The Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, Governors Forum and Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal says the current security and policing architecture in the country has failed the nation and need to be urgently decentralized.
Speaking at the 63rd birthday anniversary lecture in honour of veteran judiciary journalist and human rights lawyer, Richard Akinnola 11 in Lagos, Governor Tambuwal in his dissection of the security situation in the country, said as presently provided, the law ties the hands of State Governors behind the backs limiting what they could do.
According to him, this is because constitutionally, all coercive power is controlled by the federal government.
“Apart from the limited authority granted by the Constitution to the Governor on issues of Public Order and Public Security, the plenitude of most of the powers lie in the hands of the Federal Government”
This situation he argued has made it difficult for the state governments to meaningfully fight and check crimes, criminality, banditry, terrorism, armed robberies and kidnappings in their states.
He said mapping security situations for the states to deal with the enabling and requisite coercive power to get it done has frustrated the ability of the states to act quickly and decisively.
According to Tambuwal, while the states governments often fund critical support logistics of the police to respond to crimes and security breakdown in their areas of control, they do not have the support of the law to direct and order the Commissioners of police in their states to act decisively and quickly on security matters.
The Governor said “lives and property can be better and more effectively secured by people closer to the grassroots” adding” hence, the clamour for some form of State policing or constitutional decentralization of Police powers.”
He said he is speaking the minds of most Nigerians on the matter. “There is a near consensus on this across the country. But the form it should take and the details have not been properly interrogated. Where Nigerians defer according to him is in the modus operandi.
“Some advocate for federal police, and a State police working side by side, with clearly delineated and defined responsibilities. Others argue for a highly decentralized federal police structure, where State Governors would appoint or dismiss when appropriate, Commissioners of Police in their respective states who report to them, among other provisions”
Consequently, Governor Tambuwal called on the federal government to convene a National Conference on policing and security. He said the conference “involving all stakeholders have become imperative to flesh out the constitutional questions involved” in its modus operandi.
In the meantime, he said the states can through “creative administrative engineering plays a decisive role in the security of lives and property in their various States.”
Already, he noted that “many States have set up neighborhood Watch Agencies, Forest Guards, Vigilante services, OMOTEKUN, EBUBE AGU, HISBAH and other like Agencies to meet the security need of various communities for grassroots or community-based policing”
Also, he recommended that the current initiative of the Nigeria Police Force, on Community Policing should be strengthened.
For instance in Sokoto State, he said “we are struggling to develop synergy between the local communities and Federal Security Agencies” adding that only last week, “we set up a Committee to tackle security challenges in the State, headed by no less a personality than His Eminence, Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto”
On the side, he said “we have routinely provided some funding and equipment such as vehicles, some security equipment and operational support to the Federal security agencies.
“And many more. Indeed, in Nigeria today almost all the State governments spend a significant part of their budget on the equipment and operational needs of the Security agencies, even when they do not have operational control” he pointed out.
