I stumbled over a comment by an internet user recently which reads: “Nigerians should bear it mind that state governors are our biggest enemies in Nigeria. They have no meaningful contribution unless that which they’d benefit from.”
It’s logical to say the comment was made from an unbiased perspective due to the selfish act of most state governors in Nigeria, one of such selfish acts in the push for state police departments.
The operations of state police departments are predominant in the United States where all states except Hawaii have state law enforcement agencies. Going down the memory lane to know how and why majority of those state police departments were formed, I found the following:
The Texas Rangers organized in 1823 are the earliest form of state law enforcement in the United States, consisted of ten men charged with protecting settlers from Indian attacks. They’ve served in several paramilitary and military services such as The Texas Revolution, the Mexican–American War, and the American Civil War.
The Pennsylvania State Police Force emerged in the aftermath of the anthracite mine strike of 1902, in Pennsylvania. The New York State Police force was formed on April 11, 1917. Other states soon followed suit at different times and different purposes.
The fear of the federal government of the United States then about southern states forming police departments was that the agencies would be used to oppress black citizens from voting and exercising their civil rights. Such would be the case of states police departments in Nigeria if formed, they’d be used by the political party in power to cause violence, perpetrate evil and oppress the opposition parties during elections.
Also, since the recruitment process would be done by the states, bearing it in mind that most state governors have political thuggery groups they found and fund, oh what an opportunity it’d be to recruit and establish them as police officers thereby legalising thuggery and political violence.
Are we doing ourselves good or launching ourselves into a world of harm?
If we love states police departments of the United States like NYPD, LAPD and others, we should let the love remain in our hearts and not be used by some selfish minds to push for it.
State Police Departments is not what we need in Nigeria, reinforcement of the Nigeria Police Force would be enough to tackle our security problems.
