STATE POLICING: TO BE OR NOT TO BE?

The need for government no doubt arises in the first place as a result of man inhumanity to humanity. Hence, it is often said the principal function of any government is the protection of lives and property.

The events in Nigeria in the past months have left much to be desired. Killings and blood shedding is fast becoming commonplace in our fatherland. Unlike John Donne, the death of people no longer diminishes us because we hardly see them as part of humanity. We merely stroll by at the news of people's demise. What a shame!

Indeed, rather than looking outside the box to find solutions to the senseless killings, we have resulted to name-calling, ethnoreligious war, political divisiveness. In the end, the right things have not been done. The resultant effect is needless loss of precious lives.

While I have not been an absolute fan of this present National Assembly, and any government in particular (this is because my responsibility is not to defend any government except when they are right, but to defend the country); yet I cannot but applaud them for waking up out of their slumber to do the needful especially with respect to the planned amendment of the 1999 Constitution to give room for State and community policing. To me, it is a long overdue subject.

Many however have raised an objection to it considering the likelihood of governors using it to witch-hunt their perceived political opponents. No doubt, there is an element of truth to its possibility,  yet I say, there will always be a mechanism for regulating such tendency, and if we do not start, we won't know how to put the necessary measures in place.

Another argument against the establishment of State policing is inadequate resources to finance such outfits. This I say can be overcome by putting in place a Security Trust Fund like Lagos is currently doing. Somebody may be tempted to say that it is working in Lagos because of an array of industries, but I say, the peculiarities of each State will determine its policing option and support it gets.

If the idea of State policing is thrown away because of its perceived disadvantages, then we could as well say goodbye to the security of lives and property. And we may well do good by keeping our mouth shut whenever the present security apparatus fail in their assigned responsibilities.

The time for the establishment of State and community policing is now. Be that as it may, State policing cannot be an end in itself. It is a means to an end. Provision of relevant security infrastructures, intelligence gathering, training and retraining of security personnel are some other measures that must be put in place for safe and better secured Nigeria.

Thank you. God bless Nigeria.