Caution on creation of State Police

By Otuedon Vincent

While State Police have become inevitable to tackling the nation’s security challenges, we must accept the fact that though we have journeyed years into our independence, we still have not walked far from our primordial sentiments that is now a grave threat to the noble idea of state police. This is the fallout of the defeatist approach to human rights of the 1960 Constitution and the subsequent constitution till date which has in no small measure impeded our national peace, unity and integration.

As a nation, we must admit our ignorance of the purports of the Human Rights Declaration of 1948. The Human Rights Declaration of 1948 by the United Nation was a declaration of tools or instrument for global peace and for member states tools for national peace, unity and integration. This bundle of rights was to be used to school humanity from primordial sentiments such as racism, tribalism, religious extremism etc that bedeviled the world at the time into global citizenship or global peace. The methodology for realizing this objective (global peace} was education of Citizens of these rights.

Upon adoption by the United Nation, the General Assembly Resolution 217A of 10th December, 1948 in its preamble stated thus… whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedom is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge. Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THESE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all people and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms…

Article 25 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Right further stated succinctly that states parties to the present Charter shall have the duty to promote and ensure through teaching and education and publication the respect of these rights and freedom contained in the present Charter and to see to it that these freedoms and rights as well as corresponding obligations and duties are understood.

The developed nations that have become our model of state today, took home these instructions of the UN and came up with a national policy on human rights education and included it in their school curriculum with a clear and definite course objective. And successfully schooled their citizens from dehumanizing and degrading primordial sentiments into statesmanship or global citizenship that enabled state or national policies to run effortlessly.

On the other hand, in 1957 preparatory to Nigeria’s independence, the Willink Commission of Enquiry set up to attend to the fears of the minorities, recommended the inclusion of human rights in the 1960 Constitution only for the purpose of allaying the fears of minorities. Therefore, allaying the fear of minorities or to protect the interest of minorities or the oppress became the basis for including this potent nation building tools into the 1960 Constitution and subsequent Constitution till date. This was largely because at this time of our history, the focus of the nationalist was how to get the colonialists out of our soil. However, the limitation of the scope of this bundle of rights by the Commission affected the approach of government, human rights activism and even the legal profession to these rights. The courts became the only player, as we continued to maintain the defeatist approach of defending and protecting them when we were to use the tools for nation building; national peace, unity, integration, springboard for citizens reformation and global citizenship.

Over the years we have been using a binding rod only for defence, and our ethnic nationalities still stand parallel like it was before independence. It is therefore, a chancy endeavour to place weapons in the hands of a people plagued with divisive primordial sentiments under the guise of state police without a corresponding programme of mental reformation. They are likely to degenerate into palace guards doing only the bidding of their masters. In Nigeria today, the lack of knowledge of the human rights (tenets of democracy} has made our democracy to be coated with monarchical embellishment where the winner takes all.

It is on this note, that I recommend that, while the constitutional preparation for state police is ongoing, there must be a corresponding national policy on human rights education; to include human rights education in our school curriculum to school the younger generation into full statesmanship and global citizenship and a deliberate human right education across the nation: institutions, agencies and parastatal with a  definite and clear objective of nation building; peace, unity, integration and citizen reformation. An objective where all institutions; government, traditional or religion will see their role in the peace building process.

For instance, the police must be made to see the implication of delaying a suspect beyond the stipulated time on the national peace, the court must be made to see the implication of any judgement tainted with bias on the national peace, the individual citizen must be made to see the impact of jungle justice on national peace, civil servants must be made to see the consequence of the slighted favoritism on grounds of tribalism or religion on the national peace, religion and traditional institution must be made to see their roles in nation building and the consequence of their failure to so do.

Consequently, the human rights provisions which are also the tenets of democracy must be translated into our local languages as much as possible to aid understanding of them. This must be a deliberate programme of the government to school the nation from its bedeviling sentiments into one nation bound in freedom, peace and unity before state police can deliver maximally. Creation of State Police is not an end in itself but a means to an end if well managed with human rights education and citizens engagement

Vincent Otuedon, is a human right activist and President, Liberty Harbingers Network