Let us first understand that the current structure of policing in Nigeria, which is built on a colonial police system, was as a result of the pressures of the minorities in Nigeria. During the Constitutional Conference in London (1957-1958) leading to independence, delegates from the minority groups in Nigeria insisted that, as part of their conditions for agreeing to a Nigerian federation, policing in Nigeria must be a federal mandate.

They did not trust that their interests would be protected with regional and municipal police powers, and fully understood, or insisted, that their guarantee to safety and policing was in a centralized police system. All these are outlined in the Willinks Report. This fact also should guide those citizens of Nigeria who still wonder why the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) was centralized in a federal system, and who now call for the creation of state police. 

Of course, the historical factors that compelled that minority need to centralize police powers have dissipated, particularly with the unbundling of the regions and the creation/atomization of the federating states that now make up the Nigerian republic. There is current talk by state governors and the president of the federation about the creation of state police as a way of securing Nigeria. 

The rise of violent crimes – kidnappings, assassinations, banditry, and the general climate of insecurity – has forced the federal authorities,, for the first time, to consider “restructuring” and expanding police services in Nigeria to include state police services. The first thing that strikes one here is the legality of this talk. The roles of the state governors and the president – the executive branch of the government – must be scrutinized carefully. There has often been these erroneous expectations made on the executive branch by a largely, poorly informed public which simply presumes that changing the Constitution, and “restructuring” Nigeria is an executive mandate. It is not executive mandate, one bit. The mandate of the executive branch is to execute or implement the laws made by the legislature. 

Any question  about restructuring anything in Nigeria is legislative function. Neither the federal nor the state executive councils can decree the existence of state police, or a new police structure into being. I have heard people, including those who should know better, say that Tinubu should restructure this or restructure that! It is not his job. Tinubu has no power or mandate to restructure anything. It is the job of the National and State Assemblies.

That is why we elect parliaments, and put pressure on them. It is not up to the president to restructure the national police force, or create a state police service with the governors. To restructure the Nigerian Police Force, the National Assembly must amend the Police Act, and remove police function from the Exclusive List. Restructure is another word for constitutional amendment. The law empowering the states to be legally capable of organizing their own police services must be constitutionally guaranteed. It will not come from the mere wishes of the president or of the governors.

It will be by the pressure exerted by the citizens on their representatives in the National Assembly to review and amend the  Police Act, and establish the guidelines by which a federal, state and municipal police must be organized; the structure of such police service, and their relationship to which constitutional authority supervises or regulates them. Here therefore is what Nigerians should be talking about. What manner of police does Nigeria need? Here are a few things to consider about the current police service. The first is that it is doctrinally, poorly established.

What is the purpose of the Nigerian Police Force? It is said that the role of the Nigerian Police Force is to ensure the domestic security of Nigerians. But the Nigerian Police Force is generally disliked because  of its constabulary credentials which insists on the use of force rather than on the conduct of civil policing. The Nigerian Police Force has been used mostly to terrorize and contain, rather than protect and secure the citizens of Nigeria by those in power. The Nigerian Police Force is not a friend to Nigerian citizens. It has never been.

Nigerians do not trust their police services because, generally speaking, the Nigerian Police Force seems established to enforce the will of their political masters rather than the established laws of Nigeria. So, why is that? It has to do mostly with the historical, doctrinal orientation of the Nigerian Police as a constabulary force. It has not shed its colonial character or its raison de’tre. It is about containment of “the savages.” It is not about service. The Nigerian Police Force trains its officers to see Nigerians as threats and vermin, rather than as citizens. The doctrine and training of the Nigerian Police Force has to change. 

The role of the police is to enforce the laws of Nigeria. But, structurally, it is impossible to enforce these laws, when the police is controlled by the executive which deploys them at whim. This has to change. The police must be controlled, as it happens in other societies by the magistracy. That is to say it has become imperative to return control of the police to the judiciary. Here, therefore is what I propose. Any reform of the police must take into account the question of its control and governance. To whom does it render service, and to whom does the police render account?

Who commands, who controls? Frequently, Nigerians describe the president, and the governors as the Chief Security Officers of the nation and of the states. This is very, very wrong. The president is the Chief Executive of the federation, just as the governors are the Chief Executive Officers of the federating states. They are not – should in fact not – be the Chief Security Officers. The Chief Security Officer of Nigeria, by his very constitutional role, is the Inspector General of Police, who, with the Chief Law Officer of the Federation, the Attorney General, are empowered to enforce the laws of the states and of the federation.

In the same light, under the federal principle, the Chief Security Officer of the states should be its chief of police, who, with the Attorney General of the state, constitute the powers for the enforcement of state laws. There is a third sphere of government established under the Nigerian Constitution. It is called the local government, on whose shoulders rest local and municipal government. It is constitutionally its own government. But we have also forgotten this fact, because a defective clause in the Constitution has led to the suppression and absorption of this branch of government by the governors. This is where the problem actually lies: the interpretation of the powers of the state, and of the executive branch. The current control of the police by the executive branch endangers the entire security superstructure of the Nigerian state. 

The reason for a dysfunctional police system in Nigeria is because of the misuse of executive power. The president has absolute power over the police currently. He appoints, he directs, and he deploys the police to serve executive interest. This is dangerous. For instance, a president who commits treason, or breaks the law, can never be arrested because no orders issued to arrest him will have an effect. He is the law. That is why the current structure of the police must not only be unbundled, but also reviewed, to remove policing from executive control.

The power to arrest and detain is the basis of police power. The power to issue orders for arrest and detention must be removed from executive authority, it must return to the judiciary. It must be that no citizen, under the laws of Nigeria, should be arrested on the orders of an executive authority. That power to issue an arrest and detention order must belong, and appropriately return to the magistrate or judge, through an appeal secured from the office of the Attorney General, rather than the office of the Chief of Police, who is subservient to the executive authority, as it currently stands, the president. 

A properly structured Nigerian Police must return all the police duties currently segregated from police control – the Department of State Service (DSS), the EFCC, and all these currently fissiparous departments, which are traditional police functions, must be reorganized, modernized, and reintegrated effectively back to the police. The right of the states, and the local governments to establish and organize state and municipal police must be recognized by the Nigerian Constitution. But very important guarantees must be established to make police work independent of executive power in these spheres. The oversight must be both parliamentary and judicial. No state governor must be given the power to appoint, or control the state police. 

Appointment of a state’s Head of Police must be made by a State Police Commission, while control of state police must be by the judiciary and by the House of Assembly, which must direct the Attorney General on police regulation. The same principles must go to the structuring of the Federal Police Services, and the Municipal Police. But in all these questions is the issue of recruitment and retention. A key problem of the police is the quality of its recruitment of its constables. The Nigerian Police has a history of recruiting the worst, and the most poorly educated people to police service. This needs to stop. 

Nigeria needs to recruit its best citizens, properly educated to do police work, treat them very well, pay them very well, provide them the kind of living condition, and work environment that makes police service both stimulating and worthwhile. Otherwise, whether or not you create state police, Nigerians will continue to be unsafe. There will continue to be the “Wetin-ye-Carry” police, because to pay a man slave wages, and expect him to guard your life and your billions is stretching it. All these must be considered.