In my first novel entitled “Between Survival and Annihilation”, a story is told about the main character that is caught in an imminent shipwreck while fleeing from injustice. He has a choice between perishing with the ship and plunging into the deep blue sea. He chooses to take a plunge and is lucky to survive, helped by his swimming ability. He considers the sea as a lesser evil while his co-passengers that choose to stay on the ship with the hope of surviving are pulled under the sea. He becomes the (lone) survivor to tell the story. The others perished!
For quite a long time now, there have been arguments about the merits and demerits of establishing a state-controlled police system in line with what obtains in the United States, after which our extant Constitution is fashioned. In that country, there are different patinas of policing: the federal, state, local, and city, among other special forces to deal with peculiar situations native to them.
The debate on the establishment of state police to complement the efforts of the Nigeria Police has been ongoing for more than a decade now, following the deterioration of security situations across the country, exacerbated by the Boko Haram insurgency that sprang up from Borno state in 2009 or thereabouts. The National Confab instituted by the Goodluck Jonathan regime in 2014 acknowledged the dire need to decentralise the police system and made a recommendation to that effect. So sad he could not come back in 2015 to implement Confab’s recommendations. Along the line, many eminent Nigerians and past leaders like General Ibrahim Babangida, and Da Jonah Jang have supported the idea as an imperative to secure the country, because the country is too vast and hugely populated for the Nigeria Police Force alone to effectively secure it.
There seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel with the federal, state administrations, and the National Assembly finding a common ground to midwife the initiative. At the last but one meeting of the NEC in Abuja, the finishing touches were expected to be put on the processes. However, the NEC pushed the matter forward to the next meeting owing to some delays by the state governments. But when the NEC’s meeting was held this week in Abuja, not a whimper was heard about the critical matter. All that we heard was the coming into existence of the law to modernise the training facilities of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to meet global standards, enhance professionalism, and improve community relations. The modernisation of these institutions aimed at building the capacity of the police personnel is an excellent idea. One of the weakest links in policing in this country is the crude and uncivilised method of executing police duties… a disposition that casts the average police officer as a foe rather than a friend that system is quick to sloganeer.
I was at my auto electrician’s workshop in Kubwa, Abuja, early in the week to fix my car hoot, which was malfunctioning. The argument about whether or not Nigeria should run a state police system was raging when I arrived at the scene. A patron at the workshop was fighting off an attack by virtually everyone around for the position he had taken against such a creation. He came across as a lone hyena outnumbered and outflanked by a pride of angry lions. He fought back, trying to marshal the over-flogged argument, which is simply that the state police would be used by the governors to hound political enemies. Influential members of the community would also be quick to deploy them to settle personal scores.
His tormentors tore at his argument and rubbished it with instances of the pervasive insecurity in different parts of the country. They told him that his position was borne of selfishness, and safety from the plight Nigerians face in their homes, on the highways, and on their farms. One of them argued that even in the present arrangement, politicians use federal police personnel to harass and settle personal scores. Another one said that if he or his relations had fallen victim to these criminal elements, he would not be holding on to that end of the disagreement.
The argument that the state police personnel would be prone to misuse or would perpetually be at loggerheads with their federal counterparts should ponder over an ugly incident that occurred on a street of Port Harcourt on December 10, 2017, or thereabouts. The convoy of the immediate past Governor of Rivers state, Barr. Nyesom Wike, and that of the former Minister of Transportation, Barr. Rotimi Amaechi engaged in a supremacy contest. Barr. Wike was Barr. Amaechi’s protégé. The former was the Chief of Staff when the latter was at the helm of affairs in the state. Then, they fell apart, leading to a gulf wide enough to pass a titanic ship.
The clash was an unfortunate exhibition of loyalty by the security details attached to the feuding personalities, with the two teams of escort details flexing muscles in their determination to defend their principals. It was a show of shame in view of the fact that they all belong(ed) to the same federal security system.
According to media reports, the drama, lasting for about 30 minutes, occurred at the popular Trans-Amadi Industrial Layout, Nkpogu, Port Harcourt, beginning at 3 pm when Amaechi’s convoy driving from the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, was intercepted by the convoy of ex-Governor Wike.
The ex-governor’s convoy was said to have descended on its counterpart, during which some police officers attached to Amaechi’s convoy were allegedly brutalised. It would have been understandable if Wike’s security details were products of the state police. This kind of overzealousness can be addressed. You do not solve a problem by running away from it. Problems and solutions are two sides of the same coin. There should be proper briefing and/or training for our security personnel assigned to such critical duties. Instead of resolving the confrontation professionally, the two camps, belonging to the same family, decided to divide their loyalties to please their feuding masters. Even in the animal kingdom, dogs do not eat dogs.
We should be interested in how the different security patinas function seamlessly in the United States where we copied our constitution. There are numerous other climes that also operate more than one layer of police system and they do not work at cross purposes.
In the mix of the advocacy for the establishment of the state police is also the call for the citizens to defend themselves by any means possible. Gen. T.Y. Danjuma (retd) has his signature firmly on this call, urging beleaguered Nigerians to procure arms to defend themselves against rampaging criminals. Only recently, a Katsina politician procured firearms for some members of his constituency after getting them trained on weapon handling by security personnel.
Only recently, the Niger state Governor, Farmer Mohammed Umar Bago, (huh… I nearly wrote former), also boarded the plane of despair and urged his people to defend themselves. And I wondered how that would be possible without arming them up. Even in farming which is the governor’s calling, no one goes to till the ground with their bare hands!
Rather than sounding like a broken record with a call for the citizens to defend themselves against well-armed criminal elements, the government at all levels should speed up the process of putting more boots to the ground by birthing the well-trained, adequately funded and fully equipped state police without any further delay. The grass is already growing under their feet! The presence of police personnel in our communities is itself a huge deterrent to criminal activities. After all, more money now goes to the states. And security of lives and properties as enshrined in our Constitution, is the main purpose of their being in power. Presently, Nigeria’s massive and ungoverned space encourages the criminals to operate without any let or hindrance.
Even as I was exiting the workshop, the argument was still raging, leaving this recurring question in the air: “Who are we to dread more, the state governors or the bandits?” As for me, I am more scared of the bandits than the governors who are lesser evils!
Hopefully, we shall see light at the end of the tunnel sooner than later as the nation hovers between survival and annihilation since the emergence of Boko Haram insurgency and allied crimes.
