- State police is the answer to challenges in the police force, not necessarily funds
THE lamentation of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, during the National Security Summit on Kidnapping and Farmers/Herdsmen Clashes in Abuja, is a pointer to the humongous security challenges facing our country. According to the IGP, “to bridge the gap in manpower and to attain the United Nations’ standard of one policeman to 400 citizens, the Nigeria Police Force currently needs to recruit an additional 155,000 new policemen. The force needs at least 31,000 new policemen yearly for a period of five years.”
He also said: “our challenges are funding, shortfall in manpower and retraining of personnel. The Nigeria Police Force Reform Trust Fund Bill since 2008 has not yet been passed by the National Assembly.”While we agree with the IGP that the police is confronted with fundamental challenges, we are not convinced that the solution lies merely with the passage of the Reform Trust Fund Bill, strangely pending since 2008, in the National Assembly.
While a trust fund could ameliorate the tragic underfunding of the manpower, equipment and training needs of the police, a more fundamental restructuring is urgently needed, to stave off the debilitating insecurity prevalent across the country. As we have stated here severally, Nigeria is perhaps the only federal republic that has a single national police. As the IGP will confirm, while the police have a central command structure, it is the states that actually provide a substantial part of their infrastructure needs.
Whether it is operational vehicles, communication equipment and even overheads, save the staff salary, it is the states that the force relies on, to augment the shortfalls. Again, all across the states, we have quasi-police structures to fill the yawning gap left by an over-centralised police force. In that category are the state traffic agencies, neighbourhood vigilantes, brigades against indiscipline and similar state organs.
While the states grapple with their challenges in any way they can, without offending the constitution banning state police, the society pays dearly in terms of insecurity. To amend the dysfunctional system, the police have toyed with the idea of community policing. Under such arrangement, policemen will be posted to their states of origin, to mitigate the challenge of sending officers and men to police completely strange environment. Such a system is of course not sustainable, since recruitment is based substantially on quota, such that states that need more policing do not get higher number during the recruitment exercise. Again, community policing will not solve the lack of equipment and training opportunities sorely needed to gift our country a modern police. So, instead of palliatives like the police reform trust fund, or sending police to their communities of origin, we urge for a fundamental restructuring of the police, to allow for state police and other cadres of police.
We restate that it is a sham to proclaim that Nigeria practices a federal system of government and yet has a single centralised police force under the command of the Federal Government, thereby rendering the federating units dependents. We need a constitutional amendment to accommodate state police, but structured as not to impede the powers and jurisdictional control of the federal police, with respect to matters within the exclusive legislative competence of the Federal Government.
With such amendment, states will become responsible to pay their police, optimally train them and equip them according to their capacity and security needs. The gain will include employment opportunities, efficient policing and enhanced security. While the Federal Government will be substantially relieved of the burden of policing the entire country, the citizens will gain in terms of better security.
