No Illusions in State Police! Self-Defense is a Democratic Right!

Right of the Working Masses to bear Arms to Defend Themselves against Any Sectarian Attacks  

By Aj. Dagga Tolar

Not up to six years after the country’s independence, the First Republic came to an end when the then Commander and head of the army, General Aguyi Ironsi, came to power as the first military’s head of the state on the basis of leading a counteraction against the January 15, 1966 coup plotters. He had gone ahead to issue Decree No. 34, which sought to transit the country from a federal structure to a unitary state. This was fiercely resisted by the northern elites, and the resultant effect was the counter-coup of July 29, 1966, which was expected to return the country back on the course of federalism. Painfully, events degenerated into a civil war situation with the then Eastern Region declaring a state of Biafra and seeking unsuccessfully to secede from the country. It was on the eve of this declaration of war that the then Gowon regime broke the regions into federating states of 12, and that process as since continued to the current state of 36 states and 774 local governments.

The balkanization was to foist on the country a centre so powerful that the federating state units do not become so powerful as to ever be able to contend with the centre. This process was no doubt aided by military rule with its centralized military hierarchy transplanted on the polity for a period of close to 30 years from 1960 to when the fourth republic commenced in 1999.

Indeed, on the question of arms, a key lesson from the civil war experience by the powers that be was to prevent any future situation wherein any section of the country could contemplate or exercise its control of arms to challenge the sanctity of the Nigerian state as a single entity. A complete monopoly of arms by the centre was therefore not to be subjected to any form of negotiation. Indeed, for the northern ruling elites, both military and civilian, the slogan: One indivisible Nigeria was a holy creed that must be protected by all means.

It was true to the letters of the above spirit that Buhari as president in the face of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) agitation for a Biafran state said that any threat against the country will be seen as “misbehaving” and will be dealt with in “the language” such characters “understand”, a clear euphemism for the use of maximum force on peaceful; agitations and protest.

WHAT HAS NOW CHANGED IN THE POLITY? WHY STATE POLICE NOW?

Bearing in mind that Tinubu is the first of rulers from the southern wing of the ruling elites to push for legislation on State police, should it be taken to mean that there is already a post-Tinubu regime over view of the polity already in motion, and that Tinubu is plotting ahead to change the configuration of the control of arms to enable the southern wing of the ruling class a measured control of artms, for when it is no longer in power at the centre. This will mean that the question of secession or break up of the country is not completely dismissed as a possible calculation, if things were to degenerate further from where we stand today. Rather than engage in any form of speculation, we just straight away state that the Tinubu regime can solely rely on the existing facts on the ground to actually justify its pursuit of the decentralization of the police, removing it from the exclusive list to the concurrent list to allow for the creation of state police.

And in the above context it’s the unending and increasing challenge of insecurity in all the axis of the federation, with terrorism, insurgency, and banditry perpetuated by Islamic faith-based fundamentalist groups like Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Ansaru, and Lakurawa with base in the North. Alongside a series of unnamed and unidentified cow rustling, land grabbing conflicts, and kidnapping ring outlets for ransom, with state governors incapable of doing anything, even though they are characterized as the Chief Security Officers of their various states.

This is further reinforced by the compromised state of the military and the Nigeria police in their inability to squarely record any substantive victory against these non-state armed groups in the country; in too many cases, even where there has been an intelligence report of an imminent attack, communities have been left on their own to witness the wanton slaughter and killings of unarmed citizens. That it is no longer a phenomenon or problem restricted to northern Nigeria alone is made clear by the recent kidnapping of teachers and pupils from schools in Oriire in Oyo State in the South West for 56 days. This incident comes in handy as a further bargaining tool that the apologists of the Tinubu regime will employ to push the legislation for state police through the national and state houses of assemblies. Indeed the regime possess the financial muscle with which win over legislative both at the national and state assemblies, employing same antics to woo over governors elected on other parties to cross over and join the ruling party; APC.

