State police: Catalyst for community policing

By Tony Ikpasaja

After more than five decades of trial and error, Nigeria is finally decentralizing its policing system. The 36 states will now be allowed to establish their own police services while the Federal Capital Territory remains under the Nigeria Police Force.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deserves commendation for this courageous return to state policing — an issue that has generated heated sentiments since the system was scrapped by the military in 1966. It aligns with other bold reforms of this administration, including subsidy removal and local government autonomy. Ultimately, a police force is judged by its effectiveness against crime, a test the centrally-controlled NPF, headed by an Inspector-General in Abuja, has largely failed.

Policing in Nigeria began in 1861 with the 30-man Consular Guard set up by the British. Prior to that, communities maintained order through hunters, age grades and secret societies like the Ekpe and Ogboni. Policing was communal and village-based.

The Consular Guard metamorphosed into the Hausa Constabulary, Niger Coast Constabulary and Royal Niger Company Constabulary. After the 1914 amalgamation, the Northern and Southern police were merged on April 1, 1930, into one Nigeria Police Force headquartered in Lagos. Created as an instrument of colonial occupation, the NPF at independence in 1960 merely changed masters — from serving the British to serving the new Nigerian political elite.

The 1960 Independence Constitution allowed regions to run their own police alongside the NPF. Those regional forces showed superior local intelligence, faster response and deeper community ties. But political misuse contributed to the collapse of the First Republic and gave the military justification to abolish local police in 1966.

Since then, the NPF has been dogged by criticisms over unprofessionalism, human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, extortion, corruption and failure to secure rural areas. With roughly 372,000 personnel, it cannot effectively police a country of over 230 million. Bandits have seized communities, ungoverned spaces are expanding and the military is overstretched filling the gap. Nigerians expect state police to be new wine in new wineskins.

Understandably, the move evokes mixed feelings over fears of abuse by governors. But that fear should be managed, not used as an excuse to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Anchoring state police on community policing — especially in this digital age — will reduce those concerns.

Global experience is instructive. The UK, US, Brazil, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Singapore, Kenya, South Africa, Japan and many others have used community policing to build trust, prevent crime, manage unrest, defuse racial tensions and resolve farmer-herder conflicts. Since the 20th century, it has become clear that a national force alone cannot secure communities without public collaboration. In Nigeria today, police are often isolated in patrol vans, disconnected from happenings around them.

Nigeria has experimented with community policing since 2003 under IGP Tafa Balogun during the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration. Despite training and international conferences, implementation failed due to over-centralisation. The Police Act, 2020, provides for Community Policing Committees in every state, and the UN recently trained Divisional Police Officers in community policing and counter-terrorism.

In practice, community policing means foot patrols and face-to-face engagement to make officers more visible, accessible and friendly. For Nigeria, it can be a melting pot where the military, DSS, NSCDC, Forest Guards, Neighbourhood Watch, vigilantes and police interface with citizens.

How can an officer who has spent his life in Hadejia or Ogbomosho effectively police the forests of Ibadan, Oron or Benin City where the terrain and culture are alien to him? Local people know their communities and can provide timely intelligence on criminals and threats.

Trust is key. When people trust the police, they report crimes early, helping to nip them in the bud. Public analyst, Dr. Majeed Dahiru, once suggested on television that state police should focus on serious crimes — banditry, terrorism, cultism, cattle rustling, kidnapping — while the NPF handles civil matters and oversight. That is a sensible balance of control with standards, accountability and protection of citizens’ rights.

• Dr. Ikpasaja is ex-director, Society for Community Policing