Why state police system can’t work in Nigeria —Former IGP Okiro

A retired Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mike Okiro, has expressed pessimism about the clamour for a state policing system and the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force, saying they won’t work in Nigeria at the moment because the factors that hampered its success in the past had not been addressed.

Okiro, while speaking with journalists at the end of the 2023 Convention of the Old Seminarians Association of Nigeria (OSAN), hosted by the Clerk to the Senate, Chinedu Akubueze in Abuja on Friday, said the state police idea might not work due to the paucity of funds at both the state and local government areas.

He wondered how the states and local governments that cannot effectively pay the salaries of their workers would be able to fund their own police.

The former IGP, however, said the only way a state police system can work in Nigeria is if the country embraces the Canadian model which involves the states recruiting the police personnel who would be funded by the Federal Government.

“The only way we can have state police in Nigeria is to adopt the Canadian model, where every region has its own police employed by the region and paid by the federal.

“For example, in Nigeria, every governor would employ their own police, and equip them while they would be paid by the Federal Government. Before the advent of what we have now, we had ‘Dandoka’, we had police in the West, and we also had police in the East.

“Local governments had their police, but because of the behaviour of the local police officers, during the time of former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon in 1971 or thereabout, he turned it to the Nigeria Police Force.

“I am opposed to the state police because of the benefit of hindsight, how they behaved in those days unless you want to throw away the benefits of history.

“There is no equipment, no manpower, no welfare. They are demoralized, and frustrated. We need to get the police to do something, by encouraging them.

“I have equally said time without number, everything has advantages and disadvantages, merits and demerits. If you adopt state police, the state government cannot pay teachers, nurses and doctors, can they pay the police?

“You cannot afford to owe the police one month’s salary, insecurity will be at the highest level in that state. If the state governments can’t pay the civil servants, I wonder how they can pay the police.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now