Soludo deepens national conversation on State Police

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By Madu Obi

The Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has deepened the conversation on State Police recently passed by National Assembly, insisting that the question is no longer if state police is appropriate, but about how it must be implemented.

Speaking at the Town all meeting on State Police organized by Arise News TV, Soludo said the ongoing reforms to Nigeria’s federalism by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has not come as a surprise.

Recalling how the President, then as Governor of Lagos State, consistently made a case for Nigeria to devolve power to subregions and become more federal in practice, the Anambra governor said he often calls the President the “Professor of federalism,” because of his astute commitment to a more functional federal system for Nigeria.

Arguing that State Police should not exist in isolation, Soludo asserted that “State Police need to be seen in the context of the unfinished business towards a sustainable security and justice system.”

He added that although more responsibilities have been handed down to the states, the revenue allocation formula has not been reviewed.

He also spoke on the centralized judicial system and the challenges it poses to a speedy justice system. Using Anambra as a case study, Governor Soludo said that land disputes are a major source of judicial process in the state, noting that some of the cases take up to 30 or 40 years.

Speaking on the need for reforms to correspond to the ongoing devolution of responsibilities to states, Soludo said: “I don’t understand why the issue of land should go beyond the state. The conversation should go towards a more sustainable federal structure.”