals.

    They are too many of such strange events I cannot mention here. However, the following two are worth mentioning because they have not stopped to cause me sleepless night.

     In the first  events, a woman took her three children to the Central Police Station in Enugu, came outside the gate,stripped herself and forcefully ran straight into an oncoming vehicle. She died immediately. The oldest of the three children was about six. I have not stopped to wonder how I would be feeling even today if my mother did that to me about 74 years ago. Even today,do I not remember that she bled to death  65 years ago at 31 from retained placenta while having her fifth baby?  Do I still not wish she was   medically helped? Did her experience not make me always insist on being in the labour room with my wife? Every time I remember these orphaned children, I grieve, wondering how mentally stable they will be,growing up and recalling their mother last moment.

    Almost  every night nowadays,  I tend to spend sleep hours imagining the fate of 287 school boys and girls kidnapped at school and taken into the wild. I do not forget to think also and to pray for women who were taken away in similar circumstances from refugee camps and nearby village after their homes were burned.

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    My nightmares began with the kidnap on April 14-15, 2014  of 276 mainly Christian School girls aged between 16 and The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) under President Olusegun Obasanjo opposed and killed all efforts for alternative police forces. The PDP administration of President Ebele Goodluck Jonathan acted likewise, growing insecurity tension. Although the opposition since the days of Obasanjo Presidency had been calling for state government police forces,  the All Progressives  Congress (APC) government of Muhammadu  Buhari failed in eight years to actualise this dream despite a worsening of the security platforms under him 18 in Chibok, Borno State  10 years ago. These were girls  who may have become medical doctors or engineers. Men who as boys dropped out  of school or never went to school dared  to lay hands on them and even sexually defiled them to drive home to us their philosophy of Boko Haram…education is scam.   I said then we would soon forget about those girls, and I have been proven right. The story of the boy who escaped from the kidnappers is an assault on  our personal and national psychic. Imagine you being at school or in a  refugee camp that  is suddenly surrounded by about 100 men who are shooting anyhow and asking all of you to fellow them into a forest. The kidnappers marched them on foot through forest pathways for some days. Whenever the girls were tired, they were placed on motor-cycles. There was no food to eat and no water to drink. For their survival,the kidnappers picked and chewed certain leaves. This is of interest to me, as a naturalist and herbal medicine advocate. These thoughts soon erase themselves from my  mind, however, when I remember another tale from the escapee. Whenever an airplane, or maybe a drone, flew by, the captives were commanded to pull their dresses,and lie on them.  This ensured a perfect blending of human complexion with the forest soil, and deceive the airmen. Luckily for our story teller, they all arrived at a swamp, the colour of which blended with his clothes. So, he decided  to take a risk and hide in the environment. I guess only persons who have implantations of manly courage and heroism can do this. He waited for the captives and captors to be gone for some hours before he came out of hiding and into freedom by returning home in the direction opposite to that they came from. I guess many , if not all,of those girls and women in captivity would have been severally defiled by now, made to believe they have no country, despair of themselves and probably wonder if goodness triumphs over evil.  This is a subject for another day.

    Insecurity

     The subject of today is the collapse of security for life and property in Nigeria. The collapse was possible  because the security architecture is not founded on the Laws of Nature. Anything done outside these laws in unnatural, and anything unnatural is false, unknown to nature and will inevitably collapse, be it friendship, the economy or marriage.  About 30 years ago, I gave a public lecture to young men and women who were interested in becoming students of mother nature. It was titled  “Go to the ants, o man, and be wise”. It was about how Nigeria may  be structured and governed using principles of the laws of nature.  These laws sorted mankind into tribes as its also sorted  the human body into “tribes” of tissues, organs and systems. Man cannot be superior to the Creator of a universe in which he is only a creature and guest. In the design of the human body, Mother Nature give us ideas of how to design security of life and property in human society.

    I strive to be natural in all things. Being natural  does not means surrendering to the unnatural principle of “letting yourself go” which many people assume to be naturalness. Being natural means doing things the way nature does them and would like us to, also, do them. This is why, in a Federal and plural society such as Nigeria, I support Federal Government and State Government policing. When a floating, peppering substance in the air enters the eye, or a mosquito flies into a nostril, the eye and the nostril immediately flights back before the central immune system comes to their rescue.

         Policing is a natural phenomenum in the human body which mankind copy for the well-being of their societies. Therefore, the more  of a successful copy cat we can be, the safer our societies will be.

      Where in the animal kingdom do we not encounter policing against misdemeanour within the species and defence against predators? The honey bees coat the inside of their colonies with a high grade, broad spectrum anti-microbials substance called BEE PROPOLIS to prevent infections. I guess the soldiers bees are giving bee pollen, and energizing products of the worker bees.  The human body is a classical example of policing. In adult body, there are about 100 trillion cells, each of which has its own defence system, irrespective of a central defence mechanism. Even within the individual cell, small semi-independent sections such as the mitochrondrium, where energy is produced, start to defend itself against any problem before its seeks external aid should that be necessary. The individual cell  belongs to a group of specialised cells called the  tissue which, again, has a sectional defence protocol. This principle is not abandoned when tissues join hands to form organs and organs team up to form a system. In high school biology, we learned of several of them..nervous system, visual system, auditory system, digestive system, excretory system, Urogenital system, immune system, reproductive system, skeletal system and, a few years ago, the endocannabidiol system was added to the list. This is reputed to be the master system which not only ensures that no system is  under working or over performing but, also, supports their immunity and defence mechanism and requirements.

    I would like  to  say a word or two about  The Human  Immune System and of the lessons it may reach designers of Nigeria’s policing architecture.

    The immune system is not only  about “soldier” in the body which moves about freely such as  Basophils,Messophils, monocytes, Neutrophils, lymphocytes(T cell, B cell, and natural killer (Nk)cells)and macrohages. For want of space, elaboration is not possible here. Suffix it to say, however, that basophils orginate  in the bone marrow and travel to damaged areas of the body for repair work, widening passages, preventing blood clotting and killing germs and parasites. Their  population is governed  largely by the spleen, liver and kidneys. Nk cells  act like the military police of the immune system.   Macrohages encircle and swallow foreign agents. Each cell type performs a different immune function. The mobile immune cell population numbers about 1.8 trillion cells in an average adult body cell population of about  100 trillion. This is a lesson for Ngeria’s policing architecture of 400,000  policemen to about 250 million citizens or one police man to about 625 Nigerians, whereas the immune system provides one “policeman” to defend about 50 cells and can rapidly produce more in  emergencies.

