State Police: Main Issues For Consideration
Nigerian populace are yearning for establishment of state police to put an end to the series of security issues confronting the country. Every Nigerian is under one particular security threat and this seriously contributes to the low level of development of Nigeria.
State Police have been considered as a way of ending insecurity and to put the country on the track of sustainable development. However, there are issus that elder statesmen, political and traditional rulers should consider and perhaps there is an alternative to the proposition for state police.
Yesterday, the Inspector General of Police raised a warning that the state political actors including the governors would abuse the establishment of state police. He echoed the fear of former President Goodluck Jonathan, who said that the state actors would deploy the state police to harass members of the opposition parties.
That should in fact be a serious thing to consider. Governors often behave as emperors in their respective states. They abuse the little power they have and do lots of unconstitutional things. They are to be worshipped. The only thing that handicaps them is that they don’t have security personnel at the tip of their fingers.
Having state police would embolden them to attack, harass and intimidate the members of the opposition parties. The democracy of the country is yet to develop to the stage of having police under the control of governors.
Apart from abuse of power and police, funding the police would also be a serious issue. Most of the 36 state governors struggle to pay salaries of civil servants. They owe backlogs of salaries and in fact several states including Kebbi, Yobe, Zamfara, Osun, Ekiti, Cross River, Taraba, Kogi, Kwara, Niger are unviable.
They rely heavily on the allocation from the federal government for sustainability. How can they finance police at the state level? The security vote (funds) are embezzled. How will they then finance state police?
If the arguments above are not strong enough, can Nigeria afford to have its roads further armed? Motorists face roadblocks and they are extorted. You can barely travel for twenty (20) minutes without meeting a checkpoint. Thousands of Nigerians have lost their lives as a result of extortion.
Follow us on social media
