CONFERENCE ON SECURITY AND STATE POLICE BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Date: 22 April, 2024
Venue: Abuja Continental Hotel, 1 Ladi Kwali Street, Wuse, Abuja.
Time: 10:00am
UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF STATE POLICE: Benefits, Challenges and Implications for National Security in a Developing Society
Some significant policy pronouncements were made during the past few months with critical bearing upon national security regarding the restructuring of one of its modulators. On Thursday 15 February 2024, the Minister of Information and National Orientation disclosed President Bola Tinubu’s agreement on the need to establish state police as recommended by state governors to curb worsening and frightening insecurity in the country. A committee was set up to explore the initiative. “The State Police Bill”, a constitutional amendment issue, after the second reading in the Federal House of Representatives, was transferred to the Constitution Review Committee. The Bill seeks to transfer “Police” in the 1999 Constitution from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list. With its 18 clauses, the bill seeks to amend sections 34, 35, 39, 42, 84, 89, 129, 153, 197, 214, 215 and 216 of the Constitution. Some Nigerians see considerable merit in this development, some others are suspicious that it might not be in the overall interest of national security.
To provide a clear understanding of the concept of state police and related matters, there is need to situate our analysis within time and space, mindful in particular of the social order, the predispositions and perspectives of the people. Nigeria provides us with “a developing society” as the object of our focus and, of course, the space for the practical application of our thoughts and the implementation of our policy recommendations. To be or not to be? That is the question surrounding state police.
Contrary to the way it might seem, the “state police” proposition is not a simple policy that could be decided on the basis of causes and effects, such as:
It is both a policy issue and a constitutional issue whose success would depend upon some incentivizing factors which could be graphically summarized as follows:
In the past, throughout most of the various communities, basic norms governed interpersonal relations. Individuals were largely defined by ethnicity. The primary means of production was land and it determined surplus appropriation rather than through commodity relations. Labour was closely associated with land as means of production and were collectively owned through the traditional ruler and managed by individual families. Production relations was cooperative while governance was by a council of elders which functioned effectively with an indigenous policing system and guided by their socio-cultural peculiarities. Then came colonialism which monetized the economy, introduced and entrenched capitalist relations of production and instituted a policing system which made the police an instrument for the defence of the colonizer’s interests and for the repression of the colonised people. The post independence social formation that evolved threw up a political class that saw the police largely through the prism of the departed colonialists.
The Concept of State Police
“State Police: stands at a level between federal police and community police in a federation. Since it derives from the “Police”, it is necessary to begin with the clarification of “police” as a concept. As modernization brought about increased pressure on leaders to make laws and regulations for the physical safety, health, morals and welfare of the people, so did the need to police them. It evolved as an institution whose agents operated publicly and privately. In public, the police is concerned with the enforcement of law, order and public protection. They are meant to operate both in rural and urban areas, large cities and small communities. Their duties, especially in modern cities, cover a wide range of activities, from criminal investigation and apprehension to crime prevention, traffic regulation and maintenance of records.
The emergence of the police and their administration vary from country to country1. On the continent of Europe, there is a tendency for centralization. Of significance, however, was the formulation of the English metropolitan police system by Sir Robert Peel in 1829. Along with the reorganization of Scotland Yard he, as the Home Secretary, reformed the criminal laws and established the London police force. In the United States, there is decentralization. Here, Metropolitan police have the widest functions while state police are largely concerned with traffic control and rural protection. On the other hand, police agents of the federal government include members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), agents of the Treasury Department (including the members of the Secret Service who guard the President and some other public figures) and agents of the Justice Department. There is, of course, the International Criminal Police Organization, a worldwide clearing house for police information, for coordinating the fight against crime at the international level which was established in 1923 (and based in Vienna) and was reconstituted in 1946 with headquarters in Paris.
One brand of the police that requires some conceptual clarification before moving to “state police” is the “secret police”. In virtually all societies, the enforcement of the law has always required a certain amount of secrecy, particularly in that phase of law enforcement that is connected with the investigation of crime rather than with the apprehension and conviction of the criminal. Long before the emergence of a uniformed, clearly recognizable police force, there were secret bodies formed by societies for their protection from internal and external attack.
