Watching the drama enacted within the precincts of Magodo Estate, when Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu drove there to dislodge a police presence made me to have a rethink on the call for state police. The call for a separate police force to be controlled by state governments has been persistent for many years mostly because the Nigeria Police Force has had difficulties upholding law and order within the country. In probably all instances of uprisings the army had to be called in to supplant the police.
Many state governors, particularly in this 4th Republic, have always felt that they could do better in keeping law and order if the police within their territories were at their command. In these times, the Boko Haram insurgency, the rise of banditry in the North West and North Central and the cumulative incidences between herdsmen and farmers across the nation have given fresh impetus to those calling for a state police. With all these crises overwhelming the police I became a convert, myself, to the idea of state police, though with some reservations.
I am old enough to have witnessed how effective the native authority police were in crime prevention and control in the early 1960s and wished for a more localised police force than what we have now. This does not preclude the fact that even in those times there were complaints that the local police were used for partisan purposes. Admittedly, they were. And there are legions of complaints to that effect particularly by members of the opposition parties. In Maiduguri where I grew up, members of the opposition parties there, including the Borno Youth Movement (BYM) and Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), would relate horror stories of their sordid encounters with the local police, then controlled by the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) which was supreme in the area.
But one must admit that the local police were largely effective in controlling crime. They knew the terrain. They knew their criminals and would be on top of the situation whenever called upon. Unfortunately, the entire institution of the regional police would become one of the casualties of Decree No 34 otherwise known as the Unification Decree passed by General Aguiyi-Ironsi in May 1966. The decree was hugely controversial and was repealed by Decree No 9 in August, the same year, by General Yakubu Gowon who succeeded Ironsi following an uprising. However, even though the decree remained repealed, certain aspects of unification were effected by General Gowon’s government. They saw the need for a unified police force and thus continued with the exercise unabated, until its completion in 1972.
The unified police force had an initial good run for at least a decade when they were properly funded. But the good run ended in the 1980s when funds dried up for the burgeoning police force. Slowly things degenerated till when calls started for local police.
However, the Magodo drama should give cause for the proponents of state police to have a rethink. It is alarming to see a state governor grandstanding all in an effort to stop the implementation of a Supreme Court judgment in which his government is deeply involved. It is really alarming and became one instance that discredited the idea of state police.
This is because the case is essentially the issue of impunity exercised by successive Lagos State administrations. It is a case that dates back to 38 years ago when Lagos State Government under the leadership of a military governor, Air Commodore Gbolahan Mudashiru, acquired the Magodo land ostensibly for public use. It was never used for that, instead the original owners of the land watched in anguish how their land was apportioned and surreptitiously parcelled out to government officials and their cronies to build private residences. When the aggrieved asked to partake in the exercise they were rebuffed. After all effort for settlement failed, they decided to go to court and as they say the rest is history. At every turn of their visits to court the original owners of the land have won their cases but the government had refused to give credence to the judgments. The Supreme Court finally decided on the matter in 2012 yet the judgment would be left to be held in abeyance by three successive Lagos State governments.
It was, therefore, surprising to watch the governor on prime time television having an altercation with the police deployed from Abuja to effect the Supreme Court judgment. It is immaterial from where the police were brought so long as they were properly deployed and were effecting a legitimate judgment. It’s a sad spectacle to watch and it set one thinking what would have been if it were the state police within the jurisdiction of the governor.
Nevertheless, lawyers would tell you that both the state and the federal governments are prone to ignoring judgments from the courts. I have gathered from many sources that there are quite a number of judgments against the federal government and its agencies that are awaiting implementation. If that’s the case, then the federal government is as guilty as the Lagos State Government. This then calls for strengthening of the agencies whose duties is to enforce court rulings. And this would need the National Assembly to come to the rescue.
