Govs Will Become God’s If You Give Them State Police  – Dogara

A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has taken a swipe at state governor’s for abusing some functions in the concurrent list ceded to them



The Speaker of the 8th National Assembly was a guest on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television on Friday.



According to him, governors are mismanaging state-controlled electoral commissions to have their way during local government elections. He said the opposition won’t be allowed to breathe if governors are empowered with state police.


He described as “laughable,” the calls by some persons that state police should be introduced as a means to curb the ubiquitous security challenges such as kidnapping and banditry in Nigeria.


Dogara said, “Look at this country, what is it that has been outsourced to a state that has been properly managed?



“Look at how the state electoral commissions have turned out to be. If I were a governor and I wanted to be a pretentious democrat, I can even say three, four, or five local governments are less consequential to me; let me cede them to oppositions but when they (governors) run these elections, the ruling parties take 100% of the local government chairmen seat.


“If we have state police, what will play out is that we will be giving a hangman the free hand to hang, we will enable state governors to build militias.



“They control 100% state assemblies, they control 100% magistrates, area court justices and even the state high court. So, when you now reinforce that or strengthen that with the state police, you are making them a judge in their own case, which even runs counter to the principle of democracy.




What will happen is that if you disagree with your governor, you dare not go home. The state police then becomes a militia used to rig elections by the sitting governors.




“Our democracy has not reached that maturity. Democracy cannot survive in an atmosphere of intimidation, where you cannot tolerate opposition.”




Dogara was a lawmaker in the green chamber for 16 years from June 2007 to June 2023 when he represented Dass/Bogoro/Tafawa Balewa Constituency from Bauchi State.