    The immune system also comprises immobile cells  and organs such as adenoids, tonsils, glands such as the thymus,and  tissues which produce immune factors called  immunoglobuline. We probably have heard of immunoglobulin A ( IgA) produce in mucus membrane or hallow tubes throughout the body to protect them.  IgA, first line of immonulogbuline is present in the eye, respiratory track, breast milk,  saliva, and the digestive track etc.  Also crucial for immobile immune defence are the Lymph Nodes in various parts of the body such as the armpits, neck and the groin. The minutest part of the body, the Organelle has its own defences which are supported should there be need by larger forces from  other parts. Some forces ignite inflammation so that immune “soldiers” have bigger spaces to maneuver during a “battle”. Inflammation is shut down when the “battle” is over,  and repair proteins have done their healing jobs. In short, for the human society to experience peace and stability, it must borrow a leaf from the defence mechanisms mother Nature has given the human body as the most developed  anatomy and physiology in the animal kingdom. Law markers who are gearing arguments for and against state police may invite medical doctors to address them on the human body’s immune system to enrich their decision.

     February 16, 2024

    This date should be seen as unique in Nigerian  security history. The 36  governors and the Federal Capital Territory Ministers  and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu agreed that Nigeria needed state  government Police forces.  Nigeria had local government police forces in the 1963 Constitution. The Aguiyi- Ironsi Federal Military Government of 1966 made Nigeria  in unitarised Federation and abolished the local government police to give  unitary federalists like himself the monopoly of policing power and military power.This contradicts the plan of nature which sorted human beings in this geographic entity into homogeneous tribes which were to grow and mature at confidence spaces, not at a uniform rate. Successive Nigerian Presidents have retained this profile, even when it was becoming increasingly clear that one Inspector-General of Polce could not effectively police a population which had grown from about 55 million in 1963 to about 250 million today.

    I saw February 16, 2024 as a turning point because, on that day, there was no dissenting voice nation-wide, at least among the governors, and the turn-around  is taking place only within eight months of the Tinubu Administration.

    How  well, how soon?

    How soon shall we have the constitution amended to give  us police forces in the states, and how well will the fears of  old about them  be addressed? It would appear that time is running out fast  if we do not act quickly. Our forests have been occupied by foreigners. We are also probably outnumbered in our cities and villages. What may worsen  these  scenarios is the combination, under military governments,of Mali, Burkina Fasso and Niger Republic to minimise French influence in their economies and invite Russia to militarily assist them.Refugees  from these countries may swell the population of unfriendly foreigners. So, how soon and how well will President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deliver brand new 37 police forces in the states  and enlarged present Federal policing to cover the forests and highways?

    Suggestions

    • The states may claim lack of money  for the project. Federal revenue should be enlarged through, for example,stoppage of crude oil thefts and the income spread across relevant overheads  including one standard Police Training College in every state. The Police College Ikeja, ( PCI) originally called Southern Polce College (SPC) should be their  role model. I lived there from 1958 to 1961 with my parents and again from 1968 to about 1971.  It was then on the outskirts of  Lagos. By 1968, the only public transportation from Mobile Petrol Station in Maryland to Ikeja Round-about(LASUTH under bridge)were two private cars which ran “Kabukabu” ( unofficial)service. The states should provide land in the outskirts.

    • By now, the Federal Attorney-General and Justice Minister should have received inputs from states attorney-generals and Justice commissioners, professional groups, concerned citizens etc and reconciled them for a Bill from the Office of The President. The Bill should be discretely circulated to the various interest groups such as the Governors, State Houses of Assembly, the Senate and the House of Representatives, Inspector-General of Police, Police Service Commision and the  Police colleges.

    • Upon further inputs, corrections,additions and deletions, the Bill should proceed to the National Assembly and be rewarded with speedy hearings given the wide-range consultations. From here, it should go to the state Houses of Assembly and the FCT where, hopefully, there should be no  obstruction.

    • The time frame should not be over three months to prevent a coup or unnecessary regional  horse trading against the plan.

    • The constitution should not create police forces for the states. It Should acknowledge their rights to set up their police forces. Doing otherwise is saying the states own their existence to the Federal Government or to Nigeria, whereas it is the Federal Government and Nigeria which own their existence to the states, according to Ngeria’s history and logic of nature. Similarly, Nigeria should not create local government for the states. The federating units are the states.

    • There is no money too big to spend on national security. So, the Federal Government will have to support the states at the infancy of this project.Lagos State population must be about nine times that of Israel. Can Lagos not fund its own police force? Ditto  Akwa Ibom, Kano, Kaduna and Oyo, among others. The Federal Government may pay the salaries of 1,000 Policemen in every state for the first year while the states each match this with another 1,000 men  to  give us 2,000 Policemen per state. If each of about 10 million persons in Lagos State pays N200 security levy every months for the take-off of this project, the state government should realise N24,000,000,000 if public and private institutions support the project, the Fund should be alot bigger.

    One of the private sector organisations is  the Lagos Abbatior.

    About 100,000 cows are said to be  slaughtered in Lagos every day. A N200 security levy per cow should provide N20 million every day or N600 million every month or N72,000,000,000 in one year. What will the Churches, Mosques and markets  bring to the table for Lagos State Police(LASPOL)?

    In my days in secondary school, did we children from our meagre pocket-money not support the victims of apartheid in South Africa? Any effort to support elimination of blood shedding in our country should be supported by us all. The churches and the Mosques should make generous donations. Christians should remember Revelation Chapter 12 which reports casting of the dragon out of heaven. We should  not forget how the immune system of the human body protects it from danger.. God speaks to us through Nature. We can hear Him Speak to us always in the ways our body works because every activity of our bodies bears  testimony of His WILL.