Can we now safely conclude the question of insecurity will now simply disappear if state police comes into existence? Are all the issues of insurgency, banditry, kidnapping not rooted in economics and the social contradictions that colonialism, with its imposition of capitalism, had brought about? A fact further entrenched by the ruling elites at independence with no effort whatsoever to effect a change in the capitalist system. This is what has created the unequal access and distribution of the wealth and resources of the country in favour of only a tiny number of the population, among which include the ruling elites and their cronies and members of the billionaire club. Capitalism is therefore the fundamental problem that needs to be addressed.

THE THEORY OF CRIME PREVENTION TIED PRIMARILY TO PROCURING MORE ARMS FOR THE STATE IS A COMPLETELY FALSE NOTION

The current quest for state police also takes its grounding from the false notion that the procurement of more arms by the state would position it to be able to prevent crimes and indeed better position it to combat all threats of insecurity. One cannot but insist and draw attention to the character of the bourgeois state as an organ set to defend the class rule and dominance of those in power. The capitalist class and members of the billionaire club will not change their outlook. Nor will they become willing to accept an arrangement that will allow for the distribution and access to the wealth and resources of the country by the class of workers and poor peasants. Indeed, they will kill to maintain their monopoly. This is the basis on which the state is organised to keep the working masses in check with its monopoly and control of the paraphernalia of the instrument of coercion under its thumb to ensure the safety of its rule and control of the wealth of society.

This is what makes manifest the social issues of mass unemployment, the non-existence of an unemployment allowance even when it is clear that the country can afford it, given the huge resources of the country including those declared and undeclared. The failure of the ruling elites to take control of the wealth of the country and employ same to develop the means of production and, by so doing, create millions of jobs in all sector of the economy is the only real panacea that will end the worsening state of insecurity in the country.

This is why the working masses must not place any trust at all on the Tinubu regime or on the fact that the legislating into existence of a state police will suddenly then solve the question of insecurity. It explains why Marxists will put forward the slogan of the right of self-defense as a democratic right as oppose to the option of state police. The right of any community to conduct its self-defense against any sectarian attack on it, under the democratic control of the organised force of the working masses in the community. To legitimately and independently organise its own arms and defend itself against attack. Of course, included in this is the right to appeal to the rank and file of the military and police to align with its action on a working class relationship basis to bring its experience and arms over to support the effort of the community to organise its defense independently. At no time can the bourgeois state be trusted to consistently defend the wellbeing of the working masses, when the survival and guarantee of its luxurious lifestyle is hinged on an unending attack on the working and living conditions of the working masses.

THE JTF EXPERIENCE IN MAIDUGURI

The Joint Task Force (JTF) or what was later to become the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), was a vigilante initiative organised from below by working class youths in Maiduguri; they were primarily armed with cutlasses, bows and arrows, and sticks. It succeeded in its early days to defend and repulse attacks by the then Boko Haram, functioning as a self-defense group; it fished out informers, gathering the necessary information that allowed for the necessary preparation of defending Maiduguri and also initiate attack on identified stronghold of Boko Haram. Its social class composition of hunters, traders, farmers, drivers and bike riders, youth and students covering nearly all stratification of the lower classes residents in Maiduguri environ was an asset and key to its success. Its independence as a functional armed unit of the Maiduguri community alludes to the heroic height the working masses can rise to defend their community.

This successful exercise of the democratic right of the working masses to initiate actions to organise for their own protection is however in the long run seen as a threat by the state, not just in the demonstrative achievement of what the police and the military could not archive with all of its resources, but as well as demonstrating to its own class that it can rely on itself, and before long see itself as the nucleus of a new formation of alternative power base to the bourgeois state.

This explains why the ruling elites in Bornu didn’t waste time to take it over, expanding its reach to the whole of Maiduguri and Bornu to integrate and subject it under the control of the state, through recruitment and payment of stipend so that it now see and pride itself as a part structure of the bourgeois state, with it the loss of its independence and the wiping away from its memory that the failure of the bourgeois state contributed to the emergence of both Boko Haram and CJTF as independent organ of resistance.

