Engr. Kailani Muhammad, a prominent member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has issued a word of caution to Nigerians regarding their persistent calls for the establishment of state police forces.
He expressed his belief that “the clamour for state police is detrimental to Nigerian democracy.”
The Kaduna-based politician criticized the push for state police, citing several reasons why he believes Nigeria is not ready for such a move. He emphasized that obstacles exist that could impede the effective functioning of state police if they were to be established.
Addressing journalists in Kaduna, Muhammad highlighted concerns about the readiness of Nigerian governors to adhere to the core democratic principles of governance being “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” He suggested that the mindset of Nigerian governors has yet to align with these democratic values.
The APC chieftain added: “It is instructive to note that, most of our State Governors believe they are demi-gods, and truly act as such. Once they take the Oath of Office, they abandon all tenets and principles of democracy, that essentially brought them to office. The problem is complex.”
He believed that to avail the Nigerian state governors the powers to control an entire state police under their sole authority, it could be suicidal to Nigerian democracy, saying that even now when the police structure is not under their supervision, some state governors attempt to resort to the police commands in their states to coerce the electorate during elections to toe their political paths during voting.
“Moreover, state governors are presently finding it difficult to pay state staff salaries, so where will they get the money to pay State Police, when they solely rely on the federal government’s allocation without resources to the diverse natural resources in their states to improve on their Internally Generate Revenue (IGR),” he argued.
He added, “There is a constructive argument that state governors might use State Police to intimidate, blackmail and victimize Nigerians, either for political, ethnic, tribal or social gains for themselves, to the detriment of the state.”
