The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has stated that the country is not politically prepared for the initialisation of police powers at the state level.
Egbetokun said this in Abuja on Monday at the constitutional review legislative dialogue on the natural security architecture.
The dialogue, themed “Nigeria’s peace and security: the constitutional imperative”, organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Constitution Review in collaboration with the Office of the National Security Adviser, was characterized by the expression of divergent views on the advocacy for state police creation to address the growing insecurity across the country.
While the Police Chief reiterated his earlier position that what the Nigeria Police Force needed to tackle the security challenges in the country was adequate funding, the Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly, Debo Ogundoyin, called for a multi-layered policing model as obtained in other parts of the country.
Egbetokun said the Nigerian Police Force is constitutionally established under section 214(1) of the 1999 constitution as amended, which provides that “There shall be a police force for Nigeria which shall be known as the Nigerian police force and subject to the provisions of this section, no other police force shall be established for the federation or any part thereof.” He also cited Section 215(1), which provides for the appointment of the Inspector General of Police by the President on the advice of the Nigerian Police Council.
“These constitutional provisions make clear the centralised character of policing in Nigeria and the operational authority entrusted to the Inspector General of Police under the supervision of the President and Police Council. One of the most pressing and controversial issues under discussion today is the proposal to amend the constitution to allow for the establishment of state police, including the evaluation of a House bill which seeks to provide legislative authority for this”, Egbetokun stated.
The IGP acknowledged the rational behind the demand for state police, including the desire for locally responsive policing, quicker reaction to community-level threats, and decentralised law enforcement presence, but maintained that
Nigeria is not politically prepared for it based on the Force’s assessment.
He also cited Section 215(1), which provides for the appointment of the Inspector General of Police by the President on the advice of the Nigerian Police Council.
He stated, “These constitutional provisions make clear the centralised character of policing in Nigeria and the operational authority entrusted to the Inspector General of Police under the supervision of the President and Police Council. One of the most pressing and controversial issues under discussion today is the proposal to amend the constitution to allow for the establishment of state police, including the evaluation of a House bill which seeks to provide legislative authority for this.
“Let me state unequivocally that the National Police Force acknowledges the rationale behind the demand for state police, including the desire for locally responsive policing, quicker reaction to community-level threats, and decentralised law enforcement presence. However, our assessment based on current political, institutional and socio-economic realities suggests that Nigeria is not politically prepared for the initialisation of police powers at the state level.
He said further that the national security landscape is growing increasingly complex, from the insurgency in the North-East, banditry and kidnapping in the North-West and central regions, to secessionist violence in the South-East, and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, “we are confronted with a multifaceted array of tracks, each exposing gaps not only in our security capabilities but more fundamentally in our constitutional architecture and constitutional institutional coordination mechanisms.”
Egbetokun listed certain omissions in the 1999 constitution which, according to him, impede the effective performance of the Nigerian Police Force and other security agencies in addressing the challenges of security.
“This includes the lack of clarity on inter-agency command in joint operations, absence of a constitutional framework for intelligence sharing and fusion, restrictions on subsidiary policing frameworks like community and state policing and constitutional silence on the vagueness of border security.
These challenges, he said, underscore the objective to recalibrate the nation’s security framework, especially as it pertains to command authority, policy structure, intelligence coordination, and the legislative underpinnings that govern them, adding that, previous national security summits and engagements have resulted in strong communiques and robust recommendations.
The IGP emphasized the importance of clarifying operational command authority, especially in joint theatres where federal, state, and local security companies must work seamlessly.
“A lack of positional clarity in this area can and has led to judicial disputes, diluted accountability and delayed tactical responses in life-threatening situations. Furthermore, intelligence-sharing mechanisms require not only statutory reinforcement but also constitutional embedding”, he said, adding that “without a clear constitutional framework for timely, secure, and mandatory intelligence exchange, we cannot effectively preempt or neutralise imagined trends”.