In its wider meaning, secret police embraces all those members of any police force that operate, often out of uniform, without giving any warning to the suspected criminal that he is being investigated. In societies that are genuinely democratic, however, the role of the secret police ordinarily ends once the investigation is closed; either no sufficient ground for supposing guilt has been found, or the criminal is indicted and confronted with the full evidence against him. In the narrow sense, the secret police is a body officially or in fact granted authority superior to other law-enforcing agencies. It investigates, apprehends and, in some cases, judges the suspect in secrecy, and it is accountable only to the executive arm of the government. In extreme cases, such a secret police force could even have its own courts and prisons, and its activities are kept secret not only from the mass of the population but also from the judiciary as well as the legislative and executive authorities of the state, except at the topmost level. Put differently, it is a covert law enforcement or intelligence agency that operates outside the normal boundaries of public scrutiny. The operatives typically engage in surveillance, espionage, and often carry out clandestine activities to maintain political control or suppress dissent within a country.
Now to the State Police
There is need to clear the conceptual confusion relating to state police. It is frequently used interchangeably but erroneously with metropolitan police and community police. The police, in any category, is expected to perform such functions as enforcing laws, keeping the peace and furnishing services. Metropolitan police relates to the metropolis or big cities and how they are policed while community policing is operational where the police and the police establishment are seen by the people as members of the community because they live and work among them.
State police has a clear delineation and relevance within the context of a federal system. The United States of America (USA) provides a striking example. The principal responsibility for law enforcement in the country has always rested with the state and local governments. The major federal law enforcement agencies – the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the Department of Justice and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) in the Treasury Department – are charged with enforcing federal laws. Apparently, the role of the federal government in law enforcement has been growing but state and local governments continue to carry the major burdens of police protection, judicial systems, and prison and parole programs.
As it is with most national governments, there is tendency in the USA for politicians to lobby so as to make “a federal crime” out of virtually every offence in society. And, at the lower end is the community whose elements include:
geographical area, common historical, cultural and economic ties and social interaction committed to specific goals which is in consonance with the assertion that community incorporates three major elements: a group of people interacting, having some ties or bonds in common which unite them; and occupying a common geographic area2.
Where does the concept of state police begin and end between a national government with a propensity for federalizing all crimes and the citizens that see themselves as a community, a subculture in which members share common beliefs, values, identity and interact within intimate socio-economic and political structures?
Simply put, within the framework of a federal system of government, the federating units of the system are the operators of state police. The police is maintained and controlled by the state and the structuring and policy-making process do not leave room for external penetration of its jurisdiction. Essentially, therefore, a state police means a police force organized and maintained independently by a state as a subnational unit of a country. Within the overall security system of the country, however, its operations would complement that of the national or federal police force and be clearly delineated in the constitution. It represents one way of upgrading and modernizing localized popular policing of the past about which Tekene Tamuno had this to say:
Whether or not regular local police had existed in all the various villages and towns in old Nigeria, it is true, that in the final analysis, the community remained ‘the main police force’ of the country. The vigilance of members of not very large communities where the presence of a criminal character could not be hidden for long, the force of religious sanctions and the swiftness and efficiency of age-grades and other open or secret societies in executing the administrative cum judicial orders of elders, adequately met the not-too-onerous demands of preventing and detecting crime before the advent of Europeans in old Nigeria3.
Benefits of State Police
The foregoing aspect of the communal self-policing of African Societies was apparently not quite evident to western colonialists who could only see the ontological conditions of African societies as definable only in terms of disorder and lawlessness. The current level of insecurity in Nigeria would, of course, almost give credence to such pernicious perception. It is in the course of finding solutions to the escalation of heinous crimes, including an unending kidnapping, banditry and terrorism, that the issue of state police came up. Incidentally, one of the first Nigerians to fly the kite was President Olusegun Obasanjo and he escalated it in November, 2022. Between then and now, most proponents have hinged their positions on the following premises:
The present national security architecture cannot cope with the escalating challenges and there is need for novel ways of handling them.
State policing is a universal practice and it is in consonance with the spirit and ethos of federalism.
The multiple layers and dimensions of criminality in Nigeria require that they be tackled effectively at various levels.
It is through a structure that includes state policing that community policing could be effected.
