Decentralization of Nigeria Police force; A Bold Step in a wrong direction.

Ajose Gideon

As I listened to both panelists discuss the NEC directive to a certain committee to give it's recommendations on the decentralization of the Nigeria Police force, I couldn't help but wonder when we would start doing things the right way in Nigeria. For the past one month it has been the one day, one problem in Nigeria with no solution in sight, the absence of the man from Daura has also given Nigerians a sense of hope because of the "window dressing" approach administered by the Ag. President in person of Prof Yemi Osibajo. From the deliberate drifting away to the major goal of #EndSARS to directing the IGP (who doesn't believe that SARS is a  menace to the society) to overhaul the Unit, yes we all saw what that could translate to and till now the SARS that were supposed to have ended went audaciously to arrest and detain a journalist while hiding behind a fraudulent court order.

To the major point of discourse, I want to contribute my own quota to the "National Discourse" on the issue of Policing which is a pivotal role to ensuring maximum security of the Nigeria State, the Decree No 24 which we have all been taught to address as the 1999 constitution (as amended) prescribes a Unitary Police Force, the Police force which is established by Section 214 of the constitution makes it subject to the control of the President and 38 other members with the President being the overall commander, this group of 39 people consisting of the Governors from all 36 states that constitutes the Nigeria Police Commission don't meet at all, In real fact this is only written and has never been the practice, the President has always been then "be all and end all" for the Police Force. 

But just like we have seen in the last few weeks, Ag. Prof. Osinbajo engaged in another window dressing approach to address the problem, first he sacked Daura the DSS DG and didn't institute a Presidential Panel to investigate him, all what we have are rumours and the fact that the rumours themselves have the Police investigating him would do nothing other than deepen the rivalry between the two arms of Govt. Another window dressing attempt is the "Overhaul" of the SARS which the IGP renamed FSARS, if the Premium Times Journalist wasnt arraigned, who knows if he could also have uncovered another conversation between the IGP and the Ag. President on how "Overhaul" should have been carried out, SARS or FSARS still pose the threat they have always been to the survival of Nigeria. The final of this Window Dressing is when the NEC directed that a committee be set up to see to the decentralization of the Police Force and guess what, this committee would be headed by he IGP, we could all guess what this would end up to be, it is a subtle way of quenching the continuous agitation for the establishment of State Police.

Every Politics is Local, this has been the cliché for the past months then why shouldn't the Police be local? If you don't know where you are policing, how can you do it efficiently, people who always fear that it would be abused by the Governor should take a critical look at the federal Police if it isn't being abused, people against State Police are intellectually lazy and don't see it as a need to engage their faculty, the state Police would have stakeholders which would be drawn from all spheres of the society and there would be a Federal Police to always keep the State Police in Check.

The real solution to Nigeria's numerous problems is to first amend the Constitution to create space for State Police, then we can move forward. until then, this issue of setting an anti-decentralization to head a Decentralization Committee is nothing but a betrayal of good conscience but an indicator that the good governance for security which Nigerians crave for cannot be delivered by the APC Govt led by President Muhammad Buhari.

Ajose Gideon is a Student Journalist at Obafemi Awolowo University and can be reached via ajosegideon26@gmail.com or ajosegideon_ on twitter