    In respect of Insecurity in Nigeria, we all pulled the President by the shirt collar or literally threw sachet water or eggs at him. He has responded to our  calls. We should give him all the backing he requires. I am happy that states which strenuously opposed state government police under Obasanjo, Jonathan and Buhari have seen the need for it, being among the most insecure state  today. In this rare national harmony, we should quickly do the needful lest Lucifer break our ranks  again. The President should woo the states with money. It is recoverable. Security will improve agriculture, there will be more food on the table, we would not need  to open the border for foreign foods which  will further weaken the Naira. There will be more gains.

  • The double edged sword

    The double edged sword

    By Mike Kebonkwu

    The romantic attraction and call for the establishment of state and community policing has become all the more strident and necessary in the face of terrifying insecurity across the geo-political zones of the country. There is still frightening wholesale commercial kidnapping for ransom. School children are carried away like herds of cattle in large numbers from their schools in broad daylight; people are abducted from their living rooms and business places.  Commercial vehicles are diverted into the bush and passengers carried away in captivity. 

    Nigeria is gradually becoming like Haiti where gang leaders and criminals call the shot. Now, there is a new dimension to the problem of insecurity and that is hunger and looming famine that is steering us in the face.  We are slipping into anarchy and people are stopping provisions laden trucks on the highway and looting the foodstuffs; warehouses are being broken into and people helping themselves with “palliatives”. 

    The other day, I read that Ukraine, a country in the midst of conventional war with one of the most powerful military powers, Russia for two years running, donated grains to our country. This should be a source of worry and concern to everybody. The government has not stopped looking for scapegoats, fingering saboteurs and political oppositions who are never arrested over specific allegations.  

    Private security companies are springing up in every nooks and crannies while insecurity is spiralling out of control and the country increasingly becoming unsafe to live in and do business. There is a total siege and the criminals are tormenting the entire nation. The Boko Haram insurgents levying war on the state, bandits, killer herdsmen, unknown gunmen, commercial kidnapping all have one thing in common, terrorizing citizens, creating panic and driving away investors. 

    These criminals bear military grade weapons and operate without fear of the presence of the state. How did they acquire the weapons? The sources of their weapons are from both internal and external; but time will not permit us to give details here.  The criminals in the northern part of the country enjoy the affiliate and franchise of the different Jihadist groups smuggling weapons across the Sahara desert after the fall of Libya, while their counterparts in the south acquire their weapons from some rogue elements in security forces and the police while others are smuggled through our porous borders or brought in containers imported into the country.

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    Nigeria has remained grossly under-policed and unsecured.  Everybody falls within the ring of the net of these criminals who have been emboldened by weak state institutions and fragile law enforcement and poor governance. 

    What is to be done? Fighting insecurity is not going to be achieved through advertorial and media propaganda and political statements and achievements not backed by verifiable statistics. Some people have argued that we need to operate a true federalism; others say we need restructuring, while many more believe state and community policing will fill the gap. Yet, some ‘extremists’ amongst us advocate the dissolution of the republic.  

    At the moment, many perceive state police as probable cure-all for insecurity.  Insecurity will not go away if the government does not take away military grade weapons from the hands of criminals across the country and dissolve or dismantle their structures.  Not very many of our uncritical lawmakers in the National Assembly would want to shoot down the State Police Bill because it appears to be by popular demand.  The “ayes” will have it!  It is an idea that is long overdue especially faced with the consuming and suffocating heat of insecurity. 

    State police is good in principle especially in a federation which we appear to also operate though in its caricature. Some states and regions already have structures for state police operating also in the shadow in one form or the other; we have the Amotekun in the Southwest, the Eastern Security Network (ESN) in the Southeast, the Hisbah Corps (Police) in some northern states and others operating as vigilante groups of different nomenclatures in one form or the other. 

    State police no doubt may turn out a good legislative piece, but may well also be a sword of Damocles given our predilection to abuse of power, institutions and authority.  The state police is indeed going to be a catch-22 situation.

    My heart  goes out for the state police  but one also has the fear  that it is laced with mines and booby traps because it may become the instrument of tyranny in the hands of power drunk governors who will turn it into a unit of private army to unleash mayhem on critics and opposition.  We are never short of establishing good institutions just as our problem is not about making of good laws.  What we lack are men with capacity and discipline to drive the institutions and enforce the laws. 

    If we decree a state police today, it is not going to change anything or bring security over night to the people if we do not change our mentality of appropriating state power for personal aggrandizement. 

    For the state police to be effective, it must not be left in the hands of intemperate and inebriated governors who have abused virtually every other institution under their watch; the police, the intelligence agencies, paramilitary and even the military. The hitherto conservative judiciary is not spared as justice is sometimes traded off to the highest bidder. Imagine an arm of the highest crème of legal practitioners conferring life membership on a former state governor now a minister whose public display of power and arrogance does not attract such nobility.

     There will soon arise conflict between the federal and state police on key issues of policing due to complex and power struggle in the midst of the corrupt environment that we operate. The training packages of state police when it finally comes on stream and indeed the police and the Civil Defence Corps must be properly fine-tuned to be civil in content and community friendly.  With the level of militarization of every security and policing outfit and paramilitary, we will soon throw the entire country into flame due to rivalry. 

    For state police to work, there must be adequate checks and balances put in place to regulate its operational use and deployment to avoid leaving it in the hands of individuals who perceive state institutions as part or extension of their estate whenever they are in power.  Some state governors behave like emperors and sole administrators in their domain and are laws unto themselves. They virtually handpick every other official in the state including their deputies who have very little constitutional roles.  Other state officials and functionaries are all pliable, docile and subservient individuals without opinion of their own taking instructions and orders from the governor like zombies.

    Nigerians have to rise up to defend the state and its institutions rather than sink with individuals with bloated ego. We have blamed so much the constitutions for our woes whether rightly or wrongly that it was given like a command diktat by the military even though it was crafted and drafted by renowned lawyers and technocrats. We have never blamed the operators who flagrantly trample on the law and constitution.  Countries operating similar constitution like our own have not collapsed.  What happens to chapter two of the same constitution which is on fundamental objectives and directive principle of state policy which we render non-justiciable with all its progressive provisions?  Former President Jacob Zuma of South Africa is having some terms in prison for the wrong things he did while in power. 

    By the way, I said South Africa so that you can understand that some African countries operate under the rule of law and not the whims and intuitions of a strong man; so whoever falls short of the law will be brought down from the Olympus height. The super brat, former President Donald Trump has just been convicted for fraud in a civil suit in the United States.  To us, our leaders are venerated deified gods and untouchables; in and out of office. 

