From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State, Matthew Agu, has opposed the establishment of state police in Nigeria.
Agu declared that state police would be a recipe for disaster and bloody communal conflicts in the country.
Speaking in Enugu as part of his contribution to the ongoing debate on state police, Agu, a former deputy governorship candidate of Action Congress (AC), in the state, said that Nigeria is far premature for a decentralized policing system, especially with weak democratic institutions still the order of the day.
He said, “Before you can talk about state police, there should have been first full and conscious education and awareness of nationalism and citizenship.
“Currently everybody perceives Nigeria from the opportunities he can exploit and self aggrandizement. Democratization of institutions and conscious education on nationalism should be the focus.”
“Drawing from my personal experience, in Enugu currently, there would have been a bloody communal war had it not been that a higher hierarchy of the police took over the mess the Enugu state police command created at Obollo-Afor simply for a mere phone call from a former governor”
Prince Agu insisted that should a state police be established in the current state of affairs in Nigeria, “the country must surely witness a conflagration of civil unrest that will be higher than a civil war”.
He noted that the national governance ranging from national, state and local governments have not shown fidelity in the management of existing state institutions such as state electoral bodies, state legislature and the state judiciary among others.
“We must first seek democratization of institutions in line with the democratic tenets of democracies as practiced in order democratic climes.”