With the requisite political will, Nigeria should reform its policing system before the end of the year, thanks to the on-going National Conference. Last week conferees were unanimous in allowing the establishment of a police service by each federating state in an attempt to localize the security apparatus and make law officers more accountable to the people.
The conference accords state governments the latitude to establish, finance and control the operations of their own police through laws enacted by the various State Houses of Assembly.
The Federal Police will have jurisdiction over all parts of the country on clearly spelt out matters and offences while the jurisdiction of each State Police service will cover the state with emphasis on community policing. The conferees have also advocated that officers from the rank of deputy superintendent in the Federal Police should be deployed to serve in their states of origin to address the concern of language and culture.
To make the Police truly civil and friendly, the conference urged an amendment of Section 214 of the Constitution to change the name Nigeria Police Force to The Nigeria Police.
The recommendation of the confab is perhaps the most promising step to unlocking the contentious issue of state police. The buck is now passed to the President and the National Assembly to do the needful in producing a workable formula and in enacting robust laws that will engender efficient federal-state relationship. Although there are genuine concerns on how the two tiers will relate and function, the lawmakers have the benefit of borrowing some wisdom from other countries, near and far, on how to fashion a workable system.
Pundits have identified a few grey areas such as funding, jurisdiction, political manipulation and quality assurance. These are critical areas that should be defined by law. Adequate funding is essential to remunerate officers and men appropriately, create conducive working environments and purchase modern equipment. The enabling law must also be explicit on the territorial and operational jurisdictions of each tier even as Conferees have suggested that the federal police must be saddled with the task of forensic investigations, curbinginter-border crimes, fighting terrorism and protecting the Constitution of the land.
It is apt to emphasize that the recruitment procedure must be stringent enough to exclude people with criminal records and criminal intentions from getting enlisted in the Police and in infiltrating the security services. As reported in the on-going fight against terrorism, a few black legs have been fished out in the Army and Police columns. There is a lesson to learn from this.
Perhaps the most ominous fear on the advent of State Police is the predisposition of state governors to create political monsters for muzzling the opposition; turning the State Police into an instrument for promoting personal and selfish interests. Such fears are well founded. The only rein on such excess is to fortify the instrument of checks and balances as enshrined in the Constitution. This notion places a huge task on the various legislative arms and the capacity to discharge their functions creditably.
At the heart of an efficient and modern Police Service is the quality of personnel enlisted. While training and other forms of capacity building can boost human efficiency, we suggest that government must raise the bar for qualification to enlist in the security services, especially the Police. Good education, mental alertness and the resilience to cope with the rigors of the job are necessary prerequisites in building an efficient, modern and responsive Police service.
Above all, a new paradigm is required in civil orientation by doing away with the ‘force’ mentality in making the Police truly the friend of the people.