    If a state governor can control the federal police in gross abuse of power, what will he not do with state police under his absolute control?  The poorly trained and equally poorly motivated personnel will no doubt become errand boys to a reckless chief executive of a state. This said, state police is a welcome development and an imperative in the present circumstances. There must be strong legislation for its control, funding and operational deployment which must not be left absolutely in the hands of the chief executives. There should be sanctions for any abuse of power and the issue of immunity clause should be completely removed from the constitution and those who commit offences should be tried irrespective of whatever office they occupy. The agencies of government bearing arms are growing by the day in the name of security. This is also fraught with danger and we see daily the abuses that this occasion.  We have virtually militarized the entire polity without any common sense just for political expediency.  On the state and community policing, we must tread carefully so that we do not create another monster that will plunge the nation in deeper crises.

    • Kebonkwu Esq is an Abuja based attorney.

  • State police will address national security gaps, says Tor Tiv

    State police will address national security gaps, says Tor Tiv

    Having state police across the country will address national security gaps, the Chairman of Benue Traditional Council of Chiefs, Tor Tiv James Ayatse, has said.

    The Tor Tiv said this while addressing reporters after delivering a lecture to members of Senior Course 46 of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College at Jaji in Kaduna State.

    In the lecture, titled: Enhancing Collaboration Efforts Between Traditional Institutions/Community Leaders and Tactical/Operational Level Leaders for Effective Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency Operations in Nigeria, the traditional ruler argued that if the control of security is closer to the people, it would be more effective than having the control at the centre.

    “In all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it will be difficult for an Inspector General of Police (IGP), a single control point, to know about happenings in all the nooks and crannies of the country.

    “It is better to delegate the authority to the states and local governments so that commands can be issued and actions taken immediately in addressing issues bordering on insecurity,” he said.

    Ayatse expressed optimism that proper protocols would be developed in the process to avoid abuse when state police outfits are created.

    The royal father recalled how traditional rulers played security roles before and after independence in 1960.

    He recalled that traditional rulers served in the National Council of States and at the state level.

    The Tor Tiv added that through the platforms, traditional rulers were involved in nation-building, peace, security, and development.

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    According to him, if the traditional rulers’ roles are brought back effectively, they will enhance the fight against insecurity, which is a general issue that springs from the grassroots.

    “Traditional rulers live among the people and have first-hand intelligence information which they can easily share with regular security authorities to stamp out criminality, insurgency and terrorism,” the Tor Tiv said.

    He added that traditional rulers also played important roles in settling conflicts in their communities, suggesting that the role should be stated in the country’s Constitution.

  • State police: The way forward

    State police: The way forward

    • By Nurudeen Dauda

    Sir: There is no gainsaying the fact that the current centralized policing system in the country has a lot of challenges from shortages of personnel, poor remuneration, poor working condition, inadequate operational vehicles, lack of modern communication gadgets, delay in promotion, and to gross underfunding etc.

    There is a general consensus among Nigerians that the Nigerian Police does not have the capacity to properly police the nooks and crannies of the country due to the above-mentioned challenges. However, there is no consensus on the best way to address the said challenges.

    Opinions are sharply divided among Nigerians from all the geo-political zones with some advocating for state police as the best way to address the challenges of the force and make it better while others are still advocating for the continuation of the centralized policing system despite its challenges.

    From around 2010 when the issue began to take centre stage, virtually all governors from the south have been in support of state police while northern governors have been generally sceptical about the issue. However, most governors from the north have now joined the advocacy for state police as the best way to address the challenges of the force.

    It is apt to state that a lot of the scepticism being expressed on state police largely by northerners is due to their ugly experiences under the so-called the ‘Yan-Doka (the Native Authority Police) during the colonial and the post-independence era. There were allegations of political victimization, vendetta, and torture against the opposition parties by the ‘Yan-Doka on behalf of the powers that be.

    The opponents of state police base their argument on the insinuation that state governors may use it for political victimization and vendetta against the opposition parties. In addition, they argue that Nigerians may not freely stay in all parts of the country as provided by the constitution. They often cite instances of where citizens whose grandparents were born in some states of the federation, but are seen and treated as “settlers” not “indigenes”. They further argue that there are all sorts of discrimination against them in terms of indigene certificates, business permits and premises issuance. Discriminatory policies that affect their means of livelihood are often introduced.

    With the economic situation of the country and competing demands from the public service, the federal government will always find an excuse for its inadequate funding of the centralized policing system of the country.

    Nigeria is grossly under policed with only about 400, 000 policemen to over 200 million people. Even with the said numbers, Mike Okiro, a former IGP and former chairman Police Service Commission once said: “ …more than 150,000 police officers are attached to Very Important Personalities (VIPs) and unauthorized persons”.

    Going by Okiro’s assertion it means only about 250,000 policemen work for ordinary Nigerians. By United Nations standard, a country is supposed to have one fully equipped as well as well-motivated police officer to 400 persons. By the said standard we are supposed to have over one million policemen. Based on what we have therefore, it means we have a deficit of over 600,000 policemen.

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    However, it is important to note that, in the first Republic (1960-1966) we had three types of police in Nigeria: (1) the federal police, (2) the regional police, (3) and the Native Authority Police (NA). In fact, that arrangement lasted up to 1969 before it was abolished by the military.

    My suggestion is that since opinions have remained divided, let us have a hybrid policing system where the centralized policing system under the federal government remains and then allow any state that could afford it to establish its own state police. It should be made optional among states. The federal police should continue to operate alongside the state police force that may be established by those states that could afford it.

    This means police matters should be in the concurrent legislative list where the federal, states and even the local governments should have powers. This approach will go a long way to increase the number of personnel that we badly need to police the large swathes of our ungoverned territory.

    •Nurudeen Dauda,

    Kaduna.

  • Southwest speakers demand state police, power devolution

    Southwest speakers demand state police, power devolution

    The Southwest conference of speakers has advocated the immediate creation of state police and devolution of powers to address the hydra-headed insecurity and other socio-economic challenges facing the country.

    The speakers, in a communique signed and made available to journalists at their meeting held in Ikogosi-Ekiti, said more power should be given to the sub-nationals to further enable them to deliver dividends of democracy to the people.

