State Police Bill: Onofiok Luke’s historic adventure
By Benjamin Jimmy
In the last three years of his tenure in the House of Representatives as the Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, Rt. Hon. Onofiok Luke has been a celebrated legislature constantly in the spotlight of moving a host of motions, sponsoring bills, as well as being part of the on going Constitutional Amendments.
Interestingly, all these legislative strivings of this finest House of Representatives populist are not without good intentions and futuristic turn around for the country, especially for a segment of the country that always seems a concern to him – the youth segment.
Having the interest of the youths at heart as it is seen through his dedicated legislations is just a fragmented piece of his needs and aspirations for humanity whom he is always obsessed about. Without any stroke of exaggeration, Onofiok Luke is a staunch mover of motions that are nationalistic, and an undaunted sponsor of bills that have the capacity to introduce new developmental paradigms for the growing population of Nigeria.
Of a particular concern to this piece is one of his bills – the establishment of state police which was not only considered historically annalistic when he proposed it, but also for its extraordinaire and huge potentials to galvanize a conversation on devolution of power and drive a new narrative for youth employment in Nigeria. This bill was, for many political followers, a millstone in the historical chronicles of legislative engagements in this present Fourth Republic, and perhaps one that will continue to generate more discussions in many political fora and gatherings across the country, even though it died as soon as it went through second reading.
But, across the bar of the lacunae that killed the bill laid a future Onofiok Luke saw which clearly explains why he was working round the clock and even lobbying his colleagues to support all of the merits the bill had in its offings for the country of today and tomorrow to come.
The first merit in the bill Onofiok saw was the devolution of powers to the federating units of Nigeria. The bill was intended to devolve powers to state governments to establish and manage their own independent policing. It was envisioned also to help institutionalise true federalism, localise and confine criminal activities to their areas of origin.
Onofiok Luke had also foreseen a bill that held boundless of job opportunities for the teaming youths of Nigeria. Establishing state police was Luke’s one way of bridging the gaps of employment, as more youths would have been employed, thus solving significantly the issue of insecurity presently bedevilling the Nigerian state.
He believes and rightly so, that the quickest and fastest way of solving issues of insecurity in the country is by creating opportunities for the youths to discover themselves and from there, create their own wealth. This belief, apparently, is occasioned by his many researches and analyses of the problems that are entirely made in Nigeria and for Nigeria.
Any wonder the Northern Elders Forum and the Afenifere supported the lawmaker when he was fighting tooth and nail to have his was for the future of the Nigerian youths.
In their separate reactions, the socio-political groups agreed with the lawmaker and his colleagues that as a federation, granting allowance to state governments to establish police force and other security systems “will bring the country into the original constitutional contemplation of federal state”.
Interestingly, prior to the time Onofiok finally presented the bill, he had, on many occasions, voiced his concern about the continued passivity of federating units in a national insecurity war that should be collectively wedged. It was also not the first time he advocated a sophisticated and legally backed liaison between federal security institutions and local security groups towards crime fighting.
In fact, right from the beginning of his legislative expeditions, he was prepared for transformational bills for Nigerians.
In a newspaper article in July 2012, Onofiok questioned the wisdom “in a system where there was technically only one crime fighter in a country of several millions; where Commissioners of Police report to one man who calls the shots from Abuja, while state governors merely go about with the title of Chief Security Officers of their state, but have far too little input in the security architecture of their own state.”
He argued, and rightly so, that no Commissioner of Police or an IGP can claim to understand the security terrain of a state more than the state governor, the reason security powers needed divulging.
Still in another newspaper article in June 2017, Onofiok sought stakeholders consensus towards amending the constitution to address the nation’s insecurity problems through providing legal support for the establishment of state policing institutions and strengthening of existing security apparatuses at local levels.
As he wrote in that article that: Introducing and maintaining a viable state police force will be a significant step in a restructured Nigeria.
“A state police force dominated by mainly indigenes of the state makes crime fighting and security challenges less cumbersome.
“The geographical location becomes a familiar one to any crime buster while the state police work hand in hand with the federal police under mutual cooperation”.
This is the glory of the State Police Bill Onofiok Luke saw. And this makes him a typical example of a patriotic action which only sees and places national interest above all other interests. He is indeed a man to be entrusted with a higher responsibility of governance. He will certainly see beyond the ordinariness of the future.
