By Matilda Ikediobi
Dr Monday Ubani is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. In this interview monitored on
Arise TV, Ubani spoke on the challenges State Police structure might encounter and the possible solutions to ensure its effectiveness. Excerpts:
You wrote on the police bill, describing the process as historic. However, you have some concerns about fidelity to the idea of federalism, about the roles proposed for both the Federal Police and the State Police. Can you take us through what you have already written?
This is historic, it’s clearly a milestone by this particular government and it’s really commendable. The restructuring of our federal system of governance has actually started and this is something we have advocated over the years, the issue of decentralising the policing system. I appeared on this particular programme then when we discussed state police and several questions were thrown at me and I was able to give a satisfactory answer that we need state policing. I made a point then that this issue of over-centralisation cannot in any way guarantee lives and properties. Over the years, we have seen that we have not been able to attain that level of perfection in terms of proper policing.