An efficient and effective state police would factor community policing into its operations and thus ensure regular detection and prevention of crime.
Operations within a state police structure would put an end to high handedness in Nigerian policing; that is, “the use of power or authority in a way that is more forceful than is needed, without thinking about the feelings or wishes of other people”. In other words, there will the accountability and no room for hiding under the anonymity and cover of the federal police with directives regularly attributed to faceless authorities (“order from above”) in Abuja. The accountability factor is cogent as has been aptly put by Etannibi Alemika:
Accountability is the hallmark of democracy. It connotes subjection of actors to continuous monitoring to ensure that they act in accordance with their mandates and relevant rules, failing which they are liable to sanctions. Police accountability, may simply be described as subjection of the police to institutionalised scrutiny with respect to (1) their conduct and use of power conferred on them; (2) performance in respect of their primary duty of safeguarding safety of persons and security of property, and (3) use of resources allocated to them4.
Lagos is one of the most strategic and volatile states among the units federated in Nigeria. The Governor of the state, Babajide Sanwoolu, was among the most supportive governors in terms of availing the Nigeria police force of goodwill and materials for effective operations. As the Chief Security Officer of the state, he found himself helpless before a chief superintendent of police when (in January 2022) there was a breakdown of law and order at the Magodo Phase II Estate in Lagos. Such embarrassing face-off would not have happened if state policing had been part of Nigeria’s security system.
The Governor of a state, as the Chief Security of the State, would be the de facto overseer of internal security within the state – with attendant latitude to act timeously and effectively without being undermined structurally or institutionally.
Security would be generally enhanced at the grassroots level through a state policing system.
The Challenges
The police is a potent instrument of power. The unsuitability of the 1999 Constitution for the proper governance of Nigeria is fundamentally on the basis of its false premises but also in view of its inherent weaknesses which give room for pervasive impunities. These have been exploited by desperate political opportunists to turn themselves into mini-gods and lousy emperors, making incurable psychophants out of the state legislators, commissioners and other political appointees and the army of aides around them. This phenomenon, common in most of the states of the Nigerian federation, has turned the state police proposition into a nightmare. It is assumed that state police in the hands of people who have demonstrated state capture would amount to licencing their political thugs and putting them in uniforms. In addition to the danger of abuse (intimidation or harassment of political opponents) are the following challenges.
The issue of State Police is a constitutional matter and it would have to be addressed appropriately within the context of a new constitution.
The new constitution would need to factor in the outcome of the 1953 Constitutional Conference which produced central and regional governments and placed the Local Government Police Forces organized on provincial basis under the regional governments5.
How to elevate the operational law beyond authoritative statements of public morality – such as “thou shall not”. It would be difficult to square it with the incentive approach to public policy as the underlying premise for such statements is negative and coercive.
With the current process of governance in the states and the orientation of the leaders, most states would find it difficult to adequately fund a state police (recruitment, training, basic infrastructures, adequate modern equipment, salaries and allowances).
A state police could be hijacked by some mafia or a cabal to pursue agendas inimical to the interest of the state.
Crimes and criminality could be diverted to overburden states with weaker state policing structure or operational system.
Disagreements to neigbhbouring states over boundaries, mineral resources or ethnicity could lead to war with mutual deployment of state police.
Leaders with separatist inclinations or secessionist tendencies could fortify the state, equip its police and indoctrinate the people sufficiently as to confront the national leadership and challenge the nation’s security and territorial integrity.
The Implications
A “yes” answer to the question “to be or not to be?” regarding state police presumes possibility of positive impacts. This is against the backdrop of the need for multiple indicators in measuring the output of such an agency of government in the face of multidimensional crimes and general insecurity.
With the size of Nigeria (over 923,768 square kilometres) with a population of over 210 million people and the present security situation in the country, the restructuring of the Nigeria Police to throw up a state policing system is part of a much needed national restructuring based on a new constitution for the people of Nigeria. State Police has become imperative and what this implies is the need to address the challenges identified above, bearing in mind historicity, acceptability, sustainability and impact. Irrespective of whatever form of constitution will come up eventually, the following points from four representative countries are instructive.
In the United States, states as the federating units maintain their police force independent of the federal government.
In Australia, the federating units enact laws for the administration of policing in their jurisdictions.
