Decentralisation of Nigeria Police Force

The Senate last Tuesday, approved recommendations of a report by its ad hoc committee on ‘National Security Challenges’, with the principal being the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

The other approved recommendations of the committee, which are intended to reposition the Nigeria Police Force, include the call on the 36 state assemblies to pass legislations that will facilitate the advent of community policing in the country.

The committee which, under the leadership of Senator Yahaya Abdullahi was inaugurated on January 29, 2020, also recommended the expansion of the State Security Council, and the establishment of Security Advisory Councils at the local government and ward levels to include a broad-based membership by all relevant security assets and community representatives.

Apparently desirous to foster a closer knit framework for operatives in a new era security architecture for Nigeria, the committee also spelt out specific remedial measures that will actualise a desired affirmative response to the country’s burgeoning security challenges.

One of such is the call on the Presidency to cause the Ministry of Police Affairs and Inspector General of Police (IGP) to facilitate a functional decentralisation of the NPF, with budgetary powers vested in the 11 zonal commands under Assistant Inspectors General (AIGs). Just as well, it also proposed the amendment of extant laws governing all components of the country’s security agencies from the military to the paramilitary outfits to reflect the new dispensation.

Presently, there is a nagging state of dissatisfaction across the country over lapses in the security of the nation, with fingers pointed mainly at the NPF, being the main frame of the country’s security architecture. In the same vein the trending conversation has also focused on the weaknesses associated with the centralisation of the command structure of the NPF, in a multi-cultural society as Nigeria. This is the plank on which hangs whatever arguments for its decentralisation.

Meanwhile, the arguments for the decentralisation of the NPF run along two main directions. In one vein is the clamour for state police which generations of protagonists – including past and serving state governors, have always favoured. In the other vein is the advocacy for community policing which the federal government seems to be comfortable with as it is believed to run with contemporary political realities of an emerging democracy as Nigeria.

Besides, sections 214 and 215 of the constitution seem to have considered same political realities hence vests all command and control powers of the establishment in a central point, being the Inspector General of Police (IGP). Seen in perspective, the recommendations of the committee, far reaching as they are, also seem to align with the second option of community policing for now, and in respect of which they provide a viable road map.

A significant feature of the recommendations is a marked emphasis on improved synergy when all security components and assets in the country’s security establishment participate fully at every tier of governance. By this emphasis on inclusiveness of all stakeholders in matters pertaining to security, the Senate committee’s report seems to have taken to a new level, the imperative for closer collaboration between the various components of the security architecture. Presently this is not happening as every component simply acted in isolation from the rest, thereby providing for the serial slips in the country’s security management regime.

With the Senate report now defining the template for a new national security management regime, the implementation phase is due, as the ultimate utility of the recommendations lies with implementation. Given the debilitating effect of the country’s raging security challenges, the need exists for prompt follow-up of the recommendations by the executive arm. Security breaches facing the country span the entire gamut of threats ranging from murders, armed robbery and related acts of banditry, kidnapping for ransom, political assassinations, insurrection and armed insurgency. Their collective impact has been debilitating and even threaten the territorial integrity of the country, to say the least.

That is why the executive arm needs to address that report now with deserving dispatch, and restore the waning confidence of the citizenry.