BY seeking to control commissioners of police in their domain as some of them reportedly expressed, state governors have only rekindled the debate, even desire, for the institution of federalism in its true form nationwide. Notwithstanding the genuineness of their basis for desiring to control the police, the governors ought to extend their focus to fully controlling all resources at their disposal, and for the benefit of their people.Rising from a meeting of the Nigerian Governors Forum, the state chief executives expressed the wish for commissioners of police to be brought under their direct control.They appeared to have predicated this wish on the worsening security situation in the country. The governors, in an attempt to buttress their point, also said that they were doing a lot for the Federal Government for which a review of the revenue sharing formula has become imperative. They claimed, for instance, that they were funding the needs of the police and other security personnel in their states in addition to the maintenance of some federal roads.The issue of who controls the police and whether or not there should be state police and even local government police has been argued for a long time.It is safe to say that the jury is still out on this matter as to the desirability or otherwise of changing the status quo.At the moment the Nigeria Police is a federal establishment operating throughout the country in a chain of command that terminates at the desk of the Inspector General of Police.At the same time, the constitution has described the governors as the chief security officers of their states.It is a well-known fact that the police as constituted is probably too large and obtuse to be effective.Suggestions have been made in the past that the police structure should be decentralised perhaps on the basis of the six geopolitical zones.In fact, nearly all federal establishments can benefit from some form of devolution.But no one should for this reason jump to the conclusion that state governors are best suited to manage the Nigeria Police.Given the nature of Nigerian politics and the zealotry of political party apparatchiks in the states, there is the danger that a police answerable to the governor may be used for selfish political purposes of a nature that could lead to tyranny and threaten the rule of law.Under the regional governments of the past, there were federal police in addition to state police and in some areas local authority police. These forces acted in harmony with one another and did not hesitate to pass on cases to superior authorities for adjudication.On the face of it therefore, rather than campaigning for greater authority over the police, governors should be pressing for true federalism. It ought to be possible in a truly federal Nigeria for other forms of police with properly defined jurisdictions to exist alongside the federal police.But such enthusiasm must be tempered with the realities on ground when calling for new powers for governors who already have constitutional immunity.At the moment, it seems preposterous that governors of largely impecunious states struggling to pay the minimum wage are angling to be allowed to maintain an expensive police apparatus.Even the Federal Government with all its financial might has been unable to train, equip and accommodate the Nigeria Police properly.The living quarters of the police in most parts of the country have become virtual slums and surely, poor housing must affect the morale of the men and women serving in that force.The governors should make haste. The relationship between them and the police commissioners whilst at times showing signs of strain, is far from breaking down.On the contrary, examples abound of commissioners of police that have maintained excellent ties with their host governors, so that no great change in the current arrangements is necessitated. Maligned as the police are, they perform a vital role in the maintenance of Nigerian unity. A fragmented police command owing allegiance to so many governors in a volatile country could become a recipe for confusion.At the end of the day, the issue boils down to the kind of country Nigerians want for themselves.It is because the Nigerian federation is skewed that the country keeps bumping into these classical problems of federalism. Security may be in tatters because of it, but knee-jerk responses are not the way to go. Nigerians should all aim holistically to create an improved federal structure of governance based on the will of the people, before considering the corollaries attendant to it.
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