Follow Us on Google
The world has collapsed into what is regarded as a “global village.” Transportation, communication, trade and security have a common unifying system as political leaders reach out to each other, bonding through international diplomacy. This global-ness has further strengthened the economy of countries. Howbeit, economy cannot progress if insecurity thrives. With the growing rate of insecurity around the world, it behoves on governments to provide adequate safety for the populace and their property.
When the idea of uniformed policing of an area was first mooted in 1667 by the government of King Louis XIV of France, it was specifically aimed at protecting the city of Paris, which used to be the largest city in Europe. The police were mandated to purge the city of miscreants and hoodlums. Ever since then, governments across the world have emulated this pattern of policing and many refined the state policing system to suit their states. Countries in Europe, Russia, the United States of America and the United Kingdom, all adopted the state police system, which has turned out to be the best practicable policing system. It is easy to adapt both administratively and operationally.
Since lndependemce, had Nigeria adopted the state police system, all the major political incidents and increasing wave of criminality would have been nipped in the bud. The major problem heightening insecurity in Nigeria is the centralization of the police. The police structure, since independence, has grossly incapacitated, to a large extent, the smooth administration of effective policing the vast area called Nigeria. With the noticeable cracks showing all around the country, there is now a situation in which even the police management seems overwhelmed by the gravity of the workload bestowed on it.
The truth is that, had there been a better restructuring of the police institution before Independence, definitely, insecurity would have been tackled before escalating into national problems. The constitution gave the states some power to oversee and manage security issues, thereby arrogating the designation of “Chief Security Officer of the state” to the executive governor. By this nomenclature, the governor presides on every security issue in the state, except that he cannot direct and command the police commissioner nor other heads of security agencies in the state.
For instance, had it been that the Borno State governor was constitutionally in charge of all the activities of security agencies, the radical activities of Mallam Yusuf Muhammed, the founder and leader of the Boko Haram sect, wouldn’t have degenerated into what we are experiencing today as war on terrorism. Had there been state police system in place, both the governor and other security heads in the state would have arrested the radical activities of the sect. The country has subjected itself to the state of insecurity it presently finds itself in because of absence of state police system.
What, therefore, is the meaning of state police? Many would further ask if the state police system is practicable in Nigeria.
Simply explained, “It is the police organized and maintained by a state as distinguished from those of a lower subdivision (such as a city or county) of the state government.”
This system is practicable, just like other imported ideas that had over the years helped governance in Nigeria. However, for a state police system to be very effective in Africa, and especially in Nigeria, where the traditional rulers have been part of the suceess story in curbing criminality by way of intelligence contribution, it would be appropriate not to underrate or reject the traditional rulers with the operation and injection of community policing.
No wonder, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, accused the regimes of Generals Aguiyi Ironsi, Yakubu Gowon and Olusegun Obasanjo of laying the foundation of Nigeria’s current security challenges. The monarch, who is the chairman of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria, said it was the former leaders who relegated the traditional institution to the background with no constitutional role.
Other News
According to him, all the respective levels of government need the support of traditional rulers to maintain security, as they were always on hand to douse conflicts that the police and other security agencies could not contain.
Interestingly, at the same occasion, though overlooking the main issue, which was state police, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, accused state governors of not fully cooperating with the Federal Government in the battle against insecurity. He made the accusation during a meeting of secretaries to state governments in Abuja, coordinated by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha. He called for community participation in the fight against insecurity, adding that traditional rulers need to get involved. It evident that state governors know that, once they are fully in charge of security in their state, most of the security challenges would be resolved. What it means is that the security headache that was once centralized on the head of the IGP would now be shared via decentralization by 37 governors. Does that not make sense?
(To be continued)
———————————————————————
Hausanization of Efcc
It is the operational and administrative policy of the leadership of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that would determine how Nigerians evaluate the motive for the appointment of Abdulrasheed Bawa as the fifth executive chairman of the commission.
Even if it is the error or the deliberate policy of the government to saddle the country with this unpopular decision of ensuring that a commission headed by an ethnic group and not blinking over this ational injustice, what should be said when the leader who knows the obvious continues in the same error when, out of four released appointments made by Bawa, being his fist appointments, he put paid to ongoing assertion that there is an unwritten policy that northerners should hold controlling percentage of the staff strength?
Out of the four directorates recently appointed, three northerners were chosen to hold very sensitive key positions. Bawa is a young man, a fact he attested to while testifying at the plenary session of the National Assembly. where he gave his age as 40 years. This automatically injects hope in the young generation by eroding the nepotistic tendencies that had turned the country upside down. A national commission like EFCC should proudly portray the ethnic balance of the country, not exhibit the divisive traits vry common in the society.
(Concluded)
