State Police And Rumbling Hunger

Even before the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Hon. Mohammed Idris, on Wednesday announced the Federal Government’s intention to release 42,000 metric tonnes of grains to cushion paralysing hardship hounding citizens, Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State had already commenced administering remedial measures to alleviate poverty plaguing among Borno’s poor. The measures, according to Zulum, are in recognition of the increase in funding from the monthly Federation Account that has seen many states receiving over 80 percent of their previous allocations, following the removal of fuel subsidies by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration.

Despite whopping sums of funds allocated to states and local governments (LGs) since June 2023, analysts are still wondering why some states are still lagging behind in the payment of salaries and allowances for their workers. In reality, governors have become the greatest beneficiaries of the fuel subsidies removal as many now ask: why has the increase in monthly funding of the states not translated into tackling poverty at state and LG levels?

Insecurity begets hunger

The North, once the melting pot of Nigeria’s diversity, has been overwhelmed by insurgency and other forms of insecurity. If Nigeria is now the global headquarters of poverty, the North has become the dreaded symbol of what poverty and insecurity can do to citizens. Apart from being a victim of insecurity, the North, formerly known as Arewa, is now reputed for cold-blooded killings and other revolting human barbarities ever to be imagined.

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The uproar over the strangulating level of poverty decimating the nation, especially the North, was succinctly captured on Wednesday when the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, lamented, “We must find jobs for our teeming youths that are sitting idle and I have said it so many times, we sitting on a keg of gunpowder, having teeming youths millions of them, without jobs, without food, we are looking for trouble”,

Having witnessed protests in many states, including Kano, Niger and Kogi, the chickens are coming home to roost as President Tinubu and the 36 governors have agreed on the need to establish State Police in order to combat the menace posed by insurgents and other criminal elements. With the nation’s political leadership finally accepting to create State Police, what are the prospects of clipping the destructive wings of these terror merchants?

 What type of state police?

Believing that State Police will end Nigeria’s security challenges amounts to embracing simple staircase in confronting these criminal gangs. State Police does not have all of the answers against insecurity; it only ensures promptness of action in combating outbreak of insecurity. Certain obligations must be fulfilled for an ideal State Police to emerge. In some states where fierce battle for control of resources exists among groups, State Police can only widen the landscape of oppression for control of political power. With few boots on the ground, some state governors, who are owing public service workers of faithful services delivered, may not provide the required funding for State Police.

The planned Committee on the State Police must look into the regulatory framework and the relationship that shall exist between the State and Federal Police in their operations. The Committee should also spell out ways through which State Police can be supervised against infractions in order to safeguard the purpose behind their establishment, including examining new challenges that may arise, especially in curbing the tyrannical disposition of governors who may deploy State Police for their electoral purpose, among others. All voices must be heard before the creation of State Police in order to douse fears.

Being cautious for now

The decision to establish state police should be applauded, but we must be cautious not to walk into traps of politicians who are never weary of deploying everything within their power to muzzle groups opposed to their dominance. The only advantage in states having their own police is prompt reaction to arrest any outbreak of insecurity without waiting for orders from Abuja that only come after crime perpetrators have unleashed avoidable damages on defenseless people and communities.

Under the State Police, the security architecture is democratised through the recruitment of personnel from states, local government areas who now form the bulwark of defence against terror gangs. Our present method of allowing insurgents and brigands to take control of ungovernable spaces, especially forests, must end as what is needful now is complete flushing of these criminals who use forests as safe havens and launching pads for crimes. With State Police, to be assisted by vigilante groups at the state, LG and ward level, intel reports on activities of criminals can be accessed easily in order to overrun them.

Why insecurity persists is tied to the failure of the political class to collectively arise against forces committed to the defeat of terror gangs. If Nigeria ever hopes to come out of this hole of its present predicament, then, nothing should be spared to deal a final blow to terror groups that are engaged in warring against the Nigerian state. A safe Nigeria is what is needed for the protection of lives and property, including making displaced communities return to their homelands. Those committed to enthroning their political interests must not be allowed to use State Police to have their ways. State Police can only be effective if their operations are insulated from the maneuvres of self-seeking politicians who are not devoted to the national interest.