Finally, it does appear that the Nigerian state has embraced the reality that you cannot sufficiently police a vast and multifarious federation like ours from Abuja. For over two decades, advocacies to decentralise our policing structure fell on deaf ears. Legislative efforts in this regard were cut short, often on the altars of interfering influences and executive tight grips on every legitimate instrument of coercion.
There was also all manner of sentiments. Some thought that state police would serve secessionist interests, while many genuinely saw it as a ready axe in the hands of the governors, to cut the opposition and voices of dissent to size.
But I think the real opposition to state police stemmed from the fact that most people were oblivious to the weight of the insecurity that was incubating over the past decades. I recall a conversation between former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ekweremadu, and a senator from the North-West zone (Kebbi State in particular). Ekweremadu warned that the banditry, which was just starting in the far North-West states, could ultimately get to as far as Kaduna, North Central, and the Southern parts unless lawmakers supported the creation of state police to empower the federating units to take their fates into their own hands. That senator laughed out loud. He said Ekweremadu did not understand the geography of the North, maintaining that even Sokoto, Rivers and Rima River were sufficient buffers against such evil expansion. Today, we all know better.
