A former Governor of Rivers State, Sir Celestine Omehia, has opposed the creation of state police, warning that state governors have not demonstrated the competence to handle such responsibility.
Omehia, a legal luminary, said in Abuja on Tuesday that the idea would only give governors more power to target political opponents, particularly during elections.
According to him, many governors “don’t have open minds for the general good of the people” and would readily use force to pursue personal interests.
“I do not subscribe to state police because it would be easily abused by the state governors, who would use them to target political opponents, especially during elections.
“You can see now that in Nigeria, violence is a tool in politics to win an election. If state police are created, it becomes an easy and willing tool to be used for every election by the governors to attack political opponents,” Omehia warned in a statement on Tuesday.
He argued that security should remain within the purview of the Federal Government, noting that in countries such as the United States, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom and India, state policing works because their leaders obey the constitutions that established them.
“In every country, security is truly the responsibility of the Federal Government because it has to secure first the internal affairs of the state and also to defend the boundary lines of the country,” he added.
On electoral reform, Omehia recommended that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should remain, but insisted on ensuring its independence from the executive arm of government.
“In my book, I suggested that instead of appointment, there must be an election to bring in who becomes INEC national chairman,” he said, adding that other commissioners should also be elected at the provincial level.
He further proposed constitutional funding for INEC to safeguard its autonomy.
“To make INEC truly independent, their funding, their finances will be contained and provided for in the constitution and must be released to them like the three arms of government. If they are to rely on the executive for funding, then you know the theory, he who pays the piper dictates the tone,” the former Governor said.
Fiscal Federalism and Restructuring Proposals
Omehia also called for fiscal federalism, proposing a new revenue-sharing formula where states would retain 50 per cent of their revenue, remit the rest to zonal provisional governments, which would in turn share with the federal government.
“The remaining 50 per cent of revenue that the federal government receives would then be shared, with 30 per cent for federal administration and the remaining 20 per cent to be redistributed among the states,” he explained.
He stressed that restructuring should not be misconstrued as a call for regional government or state creation, noting that existing states had already given minority groups more representation than the old regional system.
Omehia said his book was inspired by recurring calls from stakeholders, including traditional rulers, academia and journalists, to address structural defects in governance.
“To me, the issue of region has come and gone. We cannot take Nigeria back to a regional system of government. States have been created, and these states have made a better impact on the people than the region,” he said.
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