    The communique was co-signed by the conference chairman and Ekiti state speaker, Hon. Adeoye Aribasoye, Adebo Ogundoyin, Olamide Oladiji, and Adewale Egbedun, the speakers of Oyo, Ondo, and Osun respectively.

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    The speakers stressed the dire need for holistic collaborative measures among the southwest governors to address the prevailing security challenges facing the region.

    They also called for increased regional integration efforts to enhance economic growth and development across the six Southwestern states.

    The communique reads: “The speakers endorse the devolution of power to states, especially in the realm of security, and emphasise the importance of state policing as a means to enhance security and law enforcement at the local level.

    “The Conference calls on the federal government to urgently address the rising economic concerns, particularly the shortage of food, and urges citizens to support government efforts in finding lasting solutions to these challenges.

    “The conference agrees to host a legislative summit to address critical issues affecting the Southwest region and to foster collaboration and cooperation among the legislative assemblies of the Southwest states.

    “We hereby affirm our commitment to these resolutions and pledge to work collectively towards the advancement and prosperity of the Southwest region.”

  • ‘State, community policing: how it’s going to work’

    ‘State, community policing: how it’s going to work’

    Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI sought the views of experts about the structure of the evolving security architecture and how it is going to work.

    Following the worsening security situation in the country, the federal and state government have agreed to explore the idea of decentralizing the policing system by creating state and community policing structures where they are needed nationwide to provide adequate security cover for Nigerians. The Federal Government and the sub-national governments are expected to work out the modalities of the new police force that would cater for the security needs of each state of the federation.

    According to experts, this move is not just about altering the structure of law enforcement, but also adapting to the complexities of modern-day security challenges by fostering a localised approach to policing. Nigeria can draw from successful models in other climes, such as the London Metropolitan Police, to implement a system that combines advanced technologies, strategic leadership and community engagement to prevent crime and uphold peace.

    But, the question on the lips of many Nigerians that have been on the vanguard of the clamour for state and community policing is, what should be the structure of the proposed new policing system and how is it going to operate? 

    A retired military intelligence officer and security consultant, Dr Davidson Isibor Akhimien said it is the operatives of the state police in various states that would form the bulk of the country’s new security architecture, “in the sense that they are the ones that would be on ground in the neighbourhoods and also the ones that would answer the distress calls of citizens”. This, he added, is because it is the states that control cities, towns and villages across the country and “all crimes are local and the methods to combat them must be approached from a local perspective too”.

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    He added:  “The federal police would be specialised agencies in charge of criminal investigation, especially when the issues have a bearing on national security and economic and financial crimes. Like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in the US, the new federal police would superintend over local policing agencies where the crimes involved go beyond the borders of a state or when it has to with national security.”

    Dr Akhimien said the best way to tackle crime and criminality is to establish a two or three-step security architecture. He added in an interview with our reporter: “With state police, you will find that operatives enlisted in the force are persons from the state in question. The bulk of the policing work in the country would revolve round operatives of state,  in the sense that they are the ones you will see in the neighbourhood and they would be the ones that would respond to your distress calls . It is one of the ways we can reduce crime and criminality on our society.

    “Subsequently, we would graduate to having community or what is called county police in the United States of America. You will find that most criminals are known within the local governments where they operate; everyone has a family. If strangers are the ones perpetrating criminal activities in a locality or a state, definitely they would stick out like a sour thumb and would be easily fished out by the policing authority of that state.

    “Besides, intelligence gathering would be much more easier and efficient with state and community policing system in place than ever before. All in all, it is a win-win situation for everybody, particularly the federal and the sub-national governments, if it is not politicised.”

    The security expert said the establishment of a policing structure at the state level is long overdue because of the ugly experience in the country as far as security is concerned. He said there is a need for the decentralisation of the policing system in a big and heterogenous society like Nigeria’s, to bring security closer to the people.

    Dr Akhimien who was the presidential candidate of the Grassroots Development Party of Nigeria (GDPN) in the 2019 general election said the establishment of state and community policing is one of the core elements of federalism and that it has taken Nigeria a long time to arrive at this decision because certain political characters were not comfortable with the idea of “true federalism”.

    He said the funding would be a major challenge for the sub-national governments under the evolving security arrangement.  But, they must prioritise their governance requirements, he said, to be able to cope with financial demands of state police. He added: “Security is the number one responsibility of government. So getting your security right at the level of a state should be a priority. I believe funding should not pose much problem for state governments; they may have to take funds from other sectors to the security sector or diverting the security vote to funding the running of the state police.

    “It could also through generation of more internal revenue or other schemes such as the Lagos Security Trust Fund.”

    The retired military intelligence officer has the following words of advice for the committee that has been set up to work out the modalities for the implementation of the proposed security arrangement: “The existing federal policing structure would have to be disbanded and operatives asked to go back to their states. That would be the primary recruitment ground for state police.

    “The operatives of existing security structure in many states like the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) and those of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corp should also be incorporated as the foundation members of state police outfits across the federation.

    “As far as training is concerned, there should be a central training arrangement; the existing police colleges across the country should be used to organise training for the various states, so that we can have a unity of doctrine across board because, at the end of the day, it is still the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “Since operatives of state police across the country would bear arms, there would be a need for strict training in that regard. This is because one of the reasons why the idea of state police has gained the upper hand now is because of the upsurge in the number of arms-bearing criminals in the country. For them to be able to repel incursions into their states, the police officers must be well trained and armed with 21st Century ammunition. If not, it would be an exercise in futility.”

    The founding National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwas Okorie said a federation as big as Nigeria should have a state policing structure. He said the federal police should only be concerned with matters that border on national security and crimes that cut across state lines. He told our reporter: “After federal and state police, the next one is community policing. You don’t need local government police; the state police structure would cover local governments. So, it should be a three-tier structure: federal, state and community policing.

    “Nobody needs to be told that only indigenes of a state would make up the state police and that only indigenes of specific communities would be part of their community policing.

    “In terms of the challenges, the only challenge I envisage is that of funding. Considering that the states would be taking away that responsibility from the Federal Government, I expect a change in revenue allocation formula to accommodate that added responsibility; so that the funding would not be a major issue.

