"Nigeria is not ripe for state police" - President Goodluck Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan maintained that Nigeria was not ripe enough to operate the “State Police” system, saying “if there is state police and the governors manipulate their state police the way they are manipulating their state electoral commissions, the instability that it will create even what we are witnessing will be a child’s play.”

President Jonathan who bared his mind on the contentious issue while declaring the 52nd Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, open in Abuja, said he had already sought the opinion of former presidents of Nigeria who he said warned him against approving such system in view of present realities in the country.

He said: “On the issue of state police, everybody knows I have been Deputy Governor and Governor in Bayelsa State. There was a time we were frustrated and we felt that we should have our police, that we would be able to manage criminality in our state better because of our local environment.

“Police from other parts of the country find it difficult to go into the waters, but for us who were born near the riverside, even in the night we can enter ordinary canoe to go to anywhere and we feel that if we have our local police it will be better for us because our police can reach everywhere in our state.

“When I discussed the issue of state police with former presidents before a State Council meeting, they said it’s a good idea, that probably one day we’ll get there, and that is the emphasis I want to make, one day we’ll get to that point. But presently we have to be careful on how we go about it.

“Experiments have been made, there was a time when the police came up with a policy that police officers from the rank of inspector and below should be posted to their states of origin as a way of testing whether police familiar with the environment will make changes, but it was realized that when police officers from the rank of inspector down were posted to their state of origin, it was worst off to manage the situation so the police had to discontinue that policy.

“We also considered the way the governors are handling elections in their states with the state electoral commissions, where opposition parties hardly win even councillorship elections.

“So, if there is state police and the governors manipulate their state police the way they are manipulating their state electoral commissions, the instability that it will create even what we are witnessing will be a child’s play.”