By Dele Sobowale
Trust Nigerian leaders and My Fellow Citizens (“I am beginning to wonder how many fools it takes to make the term ‘My fellow citizens”, Honore de Balzac, 1799-1850) to leave undone what should have been done decades ago; and then to rush out to do it without considering one of the most important consequences.
Amendment of the 1999 Constitution has now been rushed through the National Assembly and sent to the states’ legislature, with very few people being aware of what is being imposed on us. It might be a coincidence that the matter is moving with all deliberate speed only now that terrorists have entered the South West and are now holding teachers and children hostage, but, it is doubtful. Nigerian politicians don’t move speedily unless it is to their advantage. There must be a hidden agenda – unknown to the rest of us.
Predictably, the rush has been advertised as a response to ‘the voice of the people’. The first question is: which people? For as long as I can remember, even under military rule, sections of Nigeria had agitated for State Police; others were opposed. No federal government had listened to ‘the voice of the people’. The second question follows naturally: why now? The third stumbles on the heels of the second: who benefits from this measure – which will have far reaching consequences? Who benefits?
National desperation on display
“There are no desperate situations; only desperate men” – Joseph Goebbels,1897-1945, Hitler’s propaganda Chief.
Nigerians and the leaders are now desperate. Panic renders us vulnerable to bad decisions. “Haste makes waste” was an adage drummed into our heads from childhood. It also almost always makes a bloody mess of things. Decisions made under duress are seldom ‘the voice of God’. Pandemonium would not allow those reacting to consider all the possible consequences of their actions – especially the financial implications. Politicians are always at their worst on occasions such as this. The cure prescribed invariably is worse than the disease; which had not been well-diagnosed in the first instance. Those not caught up in the national turmoil are called upon to call for caution by drawing attention to some important elements left untouched by those in hysteria.
Counting the costs – now and future
“Anything that does not make economic sense will not work” – H. L Mencken, 1880-1956
“The economist, like anyone else, must concern himself with the ultimate aims of man.”
Alfred Marshall, 1842-1924
Mencken was a famous journalist and Marshall was the father of classical economics. Both of them have a message for Nigerians as we rush to respond to “the voice of God”. No public institution comes free of charge. Economists have reduced what I am saying here to one sentence: “there is no such thing as a free lunch”. Africans, in general; and Nigerians in particular, are slow learners. Hiding in plain sight are the relics of free primary and secondary schools. Nobody, except the absolutely destitute, now sends their children to free public schools. Private universities now account for more students’ enrollment in tertiary institutions than public schools where fees are steep. In the rush to create state police, nobody has laid before the public, the economic consequences – now and in the future. Some questions require answers urgently – otherwise, we might have abandoned projects everywhere.
The first and most obvious question is: how will States Police be funded? Since the Nigerian constitution is mostly copied from the US, thanks to Obasanjo, that country should provide a road map. The only equivalent of the Nigerian Police Force, NPF, is the Federal Bureau of Investigations, FBI. As the name implies, it is totally funded by the Federal Government. It is unheard of for any state Governor to donate funds or vehicles etc to the FBI – since the donation might become subject of FBI investigation later.
States operate with two sets of police forces, state and county – each independent and funded by the jurisdiction they serve. I lived under three police units, apart from the FBI, in my ten years in the US – Waltham, Cambridge and Boston. It has been said that all politics is local. Because most criminal and civil cases are also local, they inevitably come under the respective police departments. The States fund the State Highway and State Police, while cities e.g. New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington DC, are funded by states’ taxpayers. The Chief of Police in Washington DC does not take orders from the President of America; because he/she is independent.
Irrespective of who pays, there are other financial details to be sorted out. For instance, will all the states have the same structure – force size, officers and ranks, deployment and remuneration packages? If yes, the financial burden placed on the states might be more difficult to bear for some than others; and the states needing it most – Zamfara, Ekiti, Ebonyi, Cross River – might be least capable of sustaining it. They might not even be able to start – if the establishment is to be funded entirely by each state. Would additional funds be needed or will the state police be funded from an existing stream of revenues?
Federal funding of States’ Police raises some questions. Most importantly, how will each state’s allocation be determined? Equality of States means every State will receive the same amount – irrespective of need. That might not be ideal. Crime committed most often in different States and zones are also different. For instance a report in the Weekend Trust of June 27, 2026, would indicate that about 63 per cent of mob attacks occur in the North Central and South South zones; North Central alone accounts for 56 per cent of the national figure. Using population as the basis for allocation will result in more funding going to Lagos and Kano; which might not be the epicenters of crime.
Land mass is another possibility as a criterion for allocation of federal funds. That would result in Northern States collecting roughly 71 per cent of the funds to be allocated, Lagos State will receive the least; and the South East Zone will also collect the smallest allocation among zones.
Without federal funding, most states will be hard-pressed to fund their State Police departments. For some inexplicable reason, most promoters of the idea have ignored the fact that despite vastly increased monthly allocations from the federal, some states still fail to pay the minimum wage; pensioners still queue and slump on the line; public schools and hospitals are in shambles and the FG has released only 5% of the capital budget – while public debt is mounting at an alarming rate.
Unequal standards will emerge
“Money is a strong determinant of quality.” We all know that, frequently, available funds play the leading role in determining service deliverance. Once it is left to states to solely fund their police departments, various and unpredictable standards will emerge. Atrocious as the NPF is at the moment, anybody entering a police station generally knows what to expect. That will vanish with State Police on account of funding alone….