    “With regards to the fears that governors are going to abuse it, all we need to do is to strengthen the legal framework in such a way to discourage that tendency. This would be by first removing the immunity that governors enjoy on criminal matters. Immunity should only be for the president and the vice president. Governors should only enjoy immunity on civil matters; for the simple reason that they need to be given time to concentrate on their jobs.

    “But this should not extend to criminal offences, which is what the abuse of the police would amount to. There is no way you abuse the state police without committing a criminal offence. Once they know that they are not protected from any proven case of criminal offence, they would sit up and this would help to check their excesses.

    “Besides, since every governor would know that after eight years he would be at the receiving end, he would think twice before committing criminal offences that he would later be responsible for. So, I don’t entertain any fears about the abuse people are talking about.”

    Okorie said the idea of decentralising the policing system is a step in the right direction,  given the worsening security situation in the country at the moment. He said: “The country was heading towards a major conflagration. But the current development would help to douse tension. If you look at the current centralised police structure in place, it is not working. In some areas, they are seen as an army of occupation; extorting money from the people and doing nothing.

    “In other areas, they are simply complacent; they don’t even go to work but at the end of the month, they will collect their salary. If you send a policeman who is a Christian to Sokoto, Kebbi or Zamfara to work, do you expect him to go and enforce the law when he can be accused of blasphemy and his head would be on the platter? So, people posted to those areas would wake up, go to their station and sit down; doing nothing. But, at the end of the day, they would collect their salary.

    “Those posted to the southern part of the country, where the money is, are mainly on the road, collecting money. If there is something happening in the rural parts of the state, you would not see them. If you are a criminal, you can go about with all your weapons easily, as long as you are willing to part with some money.”

    Okorie said the existing regional policing initiative in the Southeast, Ebubeagu, has been abandoned by the governors of the region, because it was badly structured from inception. He added: “Ebubeagu failed because it was starved of funds by the governors of the region. It was conceived as a regional security outfit with operational and command headquarters in Enugu.

    “But the man in charge of the outfit, Gen. Abel Obi Umahi had to resign in protest because he did not get the required cooperation from the governors. That was when former Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State was chairman of the Southeast Governors’ Forum. The former governor did not want it to be a family affair, so he too decided to abandon the initiative.”

    Former Chief Press Secretary to ex-military President Ibrahim Babanguda, Major Debo Bashorun (rtd) said since Nigeria copied the American system of government, the authorities should look at the system in America and domesticate it to suit the West African country’s peculiarities. He told The Nation: “This is because our environment is different from that of America. In this regard, aside from the federal police, every state should be allowed to determine its policing structure, which would work in collaboration with the central police.”

    Bashorun said there is no need for a regional policing arrangement, as some have suggested as a way of minimizing the cost of running the proposed new system. He said: “It is ideal for every state to have its policing arrangement, because it would be difficult administratively to run a regional police. For now, let’s start with state police. Later, if it is desirable, states within the same region can decide to collaborate to create a regional police.

    “Owing to its cosmopolitan nature, a state like Lagos could decide to have a large police force that would be able to cope with the security challenges peculiar to it. Given the financial implications of having its police force, it would be a challenge for every state to source the money to run the system.” 

    A retired military officer and security consultant, Dr Goodluck Uguoji said the evolving security structure is like creating a different level of authority security wise. He said: “The inspector-general of police is still going to be at the apex of the federal policing authority. But the police at the state levels would have their leaderships within the states.

    “They would work in collaboration with the federal security authorities but are not necessarily answerable to them. Under the evolving system, the governors would be the chief security officers in the true sense of the word. But, the flip side is that when power is brought closer, the citizens would begin to demand more from their governors;  rather than continue to focus only on the president in Abuja as it is currently the case.”

    “Dr Uguoji said it is the solution to the current security challenges in the country “because towns within every local government would have their sons and daughters enlist in the community police force”. He added: “This would make every citizen involved in security the country. Everybody would see himself or herself as a police officer. The security of a country as big as Nigeria should not be left to a single authority that is faraway from the various states that make up the union.

    “There is no way you can post a police officer from Ondo State to Zamfara or Borno State and expect him to understand what is going on in those states. This is because security is information; intelligence gathering. police man should understand the language and culture of the area he or she is posted to work. He should know all the nooks and crannies, so he can do his or her work seamlessly. This would also help to create employment for the country’s teeming youth population.

    “But, if we are not careful, there could be conflict because the governors are not mature enough;  they may utilise their power in such a way to engender crisis in their states.”

  • State Police: Policing in other climes with federal systems of government

    State Police: Policing in other climes with federal systems of government

    Many advanced democracies and developing countries that operate a federal systems of government like Nigeria have a decentralised policing systems.

    UNITED STATES

    The United States (US), according to Encyclopedia Britannica, has what may be the most decentralized police system in the world, characterized by an extraordinary degree of duplication and conflicting jurisdiction. Although every community is entitled to run its police department, none can prevent federal or state officials from conducting local investigations into offences over which they have jurisdiction.

    There are five major types of police agencies in the US: (1) the federal system, consisting of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Secret Service, the Postal Inspection Service, and many others; (2) police forces and criminal investigation agencies established by each of the 50 states of the union; (3) sheriffs’ departments in several thousand counties, plus a few county police forces that either duplicate the sheriffs’ police jurisdictions or displace them; (4) the police forces of about 1,000 cities and more than 20,000 townships and New England towns; and (5) the police of some 15,000 villages, boroughs, and incorporated towns.

    To the above list must be added special categories, such as the police of the District of Columbia; various forces attached to authorities governing bridges, tunnels, and parks; university, or “campus,” police forces; and some units that police special districts formed for fire protection, soil conservation, and other diverse purposes. Although there are tens of thousands of police forces throughout the United States, the majority of them consist of just a few officers.

    The existing American police structure to some extent reflects public opposition to any concentration of police power. It has been argued that the nation would suffer, and local governments would be enfeebled, should all offences become federal offences and all police power be transferred to Washington, D.C. Local problems require local remedies, according to this view. On the other hand, it also has been argued that the integration and consolidation of police forces would reduce costs and increase efficiency. As this debate continues, many small municipalities in the United States have chosen to maintain their police forces, while others have joined together to form regional police departments.

