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A SHIFT TO STATE CONTROLLED POLICE IN NIGERIA

       For a while, notable Nigerians have been calling for the police command to be run by states. This is a significant shift from the model we have in place today where the federal government is in charge of running the Nigerian police force under the leadership of an inspector general.
This model is not only inefficient but is not proper for a country as large and diverse as Nigeria.
    This article already assumes we need to shift to a state police model and will be looking at a way to transition without causing so much disruption in the security formations in place currently.
Let us first talk broadly about the criminal justice system. This is made up of three major arms namely, Law enforcement, the court system (judiciary), and correctional facilities. 
These 3 arms are linked together and must work together to give a smooth ruining criminal justice system. It is expected that when an arrest is made or a complaint is received against an individual, the law enforcement staff gets the correct picture of what has occurred through investigations and evidence gathering after which the courts who will look at this picture painted by all parties and determine if the law was broken and punishment for such a crime. Lastly, correctional facilities receive those who have been found guilty in the courts to serve time as the justice system recommends. This is a summary of the criminal justice system as it should be run in a democracy like that of Nigeria.

        Writing briefly about the law enforcement component, agencies like the Nigerian Police Force, Department of State Services, Drug law enforcement, Road safety commission, Economic and financial crime commission, and other agencies like those mentioned are charged with enforcing specific laws of the nation. Their mandates include enforcement of our laws, stopping crime, first responders to emergencies, public safety issues, and protection of facilities, infrastructure, public officials, and correctional facilities.

    The Nigerian police force is given life by the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria (Section 214(2) a & 215 (2). 

The structure of the command gives the Inspector general of Police the leadership position in the force. The command (authority) structure flows from the inspector general of police (I.G) to the deputy inspector general of Police (D.I.G), assistant Inspector general of Police (A.I.G) state commissioners of police, deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner, chief superintendent, superintendent, deputy superintendent, assistant superintendent, inspector, sergeant major, sergeant, corporal down to constable. This is the chain of command as it exists today. 

    The organizational structure starts from the force headquarters in the capital to the zonal headquarters, state commands, divisional police headquarters, police stations, police posts, and village police posts. 

This is just for us to understand the flow of authority and the police hierarchy. 

In other countries, we have a justice department or ministry that will have an attorney general overseeing all these various enforcement agencies. But in Nigeria, the ministry of police affairs formulates policies for the nation's police while the Inspector general is answerable to the President and who so ever the president gives authority to direct the office. I don't see this as an effective method of coordinating the affairs of the police. 
    I think we should allow every state to form its own police command headed by a state police commissioner who answers to the governor of that state and enforces laws made for the state in question formed by lawmakers of the state. Then we should have a federal police system that consists of agencies like the Economic Financial commission, Drug law enforcement, Department of State Service, and Nigerian prison service that will step in when federal crimes have been committed.
I am not a security expert, but this is a skeletal idea of what I think the structure should be. 
 The changes discussed can only be achievable if the national assembly and the ministry of police affairs come together and amend the portion of the constitution that created the Nigerian police force. They can start by changing those who the police commissioner answers to and breaking the link of command to the inspector general in the capital. Then allowing the inspector general to control the federal police which will be activated when a federal crime has been committed. The state police should handle intrastate cases like domestic abuse, traffic violations, theft, and armed robbery within a state, public safety cases, and emergency response. The federal police can handle, armed robbery (Interstate), Internet fraud, kidnapping, domestic terror, financial fraud, prisons, drugs trafficking, human trafficking, etc. Both arms of the police will need to cooperate to make policing more effective.
I believe with this state police structure in place, it will be easier to safeguard the nation. As I said earlier, it is no more efficient for a country as large and diverse as Nigeria to be run by a central police command. State police is a better way to go.
Thank you for reading and let me know what you think.

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