The national debate over state police has intensified, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Nnoruka Udechukwu has warned that handing governors unchecked control of security forces could lead to widespread abuse of power.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, Udechukwu recalled that the question of central versus state-controlled policing has been unresolved since the drafting of the 1999 Constitution, which established a central police under Section 214, noting that although nearly all state governors have endorsed President Bola Tinubu’s push for state police, the risks of political misuse remain high.
“The issue about whether to have a central police organisation or to allow states to run their own police services has always been with us. It was a very, very serious issue during the debate that was precursor to the 1999 constitution. It was not an easy debate that eventually culminated in an agreement to adopt the version that is contained in section 214 of the 1999 constitution, which created for central police. But ever since then, the debate has never ended.”
Udechukwu warned that Nigeria’s politics made the matter more dangerous. “The problem we have in Nigeria is that of politics. The kind of politics that we experience in Nigeria, the winner-takes-all kind of politics, the highly charged political atmosphere that we live under, makes it very, very difficult to find a solution to what is otherwise a very simple matter. At the base of all the problems about whether to have a central police system or a state police system is because of the urge, the inordinate urge in the politician to exercise absolute power.”
He warned that governors could misuse police powers to entrench themselves, “If you get the governor and give him a police force under his control, heaven forgive us. Because he will do whatever he likes in that state, and he will never have the voice of opposition in that state.”
Drawing on history, Udechukwu pointed to the civil war, “It was the fact that the state had some measure of control over the police that made the Nigerian civil war easy to start. That was really the reason why the courage to confront the federal government existed at the time, because the state government had control over its police force, which it could turn into an army.”
Despite his concerns, he clarified that he was not opposed to state police in principle, only to governor-controlled models. “Please, I think I have failed to get my views really understood. Let me try once more. I am not against state police. What I am against is exclusively controlled by the governor.”
He expressed confidence in the bill before the National Assembly, which proposes decentralised state commands under national oversight, “The contemplated police formations that are now going to be called state police are not going to be exclusively under the control of the governors who may then be tempted to deploy it for separatist intentions. I am looking at that bill. That bill, to me, is a very well-constructed bill, and I’m anxiously following its movement. It’s gone through the first reading, I think. I hope that it continues to sail through and then becomes a law in this country. Then it is going to substantially remove what you are fearing might lead to separatist tendencies in the police force. Because the state police that is envisaged under that bill is not a state police that the governor can do as he pleases.”
He dismissed proposals for NGO-led accountability councils or regional police, “I would distance myself totally from a situation that you described, because it is going to lead to chaos. And it has resulted in chaos in the past. Please do not leave the fate of Nigerians in the hands of elected people. We know how these elections are done. Look at the last elections we’ve just had. People just hang around and then give money to people to vote. And you’re going to be elected? If I had my way, elections will stop in this country.”
Udechukwu concluded that no system could be perfect but insisted that Nigeria must guard against unchecked power in the hands of governors, “There is no perfection in human affairs. We can never have a perfect system that will have no flaws. Absolute powers always corrupt absolutely. If you allow the governor the kind of wiggle room to have that kind of control over a police force in his state, heaven forgive us.”
Erizia Rubyjeana
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