Governor Olusegun Mimiko reopened the debate on the decentralisation of the police last week when he declared that South-Westerners felt more secure with local vigilance groups than the Nigeria Police. His observation resonates squarely with Nigerians across the country caught between the vice-like grip of criminals of all shades and an inefficient, indifferent and often corrupt national police force. The inherent contradictions of a single national police agency in a multi-cultural, multi-national federation have come upon us, demanding urgent reforms.
Speaking at the 80th birthday celebration of Frederick Fasehun, founder of the Oodua People’s Congress, Mimiko said, “Many Yoruba people feel more secure with OPC guarding their streets than the conventional police.” Across the six South-Western states, the OPC, a self-determination group, is ubiquitous as an informal neighbourhood security agency. Its members are hired to guard homes, streets, companies and places of worship. Others too, such as hunters, are hired for this policing function. But the South-West is not alone in this repudiation of trust in the Nigeria Police. In the North-Central states where Fulani herdsmen, ethnic militias and murderous bandits have made life a Hobbesian reality of nastiness and death, it is local vigilantes that offer visible resistance to the marauders. In the North-East zone, the most visible complements to the military contingents battling Boko Haram terrorists are courageous youths styled Civilian JTF and local hunters/volunteers, not the police.
The loss of confidence is not surprising. Described by the United Kingdom-based Policy Studies Institute as “a constituted body of persons empowered by the state to enforce the law, protect property and limit civil disorder”, police forces command respect and cooperation from the populace to the extent that they are able to fulfil this mandate. But the Nigeria Police has for long been wracked by corruption, brutality and disconnection with the populace. For many, including Human Rights Watch, the problem lies in the over-centralisation of the force. A study it published in 2012 revealed that most of the extrajudicial killings for which the force is notorious were perpetrated by police officers posted outside their states of origin.
At the 2014 National Conference, delegates voted for the establishment of state police forces to replace the current federal monopoly on law enforcement. A single national police agency, taking orders only from the President, is a gross distortion of the federal principle, an anomaly that can no longer be sustained by misplaced nationalism. As observed by conference members and state governors, it is ridiculous to expect an Olusegun from Saki, Oyo State, to police Monguno town in Borno State, ravaged by local and cross-border terrorists, effectively or an Idris from Gusau, Zamfara State, to smoke out local kidnappers in Owerri, Imo State.
Experience shows clearly that knowledge of the locals, their customs and haunts are crucial for effective crime detection and crime prevention. Moreover, policemen disconnected from the local populace are more liable to kill arbitrarily than those operating in their home turfs where their own families also have deep roots.
Our leaders should think outside the box. President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly should immediately kick-start the process of amending the constitution to allow for multi-layered police formations as is prevalent in federal polities worldwide. Police functions are inherently local. From the appointments of “prefects” in ancient China, Japan and Korea, slaves used as guards in ancient Athens, and vigilantes in Rome, to the private system of “constables” in Medieval Europe, control of formal police forces began to shift from communities to the state when England started paying local civil protection units from taxes in 1737. It was not until 1979 that the Australian Federal Police Force was created from three regional forces in response to national threats such as terrorism, while the states and cities have their own forces with considerable autonomy.
The highly decentralised United States policing system features federal, state, local/county police forces with over 15,000 municipal police forces, many federal police agencies and 13 intelligence agencies. Even university campuses have their own autonomous police units. All but three of Canada’s 10 provinces (states) contract their policing functions to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police that operates side by side with autonomous city and tribal areas police departments. India, another federation, has since its independence in 1947 evolved federal, state and specialised police agencies to cater for its diversity. Brazil’s constitution creates five police agencies of which three are federally controlled and two are under the control of state governments. Recently, large cities have been allowed to establish municipal forces.
Nigeria’s backwardness is revealed in the fact that even unitary states like the United Kingdom and Japan have decentralised their policing. With 43 separate police forces, serving specific geographic areas, the UK’s policing is described as “almost federalist”. Japan’s National Police Agency grants considerable autonomy to its regional police prefectures that are said to maintain “unparalleled closeness to the communities they serve”.
There should be no further argument over state policing; what should occupy everyone now is working out the modalities for a drastic decentralisation of policing in Nigeria. We should design standards, establish constitutional safeguards against possible abuse by state governors, a real concern for many, and agree on funding. State police is an idea whose time has come and our government should act now.
