The Director-General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, has warned that the political culture and temperament of some state governors could threaten the successful implementation of state police.
Sulaiman bared his mind while featuring on the News Agency of Nigeria NAN Personality Interview Series on Sunday in Abuja.
He said in spite of the laudable intentions behind the country’s policing reform, some state governors have the potential to abuse the state police.
The director-general particularly cited what he called total disregard by state governors to the Supreme Court judgment granting financial autonomy to local governments as a disturbing pattern of how the sub-national police forces might be handled by them with impunity.
He said while the institute believed that state police was in order and remained a way of addressing insecurity facing Nigeria, the issues of timing and potential abuse by governors remained major worries to stakeholders.
“If the control of state police will be under the governors at the state level, with due respect, how mature and politically cultured are our governors? How enabled are they in terms of their psyche, their temperament? These are worries.
“If the governors have not really convinced Nigerians on the issue of Supreme Court ruling regarding local government financial autonomy which they have refused up till today and nobody is talking. If they could violate a pronouncement, or ruling of the Supreme Court, maybe the only person they cannot violate His directive is God,’’ he stated.
The NILDS boss also referenced instances where incumbent governors consistently denied opposition parties a level-playing field during the conduct of local government elections across states.
“Tell me one state where state governors have allowed opposition to have their way when it comes to local government election, up till today.
“There was a state in this country where a sitting governor then denied opposition campaigning and nothing happened! So, should such a state governor now be given control of the police?” he queried.
Sulaiman noted that while President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to restructuring Nigeria’s security architecture was commendable, the legislation must be crafted with the future in mind rather than short-term political expediency.
He also observed that while advanced countries were centralising policing system, Nigeria was moving toward devolving policing the institution to sub-nationals without adequate institutional safeguards against possible overreach.
“We should not make law for today; we should make law for tomorrow. We tend to be worried and we don’t want to get carried away.
“We can achieve security; we can protect lives and property, not only through the instrumentality of policing. There are so many ways we can address it.
“From our own research outputs, we are worried that as laudable, as plausible as state police is, we are worried about the character at the state level that they might abuse the privilege,’’ he said.
Sulaiman maintained that as the primary research arm of the National Assembly, NILDS would continue to supply raw data, policy briefs and legislative frameworks to ensure that constitutional amendments prioritised long-term national stability over regional political control.
