Why State Police Is Not Ideal For Kogi

By Odunayo Joseph

In my article on whether state police should be introduced in Nigeria published under various titles such as “State Police will be disastrous for a multi-ethnic Nigeria” (on page 9  in P.M.NEWS, 14 February 2012); “State Police: Disastrous for multi-ethnic Nigeria” (on page 11 in Compass, Wednesday, February 15, 2012); “No to state police, please” (on page 15 in The Nation on Sunday, February 19, 2012) and “State Police and a multi-ethnic Nigeria” (on page 14 in Sunday Punch, February 19, 2012), the opening paragraph as published in all the newspapers clearly stated that “If there is any quixotic issue that has generated an unending controversy and debate in Nigeria in her 52 years of existence as a sovereign nation, there is none other than the continued agitation for state police.  There is no doubt that proponents and opponents have both come up with brilliant reasons in pitching their tent either for or against this age-long agitation.”

While expressing the merits and demerits of the issue of the creation of state police, I wrote thus: “Those opposed to the status quo, that is, those clamouring for state police, strongly believe that the lives and properties of Nigerian citizens would be better secured and managed by state police.  There is no doubt that there is need for cognizance to be taken of the dire effect of familiarity with the people at the grassroots vis-à-vis their historical background, tradition and culture on effective policing of the people in a state coupled with a view to securing the life and properties of the people.  This postulation will no doubt find favour with those rooting for state police.

“On the other hand, those rooting for retention of federal police will be quick to say that it is suicidal for Nigeria to introduce state police considering the volatility associated with the use of religion as a means of achieving selfish and parochial interests by power-hungry politicians in our country, coupled with the crude and uncivilised winner-takes-all syndrome that has unfortunately remained the hallmark of governance in nearly all the 36 states in the country irrespective of political party in control of governance in the state.  They may cite Kogi State as an example, where one senatorial district has been lording it over the other two senatorial districts in the state since the creation of the state in 1991.”

In advancing my reason for not supporting introduction of state police in Nigeria, I stated that “ Without mincing words, state police is not a bad idea in states that are predominantly peopled by one ethnic nationality and where there is religious tolerance such as Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti and Ogun states, all in the South West geo-political zone of in Nigeria” and that “The same applies to the South East geo-political zone comprising of Anambra, Imo, Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi states which are predominantly peopled by the Igbos.”

Three years after the expression of morbid fear of creating state police in a state such as Kogi coupled with the oppression and continued marginalization of the West and Central Senatorial districts arising from the firmly rooted winner-takes-all syndrome in the administration of Kogi by the East Senatorial district that has produced all the governors in a row since the creation of the state in 1991, it is unfortunate that this situation is getting worse each passing day.  Going down memory lane, 12 states were created out of the then existing states on 27 August, 1991 and these states include Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Delta, Edo, Enugu, Jigawa, Kebbi, Osun, Taraba, Yobe and Kogi.  However, out of the twelve states that were created the same day, it is only Kogi state where it is on record that only one senatorial district in a state has  produced the state governors namely: Abubakar Audu, Ibrahim Idris and the incumbent governor, Wada Idris (who, as well as Abubakar Audu, from all indications, are said to be warming up again for the Kogi state governorship election which is scheduled to hold before the end of 2015), while the slot of deputy governor has been the exclusive preserve for rotation between the remaining two senatorial districts, that is, West and Central Senatorial Districts. In addition to subjecting to the second fiddle of the two senatorial districts, the lopsidedness in distribution of posts in the state’s civil service in favour of the East senatorial district to the disadvantage of the West and Central senatorial districts is such that “the workforce in the state was 31,000 but of this figure, the East Senatorial District had a share of 26,000 (84%) while the remaining two senatorial districts of West and Central were left to slug it out with the remaining paltry 5,000 (16%).

