The creation of state police would not solve Nigerian insecurity anymore. Instead of creating the aforesaid why not reform the Nigeria Police Force and recruit more people in the agency and expand its budgetary allocation.
Also, those who have been recruited as the state police in some states of this country should be redeployed to the Nigeria Police Force. However, most of those states owned police would not serve the interest of the general public rather they would be committed towards serving the interest of their state governments.
Take Amotekum as the recent case of study and what has happened between the Yoruba and the Hausa in Oyo state and some of their neighbouring states who have formed Amotekum security unit. The Amotekum security agency has been allegedly involved in the brutal massacre of Hausa and Fulani.
Furthermore, the federal government should not take this issue of state police lightly. This is because, if every state of the federation creates its own state police, the whole 36 states of the federation would be submerged in chaos due to clashes of interests and the goals of one state maybe contrary to the goals of other states.
In a nutshell, I would like to caution the government of the federation to reform and restructure the Nigeria Police Force by motivating them to a desired level, and by transforming the newly state security unit (state police) into the Nigeria Police Force that will only be held accountable to the government of the federation. It should also increase the budget of the Nigeria Police Force if the new state security agencies are converted by the federal government.
Pelami Panda,
Department of Mass Communication,
University of Maiduguri
