CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES, PERSPECTIVES AND CHALLENGES OF FEDERALISING THE NIGERIAN POLICE

The dynamism and complexity of Nigeria's federalism has attracted a lot of academic scrutiny because it generated so many problems capable of threatening the corporate existence and continuity of the Nigerian state. The Federal Government since the intervention of the military in government, has always assumed superiority over the state and local government and military federalism became more common than civilian federalism and this model made the federal government 'the master in relation to the dependent' state government. The police is an organ of the state entrusted with the protection of lives and property of its citizen, maintenance of peace and order, securing the state and in the absence of the police sustenance of order, legality, development and democracy may be difficult. The Federal government under the 1999 constitution of Nigeria was allocated all powers of the Nigeria Police Force under its full and exclusive control. The researcher in this research has compared the organisation of the Nigeria Police Force vis-a-vis that of other jurisdictions and its effectiveness in combating incessant crimes which is believed to be caused by the vesting of the powers of the Nigeria Police Force in the Federal Government instead of same to be within the powers of the state and local governments being the closest to citizens. The researcher consulted scholarly papers and books to further buttress his point in the imperative need of Nigeria to devolve the powers of police to states and local government. The researcher was also able to show that the Nigerian Police Force if allowed to be controlled by the state and Local Government, crimes will be curbed to the barest minimum.