Reference was also made to a bidding that was carried out for building of schools under SUBEB where, out of 44 winners, 38 (86%) were Igallas from the East Senatorial district while non-Igallas from West and Central districts were only 6 (14%).  Also, of all the State Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries and Directors-General (DGs), Igallas account for 75% with the balance of 25% left for all the non-Igallas.

Apart from the fact that the juicy ministries and offices have continued to remain the exclusive preserve for Igallas from the East Senatorial district a new dimension has now crept into marginalization of the West and the Central senatorial districts in the state civil service. In a disturbing report titled “Workers accuse Kogi govt of ‘ethnic cleansing’ with a rider “As Assembly union threatens showdown over reappointment of retired clerk” and “Govt: action is routine administrative procedure” published on page 67 in The Nation newspaper of Saturday, April 25, 2015, civil servants accused the state government of “ethnic cleansing” in the appointment of heads of the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in the state with specific allegation of widespread practice of reserving or appointing only officers of the dominant Igala tribe in all top positions in the state civil service and other extra-ministerial departments with the tacit support of successive governors of Igala extraction in the state.

The modus operandi, according to the newspaper report, is such that that when an Igala head retires, his/her tenure would either be “surreptitiously extended” in the name of “contract” or another Igala often of lesser grade level would be redeployed from another ministry to take over the position while other tribes who may hitherto be next in the administrative progression would be redeployed to other agencies without proper reassignment just to frustrate them from occupying the number one office.

The report further stated that anywhere an Igala staff succeeds any other tribe in the Civil Service, he or she makes that office a permanent inheritance of Igala extraction and whenever such an Igala staff goes on transfer or retirement, the executive always ensures that the officer is replaced by another Igala.  The workers also complained that “Most often than not, other tribes on posting or retirement are replaced by Igalas even when non-Igalas are next in administrative progression,” and cited a case in point where a retired Clerk in Kogi State House of Assembly (equivalent to a Permanent Secretary), Mr. Simon Momoh, was again reappointed and has since commenced duties as Clerk on contract basis on Grade Level 16, because of being an Igala by tribe.

Still on the shortchange in the appointment of the Clerk, the source according to the report added that “Following career progression, two level 17 directors were next to the Clerk whom he could hand over to but because the directors are non-Igala by tribe, he (the retiring clerk) sought the backing of the Chief of Staff (COS) to Governor Idris Wada and the Head of Service to get the governor’s approval for a year’s extension to enable another Igala to be trained from outside to take over, an agreed proposal to which the Kogi State Commissioner for Information, Hajia Zainab Okino, as expected, in a not-too-surprising defence as the chief spokesperson for the state, not only stoutly defended, but described, like other similar posting, as “routine administrative procedures”.

From the foregoing, there is no doubt that proponents of creation of state police and lovers of equity and justice in Nigeria will express some form of reservation and have a re-think on their support for creation of state police for now in Nigeria especially in Kogi state, considering the volatility associated with the use of the winner-takes-all style of administration and acts of impunity that is being clandestinely used to achieve selfish and parochial interests by power-hungry politicians in this state.

There is also the need for them to take cognizance of another of my write-up, where considering the magnitude of marginalisation in the state, I opined that political intransigence has firmly taken root in Kogi state to the extent that if the emblem of Kogi State’s which is “Confluence State’ should not be substituted with ‘State of Marginalisation’.  There is also the need for the proponents of state police to come to terms with my school of thought as expressed in another write-up on the unabated marginalisation going on in Kogi state published in the Compass newspaper of Wednesday, 7 July, 2010 where I said that “Had Kogi State been a country, there is no doubt that the untold cankerworm and oppression of the non-Igallas by the Igallas in all ramifications would have snowballed into a civil war just as was the case with the three-year old Biafran war, the remote cause of which was marginalisation of the Igbos as claimed by the leader of then Biafra Republic.”

•Joseph is Publicity Sec., Lagos/Ogun States Chapter of Okun Development Association. Email: odunayo_ [email protected]. Tel: 08053488121