    CANADA

    Like other developed countries, Canada operates a decentralised policing system at the three levels of government: municipal (both lower and upper-tier), provincial, and federal.

    Also, many First Nations Reserves have their police forces established through agreements between the governing native band, province and the federal government.

    However, seven of Canada’s provinces and all three territories have contracted out their provincial/territorial law-enforcement responsibilities to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the national police force, controlled by the federal government. The other three maintain provincial police forces, although one also partially contracts out to the RCMP.

    Canada also has some private police forces with some of the powers usually reserved for governmental forces, especially on company property.

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    Despite the delineation, the regular public police maintain authority and jurisdiction for all criminal offences, regardless of whether the offence occurs on public or private property. Some hospitals, universities, transit commissions, power authorities and other agencies employ special constables or in other provinces known as peace officers.

    The policing system in Canada is greatly influenced by the country’s historical ties with England and France. For example, Quebec City followed the early models of French cities and created a watchman system in 1651. Upper Canada, later renamed Ontario, adopted the English traditions and established both a constabulary and a watch-and-ward system. The English system was imposed on French areas after 1759. Using England’s Metropolitan Police Act as a model, Toronto created a police department in 1835, and Quebec City and Montreal followed suit in 1838 and 1840, respectively. In 1867 provincial police forces were established for the vast rural areas in eastern Canada.

    However, the precursor to the RCMP, the North West Mounted Police, was created in 1873 to police the western plains. The original 300 officers initially were assigned the task of eliminating incursions by whiskey-trading Americans who were inciting Canadian Indians to acts of violence, and later the force spearheaded attempts to make the Canadian frontier an integral part of Canada. It protected immigrants and fought prairie fires, disease, and destitution in the new settlements.

    However, the Canadian mounted police represented a departure from Anglo-Saxon policing traditions. Although, similar in organisation, style, and method to the models of France and Ireland, they operated more like a military organisation than a traditional police force. Strong leadership ensured that they operated with restraint and within Canadian political traditions.

    INDIA

    The modern Indian Police Force is structured along two tiers: federal and state. Each state/union territory has its separate police force while the Indian Police Service (IPS) is national in operations and command and managed by the central government. It also provides the bulk of senior officers to the state police forces.

    The Indian Constitution empowers each of the 29 states to have their police forces. The centre is also allowed to maintain its police forces to assist the states with ensuring law and order.

    Therefore, India maintains seven central police forces and some other police organisations for specialised tasks such as intelligence gathering, investigation, research and record-keeping, and training.

    The modern police structure in India evolved from an 1861 law by the British colonial government that introduced the Indian Councils Act of 1861. The law laid the foundation of a modern and professionalised police bureaucracy in India. It introduced a new cadre of police, called Superior Police Services, later known as the Indian Imperial Police.

    In the early 1900s, a police commission, led by Sir Andrew Fraser and Lord Curzon, was established to reform the police. The implementation of the commission’s report led to the indigenisation of the Indian Imperial Police, with the first local intakes coming in in 1920.

    With independence in 1948, the Imperial Police was scrapped and the Indian Police Service (IPS) was born a year later.

    AUSTRALIA

    Other countries with federal political structures have federal police forces as well as state forces that operate on the same principles as those observed in the United States. In Australia, for example, each of the six states has its police force and its laws but does not legislate in matters about federal organizations and cannot pass laws at variance with those of the Commonwealth. Yet even countries like Australia have attempted to move away from the fragmentation that is characteristic of American policing. The model that many countries have adopted blends strong central leadership with a limited number of regional police forces, as in the United Kingdom.

    JAPAN

    The police forces of Japan are deployed in several regional police prefectures. Each regional force has a certain degree of autonomy. The police operate out of small police posts in cities and rural areas and maintain an unparalleled closeness to the communities they serve. The central government’s National Police Agency exerts strong leadership over local police forces and promotes common standards; it also engages in secret intelligence gathering. Japanese policing methods have been thoroughly studied by Western scholars and were influential in the development of community policing in Anglo-Saxon countries.

    BRAZIL

    The police system of Brazil, a federal state, also features a balance between a central authority and a limited number of regional police forces. The police force of each state is under the authority of the state’s Secretariat for Public Security. Like many other countries of Latin America, Brazil also possesses a military police force that is controlled by the armed forces, as are the gendarmeries in Europe. Hence, although military police are deployed in the various Brazilian states, they report to the headquarters of the various military regions.

    ARGENTINA

    In Argentina, another country with a federal structure, each province has its independent police force and is responsible for its funding, training and equipment. State police agencies are responsible for all the territory of a determinate state. There is almost no municipal/local law enforcement in Argentina, and if there is, they are generally limited to traffic duties.

  • State Police: The funding challenge

    State Police: The funding challenge

    How far can Federal and state governments go to deliver effective policing in view of funding constraint? Assistant Editor EMMANUEL BADEJO reports.

    Even if the National Assembly and the President deliver a new law empowering state policing, it is still in doubt if the formations in the states will be able to work effectively and efficiently.

    In an interview on Channels Television, Politics on Sunday recently, Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinnma, who said there was need for effective collaboration between the State Governors and the Federal Government-controlled security agencies to mitigate the scary security situation in the country, maintained that funding state policing was huge and be beyond financial strength of many states.

    He said, “Security is very expensive, and I can’t see any subnational government in Nigeria today that can fund, completely, the cost of providing adequate security in the various subnational governments. So, working together as a Federation in synergy with the federal security system… When people say governors are handicapped, I don’t know what they are talking about. Yes, we need the support of the Federal Government; we need to articulate properly, working in synergy with federal security agencies as a subnational government, how we can create a working relationship that will allow us to be on the same page to be able to fight crime in the country.

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    “The reason why we must align with the Federal Government is that the economy of some subnational governments is lean, the funding requirement is enormous. So, it has to be through collaboration.

    “Even when the federal government has allowed the vigilante approach, how many states have been able to fund an effective and efficient vigilante organization? State Police will only work if the states are in a position to fund it! So, when we talk about true federalism, we aren’t joking.

    “As I speak, many of our states can’t even fund their existence without an allocation from the federal government, and the meaning of government isn’t coming to consume. The meaning of government is that you fend for yourself; you make the money before you can spend it.

    To retired Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Mike Okiro, the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force would not achieve its desired objective because the factors that led to its failure in the past have not been addressed.

