State Police: Fix Federal Police first, Ex Governor Yuguda says

Former Bauchi state Governor Isa Yuguda has urged the government to consider fixing the state of the National and federal police force before handling requests for a state police.

The statesman made this known at the Abuja stakeholders summit on state police organized by the Nigeria Police Force in collaboration with the Coalition of Nigeria Youths on Security and Safety Affairs.

The former Governor queried the rationale for a clamour for state police as he pondered what the current challenges with the current system was that prompted the calls.

“The question you will first ask yourself is, what is wrong with our police today that we need a state police? Have they failed? Is it because they failed that we need the state police? So do we concede what Chinua Achebe said in his book, things fall apart, that when the centre cannot hold things fall apart. Have our police faile?. If they are failing, or we have come to the bitter conclusion that they have failed. So, are we creating that another setup? And what guarantee do we have that, since our police at the national level have failed, the police at the state level will survive? Because I thought maybe if you have robust police force that that is something that we should be proud of as a nation, and you will not want it to disintegrate and to be taken over by parts rather than they as a whole. So, I would imagine that let’s get first, our national police, right. For that when you have the state police, they have somewhere to refer to in the various challenges, or they even go for more capacity building because there’s a security institution that predates their own,” he said.

He called for efforts to be directed to fixing the situation, “Are we really having a police force that is well trained today? Are they well, renumerated? Are they well equipped with the equipment to do their job? Are they also receiving the kind of training or retraining programmes which an average policemen should receive to be able to police this country? Are their numbers, okay? For a nation that is 200 million, or you’re talking about maybe 200, or 300 or 400,000 policemen, are we under policed? Let’s try to address the problems of the police so that we don’t make mistake of creating cells that will continue to destroy a nation. That’s my personal opinion.”

Also speaking the Director General, CONYSSA, Emmanuel Ademario explained that the dialogue needs to be sustained so that an informed decision can be taken from the executive level to the legislative.

He raised concerns about security outfits set up by state governments and the heads of these bodies.

He said, “The question is are we ready for state police, why do we need state police? And who are those clamouring for state police? You got to understand that most of the security outfit that have been created by governors in some states have been headed by retired personnels so it means those that have worked and failed while they were in service are looking for a means to continue to sustain and milk the country’s treasury either directly or indirectly. We are saying that the young people have what it takes to fight insecurity. If this young people are properly mainstreamed, holistically in the fight against crime and other social vices in local community and state and the country at large.”

“State police for us is just a call for anarchy. Our call to the Nigerian government to the security architecture, the NSA and others. And we are calling on His Excellency President to kindly tell those who are calling for state police to go and support the federal police to work better in their states. Join synergy with the State Police,” he added.

On his part, Prince Ayeni Ajayi reiterated calls for the federal police to be revamped and strengthened. He called for police manpower to be increased significantly.

He said, “It is also very important that the federal police should be strengthened and so that they’re able to do their job very well so that they will create synergy between state police and federal political advocacy today. The number the number of personnel the Federal Police is having is not enough. And also a lot of money also go to the states for security vote that become lost. So if State Police is also created, there’s no basis to spend this money.”

Various stakeholders have expressed varying opinions with the middle ground being a recommendation that the National Assembly and other stakeholders break down the merits and demerits of the call for state police and make a decision on the collective good of the people.