The Director-General of Amalgamated All Progressives Congress Support Groups, Kailani Muhammad, has said that the implementation of state police would be suicidal to the nation’s democracy.
The ace politician disapproved of the agitations by Nigerian governors to have state police, insisting that the country is not yet ripe for it.
The national chairman of the Tinubu Support Network aired his opinion during a press conference in Kaduna over the weekend.
He reiterated that allowing state governors, some of whom act like demi-gods, to have control over a police force would be suicidal to Nigeria’s democracy.
He said: “It is clear to all Nigerians that state governors’ mindsets are yet to adjust to the true principles of democracy, where it is the Government of the People, by the people, and for the people, according to The Nation.
“It is instructive to note that most of our state governors believe they are demi-gods and truly act as such. Once they take the Oath of Office, they abandon all tenets and principles of democracy that essentially brought them to office. The problem is complex. Therefore, to avail the Nigerian state governor the powers to control an entire State Police under his sole authority could be suicidal to Nigerian democracy.”
He continued, “Even now when the police structure is not under their supervision, some state governors still attempt to resort to the Police Commands in their states to coerce the electorate during elections to toe their political paths during voting. Presently, some state governors are finding it difficult to pay staff salaries, so where will they get the money to pay State Police when they solely rely on federal government allocation without recourse to the diverse natural resources in their states to improve their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)?
“There is a constructive argument that state governors might use State Police to intimidate, blackmail, and victimize Nigerians either for political, ethnic, tribal, or social gains for themselves, to the detriment of the state.”
“Nigeria cannot afford to copyright the United States of America, Great Britain, Germany, or any other country on the issue of state Police because Nigeria is not ready for it now,” he added.”