By Izuagbe Peter Ozimede
The debate is over. State Police is no longer a campaign slogan; it is imminent. With the National Assembly advancing the alteration of Section 214 of the 1999 Constitution and 36 State Houses of Assembly poised to concur, the Nigeria Police Force as we know it will be restructured. The real question is not if, but how we avoid creating two rival forces fighting for turf while criminals run free.
Our present unitary model has collapsed. One Inspector-General in Abuja cannot effectively police 230 million people. The evidence is bloody. In Plateau and Benue, gunmen now operate for hours, sacking entire communities without a police response. Zamfara, Niger and Kaduna have become one vast kidnapping enterprise where the Abuja-Kaduna highway is a tollgate for bandits. In the South-East, unknown gunmen overrun Divisional Police Headquarters. In Lagos and Ogun, cult wars and “one-chance” robberies thrive because there are simply no policemen on the streets. With under 400,000 personnel, the NPF is overstretched, undermanned and over-centralized.
If we are serious, the transition must be completed within three years with ruthless clarity.
First, The Great Redeployment. Within 36 months, NPF personnel must be withdrawn from Local Government Headquarters and Area Commands. Those stations, barracks, armories and radio rooms should not be left to rot. They should be legally transferred to the new State Police Services. This gives state police immediate operational infrastructure and saves trillions in new construction. The affected NPF officers should be redeployed to shore up the new federal mandate.
Second, Redefine the New NPF. The reborn NPF must be a lean, elite federal force. Its presence should be limited to: Twelve Zonal Commands, national borders, airports and seaports, key federal institutions, Federal Highways, the Nigeria Railway Corporation and Inland Waterways. That is it.
In this new order, relics must be scrapped. The notorious SARS, officially disbanded after #EndSARS but still operating under tactical squads, must be truly disbanded. The yellow-uniform Traffic Police and the Federal Road Safety Corps should operate on the Federal highway and the FCT as a federal model. The formidable Mobile Police Force, MOPOL, should be retained, retrained and re-oriented strictly as an anti-riot and counter-insurgency reserve, deployed to Zonal Commands to assist State Police only on request during civil disorder, elections or a declared state of emergency.
Third, End Agency Proliferation. Nigeria is choked by acronyms that clash instead of collaborating. The roles of Civil Defence, EFCC, ICPC, NDLEA and Road Safety must be reviewed in a new Police Act to bring them under the New NPF as specialized departments. This will end the shameful EFCC vs NPF shootouts we have seen in Lagos.
Forest Rangers, critical for our ungoverned forests where bandits now camp, should be properly funded and placed under the operational control of State Police who know the terrain. Hisbah, Amotekun, Ebube Agu, vigilantes, CJTF, and hunters, though useful stopgaps, must be enhanced to compliment with the State Police.
Private security companies should be licensed to bear arms, but restricted to protecting private interests – estates, hospitals, universities, schools and individuals. Finally, Correctional Services must be on the Concurrent List. A state that arrests and prosecutes should be able to detain.
This is not the death of the NPF. It is its rebirth.
Amb. Izuagbe Peter Ozimede sent in this piece from Port Harcourt
