The End of a Failed Experiment: Nigeria Embraces State Police

Legalizing State Police

I do not normally praise the Nigerian government.

But tell me: why should anyone not praise President Tinubu for taking measures to inaugurate State Police?

To my amazement, the Nigerian House of Representatives has passed legislation to amend the 1999 Constitution, decentralize the Nigerian Police Force, and legalize state policing.

The question is not why lawmakers took this important step.

The real questions are twofold: Why would anyone with a working brain imagine that a centralized police force headquartered in the Federal Capital Territory could effectively police the entire country?

And why did it take so long to realize that the existing system is not working?

Britain, the colonial power that created Nigeria, does not operate a centralized police force.

The United States does not operate a centralized police force.

Nigeria’s situation is highly unusual.

Only a few countries, including Ghana and Kenya, continue to operate a single centralized police system.

One must therefore commend President Tinubu for taking this courageous step to break the back of a system that imposed a single police force on an entire nation.

Could the President now take a fine-tooth comb through the pages of the 1999 Constitution to see what other misguided laws may be hidden within it?

Because if the idea of a single national police force could be so carefully embedded in the Constitution, there may well be many other provisions in urgent need of review or repeal.

We beseech the President:

Àgbàtàn là á gbólẹ̀.

Bí a dá aṣọ́ fọ́lẹ̀, a pà á láró.

Aworosasa Moyo Okediji