Nigeria is not ripe for state police

But in my opinion, although in some developed countries each state owns its police force and they are doing wonderfully well in maintaining law and other, it is not the case in Nigeria.  Nigeria is not developed enough to have police forces under the control of state governments.If state governments get the constitutional powers to […]

But in my opinion, although in some developed countries each state owns its police force and they are doing wonderfully well in maintaining law and other, it is not the case in Nigeria.  Nigeria is not developed enough to have police forces under the control of state governments.
If state governments get the constitutional powers to create their own police forces, there is likelihood that they would use them to harass, intimidate and subjugate their political opponents and use them in rigging election. There is also every tendency that nepotism and favouritism would come into play during recruitment exercise, only those in the same political ship with the state governor, top party echelon and government functionaries will be recruited at the expense of merit.
What we need now is reformed and formidable police force under the federal government, adequately funded, with sophisticated weapons, state-of-the-art patrol vehicles, equipped with hi-tech policing gadgets, standard infrastructure, well-trained personnel. In addition the federal government should improve the welfare of our police; it should also embark on re-training of officers and men of Nigerian police on modern tactics of community policing, combating terrorism, prevention of crime, with special emphasis on information and communication technology (ICT). This would make our police proactive rather than reactive.

Mustapha Mammada, IKCOE Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State,
<[email protected]>;