15/11/2020
EVOLUTION OF REGIONAL SECURITY OUTFITS IN NIGERIA: ETHNIC OR COMMUNITY POLICING – THREATS OF PERCEPTION, LOCATION AND COHERENCE. BY JAYE GASKIA.
[NOTE FOR A PANEL DISCUSSION AT A MULTISTAKEHOLDERS’ CONSULTATIVE FORUM ON PEACE AND SECURITY CHALLENGES IN NIGERIA ORGANISED BY CISLAC AND FES; 5TH NOVEMBER 2020]
THE CONTEXT:
It should be noted that inherent in purpose and them of this forum is the notion that there are ongoing peace and security challenges in Nigeria, and that these are of such a scale and scope as to have engendered the emergence and evolution of regional security outfits in the country.
Thus, from the recognition of the depth and breadth of the challenges, have emerged the response of regional security outfits ostensibly to feel the gap, since as it is said nature abhors a vacuum.
The posing of the question of ethnic or community policing, as well as of the question of threats of perception, location and coherence is also indicative of a concern about the manner of emergence and subsequent evolution of these outfits, as well as of the challenges that they have emerged in response to.
CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATIONS:
It is important to begin the conversation by drawing the distinction between the Police as an institution and organisation, and policing as a function and role.
Policing is about ensuring security and safety of persons and properties in a given area, including ensuring that rules, regulations and laws are obeyed [law enforcement], as well as preventing, detecting, and investigating crimes, preparatory to prosecution.
The police a police service on the other hand, is an institution and organised established to carry out policing duties.
The police, although universally the lead and main agency for internal security purposes is nevertheless not the only bodies established with policing mandate. Other law enforcement agencies also carry out statutory policing duties and functions with respect to specific mandates and crimes.
It is in this sense that it is important to distinguish between the structure of policing, for instance, a Federal, State, Local government or Community police; and the approach of community policing.
Community policing is a strategic approach to policing that emphasises partnership between the police structure and the community it is policing. It is thus a strategic approach, and in the case of Nigeria it is now included in the Police Act 2020.
It is also important at this point to draw attention to the notion of ethnic policing as opposed to community policing.
Ethnic policing, is like community policing a strategic approach to policing, that emphasises and revolves around policing in partnership with the ethnic community. In this instance, the community is now defined, not as the country, the state, the local government area, or the village, town or city; but as the ethnic group.
It is important to underscore this point because, the manner of the emergence of the regional security outfits is such that they have emerged as and are evolving as ethnic security outfits, adopting the principle and strategic policing approach of ethnic policing.
To be sure, regardless of the dominance or otherwise of this or that ethnic group within a region, here defined as the geo-political zones in Nigeria, or even of the relative ethnic homogeneity of any given region; a regional security outfit, oriented on the principle of ethnic policing, is not a regional policing organisation, nor will it be able to undertake effective, fair and just regional policing.
The reason is that such an outfit based on ethnic identity, is in reality an ethnic security outfit, undertaking ethnic policing, and on the road to becoming an ethnic, rather than a regional police organisation.
This is because there is no region in Nigeria without significant populations of Nigerians not originally from those regions, who are nevertheless domiciled and resident in these regions.
CITIZENSHIP:
To address this fundamental foundational challenge, we have to address the question of citizenship, that is citizenship of Nigeria. In the US for instance, citizenship is defined as “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the states wherein they reside….”
Unless and until we accept a notion of citizenship that recognises all persons born [of Nigerian parents] or naturalized in Nigeria, and who are subject to the jurisdiction of Nigeria, are citizens of Nigeria and of the states in Nigeria where they reside; any movement towards the consolidation and legitimization of regional, state, local government or community police institutions and structures, will simply compound the problem of insecurity, and the challenges with policing, and further strengthen and entrench our ethnoreligious fault-lines.
If we accept in our constitution, laws and practice the notion of universal citizenship of Nigeria based on residency, then the establishment of such security outfits will be based on the principle of residency, where the community bis defined as where you are resident, where you live, and where community members are defined as residents of the community, and where the principle of community policing is based on residency, and also manifests as residential policing.
In this regard, recruitment into the different outfits will be based on residency, and policing will be undertaken in a manner as to secure the lives and properties of all residents.
THE THREATS:
From the foregoing it can already be noted that the threats inherent to and emergence and evolution of regional security outfits, include those around perception – being perceived as, and operating as ethnic outfits; Location – that is where they are based, their regional character, compounded by the ethnic definition and promoted identities of these various regions or geo-political zones in the country.
Underlying all of these threats is the non-resolution of the question of citizenship, inherent in the ambiguity of Nigerian citizenship, as it is somehow diminished, hampered and restricted by the notion of indigenshenship, constitutionally entrenched with respect to the state of origin principle with respect to appointments and representation into and in state and public institutions.
Unless we replace the concept and practice of state of origin, which is hinged on being an indigene of such a state, with that of state of residency, the establishment, emergence and evolution of regional security outfits will continue to pose significant challenge to National Unity and the ability to build a United Nigeria, largely because it will continue to strengthen, and entrench ethnic rivalries and stroke ethnic suspicions.
