State police: Between necessity and worries
victimization at the hands of an indigenous armed security outfit in a state or a geopolitical zone, the perpetrators’ ethnoreligious compatriots living in the victims’ native state(s) would be automatically exposed to imminent retaliatory victimization at the hands of the indigenous armed security outfits there, which may result in pervasive chaos that may indeed escalate into uncontrollable ethnoreligious conflicts across the country. Already, there have been many instances of this scenario involving many, if not most, states in the country.
Critics of this idea also warn that state police or armed security outfits are likely to end up as tools in the hands of state governors and other politicians to perpetrate politicallymotivated intimidation
Nigerian elites don’t want to publicly admit is that the underlying motive of this obsession is the fear that the region may not survive the cessation of the inflow of crude oil proceeds, which automatically stop in the event of the country’s disintegration. This is notwithstanding the region’s immeasurable agricultural and crude oil reserves potential, for it requires massive investment and indeed takes time to develop into economy-sustaining resources.
Anyway, now that the South-west states have created an armed security outfit for their geopolitical zone presumably to complement the police, which generated the current controversy, there’s no better time than now to address the issue decisively. Because, among other things, while the federal government lacks effective enforcement instruments to enforce its ban on the outfit, other zones and states are likely to equally launch their respective security outfits soon. And unless constitutionally sanctioned and regulated, the trend may lead to the proliferation of armed security outfits with serious security implications that the country cannot afford.
This is also absolutely urgent in the face of the alarming worsening of the security situation in the country as the atrocious activities perpetrated by bandits, kidnappers, terrorists, armed robbers and other crime syndicates steadily overwhelm the already grossly understaffed, under-equipped, exhausted and largely demoralized Nigerian police personnel.
Though it’s indeed a tricky dilemma, yet it can be addressed, only that it takes a sense of responsibility and an imaginative approach on the part of those in the positions of authority to provide appropriate constitutional provisions that not only sanction the creation of standard police in states or geopolitical zones but also address all the underlying worries surrounding it.
Effective federallyregulated supervisory mechanisms should also be put in place to ensure strict compliance with the standard professional policing practices and ethics that translate into efficient mutually complementing policing between the federal and the state police.