    Okiro spoke with journalists on the sideline of the 2023 Convention of the Old Seminarians Association of Nigeria (OSAN), hosted by the Clerk to the Senate, Mr. Chinedu Akubueze, in Abuja.

    He said the state police idea might not work due to paucity of funds at both the state and local government areas.

    He wondered how the states and local government areas that could not effectively pay the salaries of their workers would be able to fund their own police.

    Okiro, however, said the only way the state police could work was for Nigeria to embrace the Canadian model.

    The Canadian model, according to him, would involve the states recruiting the police personnel who would be funded by the Federal Government.

    He said, “The only way we can have state police in Nigeria is to adopt the Canadian model, where every region has its own police employed by the region and paid by the federal government.

     “If you adopt state police, the state government that cannot pay teachers, nurses and doctors, can they pay the police?

    “You cannot afford to owe the police one month’s salary, insecurity will be at the highest level in that state. If the state governments can’t pay the civil servants, I wonder how they can pay the police,” Okiro warned.

    A human rights lawyer Monday Ubani says the country should not rush the creation of state police but make it optional.

    “That’s why I’m saying that it’s not something we rush and just. All the stakeholders must permit and debate the issue. Now the Senate has considered the amendment committee of our Constitution,” he said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday.

    “This is the time for this matter to be brought before the new committee in order to amend our constitution because you have to amend the constitution in the first place.

    The former vice-president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) said: “We must also make it optional.

    “That is very important because any state that wants to run a state policing system must have the requisite funding, make sure that we have the requisite number of police and all the things that they require in terms of kitting, welfare, and all the instruments they will use in order to ensure effective policing system in the various states will be made available.”

  • State police, increased derivation, others top constitution review agenda

    State police, increased derivation, others top constitution review agenda

    • Reps set to inaugurate committee

    A constitutional role for traditional rulers, the creation of State Police, and the bills seeking to return the country to a parliamentary system of government top the constitutional amendment bills to be considered by the House of Representatives Committee on Constitutional Amendment, The Nation learnt yesterday.

    The Committee headed by the Deputy Speaker of the House, with members drawn from all states of the Federation, will officially be inaugurated on Monday, February 26, 2024, to kick start the constitutional amendment process.

    The bill to alter the constitution to provide for the creation of state Police which has passed a second reading in the House and has been referred to the constitutional amendment committee, is listed as among the over 40 bills so far received by the House Committee.

    It was however observed that the majority of the bills are yet to pass through the second reading in the House, even though the bill to alter the educational qualification to contest certain political offices was withdrawn at the second reading made the list of bills to be considered.

    Three parliamentary bills sponsored by Minority Leader of the House, Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers), and 59 others are part of the constitutional alteration bills listed by the committee.

    The bills are those that seek to alter the constitution to review the mode of electing the state Governors, Deputy Governors, and the appointment of Commissioners of the various states.

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    The second bill seeks to alter the constitution to review the means of election into the offices of the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the Local Government Councils in Nigeria; and for related matters.

    The third parliamentary bill seeks to alter the Constitution to provide for the office of the Prime Minister as Head of Government and the office of President as Head of State and to provide for a framework for the mode of election to the said offices.

    Also, the House committee will consider a bill to provide an advisory role for traditional rulers in the constitution in view of their importance in the maintenance of peace and security across the country.

    As part of the constitutional amendment process, the House has also listed for consideration, a bill seeking the reform of the judiciary to transfer the powers of appointing and removing Judges of state High Courts to state governors.

    Other judicial reform bills for consideration include the bill seeking to establish the Ecclesiastical Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja and the Ecclesiastical Court of Appeal of the States.

    In addition, the committee will also consider a bill that will ensure quick dispensation of criminal cases in courts by authorising the Justices of the Federal High Court, High Court of The Federal Capital Territory, and State High Courts to sit as Justices of The Federal High Court, High Court of The Federal Capital Territory and State High Courts respectively and conclude any criminal case pending before them upon their elevation to the Court of Appeal.

    The alterations will also include setting time within which civil and criminal cases and matters are heard and determined at trial and appellate courts in order to eliminate unnecessary delay in justice administration and delivery.

    Also, one of the judicial reform bills before the committee sought to confer Jurisdiction on the Federal High Court to try offences arising from violations of the provisions of the Electoral Act and any other related act passed by the National Assembly.

    Another bill before the committee is the alteration seeking to Increase the number of members of the Federal Civil Service Commission to provide for representation of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

    The Constitution Review Committee will also consider an alteration that will include in the constitution inclusion of the Minister in charge of Finance, Budget and National Planning in the composition of the National Economic Council as well as moving water for domestic, commercial, industrial, irrigation, power and other uses to the Concurrent Legislative list.

    One of the critical bills to be considered by the committee is the bill seeking an increase in the percentage of derivation fund of the revenue accruing to the Federation Account directly from all natural resources and Value Added Tax (VAT) to not less than fifty percent (50%).

    There is also the bill seeking to review the requirements that qualify a person to be elected as President and Vice-President as well as Governor and Deputy Governor of a State.

    Another bill for consideration is the bill that will change the method of the emerging winner of the Presidential and governorship election to ensure that the winner of the elections must score more than half of the total vote rather than the current method of a simple majority.

    A bill to grant the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly power to summon the President and state governors to answer questions on issues of National Security or any matter whatsoever, over which the National Assembly and the state Houses of Assembly, have powers to make laws and for related matters which failed in the 9th Assembly is also slated for consideration.

    The House will also consider a bill that will provide for an independence referendum for states to enforce their rights of self-determination under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights as well as a bill that will make it constitutionally mandatory to include sign language among the languages used in conducting the business of the National Assembly.

    Two bills, seeking to allow for more representation in the National Assembly for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and create a mayoral status for the FCT will also be considered even though one of the sponsors, Dachung Musa Bagos is no longer a member of the House.

    Also scheduled for consideration by the Committee is a bill seeking to review the status of the Federal Capital Territory as regards the election of the President to put an end to the controversy that arose during the 2023 general election.

    Another bill seeking to rotate the Presidency among the geopolitical zones and state governorship position among the Senatorial district as well as a bill that will strengthen transparency and compliance to the principles of Federal Character is also listed.