Nonetheless, there is an additional, and even more structural and systemic threat posed by the emergence of these regional outfits; and this is that of coherence, coordination and synergy between the various security outfits.
The first significant threat inherent to coherence is that of managing cross jurisdictions. The mandates of the various security outfits and the police as well as law enforcement agencies will require to be harmonised and streamlined, such each agencies mandate, and their respective jurisdictions are clearly spelt out.
Furthermore, it will be necessary for the enabling laws, and the ensuing Standard Operating Procedures [SOPs] of the different agencies to set out the procedures and processes for collaboration where crimes cross jurisdictions, or where the performance of their mandates necessitates crossing jurisdictional boundaries. A physical structural mechanism to ensure this coordination will be required to be established.
But crime prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution require also the efforts of other institutions within the criminal justice system, including the Courts, the Prosecution agencies, the correctional and custodial [and non-custodial] facilities, etc among others.
It is in this sense that a reform of internal security will require a holistic approach that targets the comprehensive, simultaneous and integrated reform of policing, the police, other law enforcement agencies, the courts, the correctional systems and the prosecution systems among others.
THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF THE NIGERIAN STATE:
To say that the challenges with internal security and policing, as well as with the regional responses to these challenges are systemic and structural, is to say that they are invariably governance challenges that are informed and driven by the nature and character of the Nigerian state.
The Nigerian state in its origin is a colonial state, established to pacify with force the natives. It is therefore a state that originated, and has evolved as one that sees citizens as subjects to be pacified and to be contained. It is also why dissent is criminalised and frowned upon, and where the resort to use of force is instinctive and inherent to the state and its law enforcement and security agencies, including the police and the military.
The colonial origin of the state which has been taken over and maintained and sustained by the indigenous ruling class is also one that is congenitally discriminative, and inherently biased against the poor.
Thus, the state apparatus at different levels have been used by different factions of the ruling class to pursue factional class interests which are often framed in ethnic and religious terms.
Compounding this inherent systemic and structural polarization and ethnicization of the state, is also the impact of decades of military rule with respect to policing, the and the central role of the police in internal security.
Under Military, given that the military was the government, internal security became the added duty of the military, and the foundation and basis for the erosion of the capability of the police and the credibility of the police with regards to maintaining internal security began to be laid and consolidated.
Thus, it is that at the inception of the fourth republic in 1999, the Nigerian state had become one that encountered citizens as potential dissidents to be pacified; one whose apparatus of force was deployed by the faction controlling it in pursuit of its own interest; and one in which the police had become hollowed out, and transformed into a glorified vigilante, armed, but insufficiently equipped and trained, and angry by its rejection by, and alienation from both the state and citizens.
A major factor in the internal security challenges faced by the country is thus supplanting of the role of the police by the military in internal security, and the dysfunctional character of the Nigerian state and of the ensuing governance.
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
• From the foregoing it is clear that there is an urgent need for the comprehensive reform of the police, and of policing – that is including all the other law enforcement and internal security agencies.
• However, for this reform to be effective and impactful, there is a need to see the security sector and the criminal justice sector as integrated and mutually dependent; and thus to see the reform agenda and process as a comprehensive, holistic, and integrated reform of the police, law enforcement and policing, and of the courts, correctional system, etc, among others; and one that is taking place concurrently and simultaneously.
• An integral part of this comprehensive reform is the withdrawal of the military from routine internal security functions, and the concomitant building of the capability of the police to undertake its role as the lead internal security agency.
• To police a country as large and diverse as Nigeria, policing needs to be devolved and decentralized. This will require constitutional amendments that will enable federating units to establish policing agencies; and that will move internal security, police, law enforcement, correctional institutions, among others from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list.
• A constitutional amendment guaranteeing universal citizenship of Nigeria on the basis of residency – that is anyone qualified for Nigerian citizenship is a citizen of Nigeria and the state where they are resident – has become very urgent. This will ensure that when policing has been devolved and decentralized, and federating units are able to constitutionally establish their police services, this will be based on residency, and any Nigerian resident in any state will be able to become recruited into and serve in the state police.
• Ultimately, a holistic and comprehensive governance reform will also be required, one that will address the character and nature of the Nigerian state and retool and re-engineer it into a state that is responsive the needs and aspirations of her citizens, and one that in so doing is oriented towards provisioning the basic needs and social services and infrastructure of citizens – that is a state that responds to and fulfils the intent of the constitution in chapter two of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria [CFRN]1999.
• To fill the governance vacuum at local community level, and enable the effective implementation of community policing as a strategic approach to security, there is a need as part of a comprehensive governance reform to explore the potential for establishment of formal, constitutionally enabled self-government institutions at the community level. Communities through formal community administrations should become a tier, the forth tier of government/administration in Nigeria.
• Furthermore, immediate steps will be required to be taken undertake the full implementation of the provisions of Police Act 2020 [as well as the Police Trust Fund Act] towards enabling the reform of the current federalized Nigeria Police.
