Governors of the 19 northern states have said they will not support the call for the establishment of state police.

They said the country was not ripe for such creation.

The governors took this decision at their meeting in Abuja on Thursday night. The meeting was attended by 18 out of the 19 governors.

The northern governors’ position was, however, contrary to an earlier position taken by all the 36 governors about a month ago.

All the governors, under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, had agreed that the insecurity problem in the country would best be tackled with the establishment of a state police.

But the northern governors said in their communiqué, which was signed by their Chairman, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, that the constitution must be amended to enable them to control commissioners of police in their respective states.

Aliyu, who is also the governor of Niger State, read the communiqué.

He said, “The forum is not in support of the creation of state police.

“It, however, resolved to prevail on the Federal Government to embark on police reform that will assist the states in the control and management of police affairs on a sound philosophy of modern policing by amending the provision of Section 215 of the constitution.”

The section reads, “Subject to the provision of this section, the governor or such commissioner of the government of the state as he may authorise in that behalf may give to the commissioner of police of that state such lawful directions with respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety and public order within the state as he may consider necessary, and the commissioner of police shall comply with those directives or cause them to be complied with.”

They canvassed the deleting of the proviso (Section 214) of the constitution, which requires that the order from the governor must be endorsed by the Inspector-General of Police.

On the tenure of the President and governors, the northern governors said the extant provision of the constitution “that provides for two terms of four years for President and governors be maintained.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/count-us-out-of-state-police-northern-govs/

Jst coming back frm a nite out, cnt fink rite now, lemme buy this space, i'ld be back...

i used to advocate for state police b4 now till sum1 pointed me in d point of view that political Nigeria is unmature....hence we re not ripe fir it. Having said that, d fact is Nigeria, being d country it is, one need to rethink; to move this country forward there ids need to decentralize most of d powers @ d centre.... Aint we practising federalism? We shld xperiment and live above fear...coz d nigerian political terrain is so corrupt bcoz powers are too over constituted so d president wand it as he likes. This will b a major restructuring that though might av a rough start but surely a good end...and it is not only on police matters we need this...because of d perculiar unpatriotic disposition of our political leaders to champion ethnic course ahead national: we need to also

Nigeria is not matured for state police and even democracy. The freedom of democracy has failed to instill discipline in the leaders as the leaders are blind to both responsibility in leadership and accountability in leadership. When I see the destruction caused on this hitherto great nation by irresponsible leaders, my heart bleeds.

These Northern governors are a joke and goes to show they are nothing but parasites. They have shown they are unwilling to take charge of the security of their states. Only a dumb governor would believe that someone in Abuja would do a better job of securing his state.

What is the meaning of "Nigeria is not matured for state police"? It's the governors showing their immaturity, their lack of ability to take charge.

Nigeria is long overdue for state police, for the following reasons:

1) The security of the state will be in the hands of locals who truly care about what's happening in their state. Most police atrocities are committed by officers from diff. regions who have no real interest of the area they are policing. It's why they find nothing wrong selling arms to robbers and the likes.
2) The governors will truly be accountable for their security, not the presidency. As such FG-backed election rigging will be difficult or impossible.
3) The State Police and a new smaller FG Police ( like US FBI) can still work hand in hand to tackle certain security situations.
4) The argument that state governors will hijack the State Police is rubbish because this is happening already. With the right constitutional amendment, the FG police can help check the excesses of the state police units.
5) Most importantly, the state citizens will actually know the names and relatives of their police officers and can call them to order.
6) it will remove the laziness of the governors, who currently just watch idly or even cause insecurity in their states and then blame FG for not providing security.

The current position of the northern govs shows they are not really keen on improving the security in their area and possibly because they have ties to BH. Whereas the SW, SE and SS Govs are clamouring for State Police and more freedom from FG to bring security and development to their regions, the Northern Govs rather prefer to be backward, and then they'll blame FG for their backwardness. Rubbish.

Mods, front page pls.

This is part of why I remain incredulous when anyone tells me that the North is still not one. Pray tell, how can 18 governors in the North rally round this backward policy of centralized police for 160 Nigerians? I would like to know the governor that skipped this meeting and to know why he skipped it. I hope it is Benue, because then I will start to believe that Benue should stop attending Northern governors forum meetings and join the SE, SW or SS meetings.
Nigeria needs to move forward, and all those who fear progress must be shoved aside.
We should not elect any Northern president any time soon.

jamace: Nigeria is not matured for state police and even democracy. The freedom of democracy has failed to instill discipline in the leaders as the leaders are blind to both responsibility in leadership and accountability in leadership. When I see the destruction caused on this hitherto great nation by irresponsible leaders, my heart bleeds.

Any country that is not matured for state police is not matured for independence i feel Nigeria really was not matured for independence in 1960 when Britain eventually gave Nigeria independence. I hope it is not a treasonable offence to call britain to recolonise Nigeria since it is a treasonable offence to call for disintegration of Nigeria , Nigeria is now a religion, the worlds 5th Religion after christianity , islam, budhaism,Judaism,Zoroastrianism and Nigerianism , it is an offence to opt out of the Religion and blood must be shed yearly to appease the gods and dogs of Nigerianism