Ex President Goodluck Jonathan Gives Reason State Police Won’t Work
A former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, has given his own opinion to the burning issue of state police. Nigerians have debated having state police to curtail the widespread of insecurity in the country.
Currently, the federal government controls police and all forms of security of the country. However, crimes including banditry, kidnapping, terrorism are rampant. Hence, there is a call for decentralization of Police so as to allow each state of the federation have its own police.
The former president agreed that establishing state police would greatly help to reduce insecurity. He however argued that the development would be abused by the state governors. In 2014, the former leader of the country called a confab in which Nigerians from all walks of life came together to discuss matters affecting the country. State policing was a top topic in the conference.
Jonathan said, “That matter has been concluded. The issue is the operations of the police.”
He added, I operated at the state level as Deputy Governor and Governor for eight years. Then came to the centre as vice president and president for another eight years.
“I know that in Bayelsa State and other states that attempted to have some elements of security operatives that assisted the police, it worked very well.
“In Bayelsa State, when we took over, the state was almost ungovernable. When the elections were to be conducted in December 1999, the security situation in Bayelsa State was so bad that we couldn’t guarantee elections in December 1998, so our elections were pushed to January 1999.
“When we took over, the state was in crisis. Niger Delta agitation was there. Criminal elements were also operating all the creeks and were doing all kinds of havoc to market women until Alamieyeseigha set up the Bayelsa Volunteers that worked with the police. We built stations around the critical parts of the creeks. That brought the excessive piracy down.
“There is no way we can manage our internal security if states will not have their police. The issue is not states having police, but how will the state police function vis-à-vis the national security architecture.”
Jonathan then expressed his misgivings about the state governors. He said that the governors and their aides can use the state police to harass members of the opposition party. In his view, that would lead to crisis in the country.
“How do we manage the state police and it will not be abused by state political actors? If state political actors are abusing the state police, and are using the state police to harass and make life miserable for people who don’t belong to their political parties, will the commander-in-chief sit down and watch or will he order the military to go and overrun the state police? Of course, that will bring crisis in the country.
“The key areas we have to debate on is how to run state police vis-à-vis the national security architecture of the country, and these things need to be done carefully, because it is very critical.”
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