Esiaga a former member of the NASS takes aim at the state police and offers suggestions

On Saturday, Nze Chikwem Esiaga—a former lawmaker from Abia State—kicked against the idea of a state police force in Nigeria.

In an effort to address the ongoing security problem, the federal and state governments are contemplating the creation of state police.

Daredevil bandits and other criminal elements have recently ramped up their actions, causing mayhem in the country, prompting this decision.

However, in a statement released on Saturday morning, Esiaga voiced his belief that local government police should be established instead. These police would be overseen by validly elected council chairmen in each of the federating states.

The former congressman passionately claimed that state governors would use the police force as a weapon to persecute whomever they saw as opposing their harsh programs and policies.

“The allocations will never be accounted for until INEC conducts LGA elections throughout the federation,” he partially claimed.

The third level of government would never be able to operate efficiently due to the governors who have become emperors of their respective states.

The current state of economic anarchy and high levels of insecurity in Nigeria will persist until we resolve this at the LGA level.

In the midst of these snakes, who steal security votes and LG allocations from the center, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, like a tree, cannot—and will not—make a forest.

All of this makes me think of the calls for a state police force, which I fear may wind up functioning similarly to the State Independent Electoral Commission.

“The best course of action is for the LG police to report directly to the duly elected council chairmen; otherwise, governors will revert to the first republic’s brutal use of state police against their political opponents.”