Whereas Part 14. (2) (b) of the 1999 Nigerian Structure declares emphatically that “the safety and welfare of the folks shall be the first objective of presidency,” this newspaper laments the cavalier and reactive strategy of elected public workplace holders to this all-important provision.
It’s regrettable that successive governments refused to heed the decision for the institution of state police. In a number of editorials spanning 20 years, this medium harped on the necessity for police decentralisation, not simply to comprise the burgeoning insecurity however as a key characteristic of federalism. After all, it goes with out saying that regulation enforcement officers will likely be exceptionally efficient in combating crime once they work amongst their very own folks and in their very own terrain or native atmosphere. How might one Inspector-Normal of Police from Abuja, even when he have been tremendous human, decide the safety structure for each village and hamlet in an unlimited territory with over 250 ethnic nationalities, having disparate backgrounds, languages and cultures?
The clamour for state police attained deafening decibels in recent times. It equally generated appreciable controversy. Regardless of the worsening insecurity, each Nigerian President opposed it for largely indecipherable causes, if not totally the will to retain the monopoly of an instrument of drive on the federal stage.
After a number of constitutional amendments, Part 214 of the 1999 Structure stays unaltered, to the chagrin of this newspaper, civil society organisations and different involved non state actors. Part 214 supplies as follows:
“214. (1) There shall be a police drive for Nigeria, which shall be referred to as the Nigeria Police Pressure, and topic to the provisions of this part no different police drive shall be established for the Federation or any half thereof.”
Now the chickens have come residence to roost. Insecurity, exacerbated by the actions and inactions of the Buhariadministration, has attained monstrous proportions now about to asphyxiate all the nation. We recall that not less than three state governors over the last administration, annoyed by the dearth of capability of the Nigerian state to safe lives and property, known as on their residents to defend themselves towards the callous, marauding insurgents, gun-toting herdsmen, kidnappers, terrorists and bandits – a euphemism for a name to arms!
However its belatedness and the gargantuan socio-economic losses occasioned by its unwarranted delay, we welcome the ‘Invoice for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Present for the Institution of State Police, and for Associated Issues.’
The Invoice, launched within the Home of Representatives on November 7, 2023 and co-sponsored by legislators unfold throughout the nation’s six geo-political zones, just lately handed second studying.
In the identical vein, we laud the choice of President Bola Tinubu and the state governors to succumb to the agitation for state police as a part of the measures to verify the rising wave of insecurity throughout the nation.
Clause 12 of the Home of Representatives’ Invoice utterly replaces Part 214 of the 1999 Structure (as amended) with ground-breaking provisions:
“214. (I) The next our bodies are established: (a) The Federal Police; and (b) State Police. (2) The Nationwide Meeting shall by an Act prescribe for the construction, organisation, administration, and powers of the Federal Police and supply the framework and tips for the institution of State Police. (3) The Federal Police shall – (a) Be liable for the upkeep of public safety, preservation of public order and safety of individuals and property all through the Federation to the extent supplied for beneath this Structure or by an Act of the Nationwide Meeting; and (b) Be liable for the upkeep of public safety, preservation of public order and safety of individuals and property inside a State to the extent that the State has energy to make legal guidelines beneath this Structure. (4) Topic to the provisions of this Structure, the Federal Police shall not interface with the operations of any State Police of the interior safety affairs of a State besides – (a) To comprise critical threats to public order the place it’s proven that there’s a full breakdown of regulation and order inside a State and the State Police is unable to comprise the menace; (b) The place the Governor of a State requests the intervention of the Federal Police to stop or comprise a breakdown of regulation and order within the State; and (c) The place a State Police is unable to operate owing to administrative, monetary or different issues which render it inoperative at a given time: Offered that any intervention beneath this subsection shall solely be made after approval by two-thirds majority of the Senate.”
*To be continued