Brazil has five policing bodies. Three of them are affiliated to the federal authorities while two are under the authorities of the state governments.
While South Africa has a single Police Force on the basis of its 1994 constitution, the South African police service is decentralized and structured to function at national, provincial and local government levels.
It is, however, not because other countries adopt a particular policy approach that Nigeria should follow it. A decision has to be based on relevant factors.
The challenges enumerated above were virtually present when the 2014 Constitutional Conference in Nigeria recommended a state policing system as part of the solutions to problems of security and political stability, equity and justice, unity, etc. They were also obvious in 2018 when Senator Ike Ekweremadu spearheaded the Bill which sought to establish state and community police. At the National Security Summit organized by the Senate in February 2018, the Presidency had to concede that “state police and other community policing methods are clearly the way to go”.
Apart from the escalation of various conflicts and violent crimes, the maintenance of law and order and enhancement of security in a country as large and diverse as Nigeria require more than one layer, a unitarized system, of policing. In short, state police has become a necessity more than ever before. This has serious implications for governance and the political system. For the system to succeed, the following measures would have to be taken:
A new constitution is imperative. It should be a people’s constitution and should give Nigeria a new structure and the police new structures and identities.
Policies should be formulated to improve and entrench democratic culture at the state level where the legislature should effectively check excesses and impunities of the Governors.
Establishment of a non-partisan body of residents of each state by legislation (State Police Service Commission) with oversight powers over appointments, promotions, discipline and operational deployments in the state police. In this regard, recruitment should be based purely on merit, objective criteria to make a diligent, patriotic and effective police out of anyone recruited.
Funding of the State Police is a major responsibility which should be recognized in the revenue allocation formula of a new Constitution.
The State Commission would draw up annual budget for the State Police for appropriation by the State House of Assembly.
Budget of the State Police Commission should be a first line charge on the consolidated revenue fund.
A State Police Trust Fund should be set up and managed by a Board of Trustees.
Decentralization of the police should not only entail a new structure at the state level but one that is creatively designed to accomplish peculiar necessities.
The State Police Service Commission must have some working relationships with those of other states and the outfit at the national level for easy exchange of information and collaboration.
Education and regular training and retraining should be part of the work culture of State Police officers and men.
Notes and References
1. See Bruce Smith, Police Systems of the United States (1960); James Cramer, The World’s Police (1964); D.J. Bordue (ed), The Police (1967); H.K. Becker, Police Systems of Europe (1973), Kemi Rotimi, The Police in a Federal State: The Nigerian Experience (2001); Eugene McLaughlin, Community Policing: A Contemporary Perspective (2006); Solomon E. Arase & Iheanyi O. Iwuofor, Policing Nigeria in the 21st Century (2007); Victor E. Kappeler & Larry K. Gaines, The Changing Environment for Policing (2012); James F. Albrecht, Garth den Heyer, Perry Stanislas, The New Policing (2019); Ben Jones, Eduardo Mendieta, Modern Policing: New Paradigms and Perspectives (2021).
2. Isaac I. Onyesom, Fundamentals of Community Policing in Nigeria: A Resource Handbook for Safety, Security and Law Enforcement Officers (Port Harcourt: Harry Publications Company, 2009) p. 17.
3. T.N. Tamuno, “Crime and Society in Pre-colonial Nigeria” in Tamuno, T.N., et al. (eds) Policing Nigeria: Past, Present and Future (Lagos: Malthouse, 1943) p. 144.
4. E.O. Alemika “Police Oversight Organizations in West Africa”, Police Accountability, Newsletter, July 2006. Quoted in Emmanuel C.S. Ojukwu, Discovering the Police … An Excursion into Police Personality, Powers, Performance and Prudence (Ibadan: Gold Press Limited, 2011) p. 134.
5. Some of the intricate operations of the Local Police are detailed in Kemi Rotimi, “Local Police in Western Nigeria: End of an Era”, Panel on Policing Nigeria Project, (edited by Tekene N. Tamuno, Ibrahim L. Bashir, Etanmibi E.O. Alemika, Abdulrahman O. Akano Policing Nigeria: Past, Present and Future, (Lagos: Malthouse Press Limited, 1993) pp. 187-237.