The clear absence of working class leadership on the ground in Bornu and in the country at large to help pose a clear alternative to the class rule of the bourgeoisie and members of the billionaire club in Nigeria that would have welcomed the CJTF as a part of that effort, mobilizing support for it within the trade unions and outside of it, both nationally and internationally. We can today, refer to that effort in Maiduguri in 2013 and point to its historical essence and initial successes is why we can legitimately say to the working masses that its safety from all manner of sectarian attack by whatever type of group is ultimately a factor of its own action and willingness to defend itself. Rather than provide support for the state police, Marxists, working class activists and Change seekers must rally themselves under the slogan of the right of the working masses to self-defense as a democratic right.

THE RULING ELITES ARE PRINCIPALLY TO BE BLAMED

FOR THE STATE OF INSECURITY

Having principally pointed out that the failure to develop the means of production by the ruling class in Nigeria is the main reason for the insecurity ravaging the country, since it would enable it to tackle the scourge of mass unemployment. It is important to also state that it must be held accountable for not providing the necessary funds to develop and modernize the agricultural sector of the economy both in terms of farming and rearing of animals for meat consumption.

The lack of a clear plan to also combat the ongoing desertification in Northern Nigeria has in no little way worsened the state of insecurity and conflicts. With the predominantly Fulani ethnic  cattle-rearers seeking for free access to greener and grass-growing land outside of their own community for their cows to grease.

Add to the pool the question of the mining of gold, tin, and lithium. Uranium, iron ore, and other rare earth elements have been discovered in commercial quantity in Kaduna, Plateau, Zamfara, Nasarawa, Taraba, and Adamawa. According to a report, the north is endowed with over “44 mineral resources spread across more than 500 identified locations” (Punch newspaper September 23, 2025). And interestingly, the Northern wing of the ruling class has its hands soiled in it. They are the main characters in these illegal mining activities, procuring arms to protect themselves against rival competing groups, with Chinese and other foreign nationals directly involved in the buying and carting away of these mined products from the country.

This is directly linked to the question of insecurity in the country. And there is no way out of this logjam. No legislation of state police will curb the conflicts around this golden pot of natural resources that has now been appropriated by those at the corridors of power. Indeed, the kidnapping exercises are linked to breakaway groups who do not have access to these mines, who, in most cases, turn their weapons for quick cash against the working masses, indirectly coercing these governors to pay the ransom as part of their own cut from the gold rush.

This is why socialism is key in ultimately solving the question of insecurity in Nigeria, in the direct putting forward the need for all extraction and sales of all minerals in the country to be nationalized and placed under the democratic control and management of a working-people government.

THE QUESTION OF SECESSION

The fear of what a rival section of the ruling elites will do with control of arms underneath its belt against another wing in power at the centre is why the question of secession is still an edgy issue in the country; it will not go away even if the Tinubu regime were to succeed to legislate state police into existence. It is also not impossible that it can be referenced in the 2027 General elections. And it will immediately also come under question if another section of the ruling class comes to power, or even if a coup were to be successful; such a military regime will immediately establish its rule on the ground of establishing a monopoly of the control of arms and the question of arms procurement.

All of the discussion at Aburi in 1967 between the Federal government under the Gowon regime and the then Eastern military administration led by Ojukwu is a point of reference here. And this is why an Igbo presidency is called to question in the entire period of the Second Republic till date, even though the working masses in the North are already developing some level of consciousness to exit the fog of acting only on the dictations of the northern ruling elites.

But the activities and agitation for the Biafran state, as led Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB, is not helpful in this regard; if anything, it reinforces and in no way aids the Northern wing of the ruling class to come out of its fear of the decoupling of “One Nigeria”? Or is it that the Tinubu regime can directly mobilise the necessary influence both financially and other wise to push the legislation through.

STATE POLICE & OTHER SUNDRY ISSUES

It’s obvious that it will take a lot to force the Tinubu regime to back down on the quest for state police, not when it has little or nothing to show for its 3 years plus in power. And it is desperately seeking trophies by all means with which to present to the working masses, as we approach the very eve of the 2027 General elections. It has also concocted one deal or the other with nearly all state governors that has tied their future political relevance and continued presence in office in one form or the other to its own bid to be reelected back to power come 2027.

It follows therefore that there will be little or no consistent bourgeois opposition to it, everything will be employed and used as a bargaining chip in the quest for State police, to make it practically impossible for any form of opposition whatsoever from any of the ranks of the ruling class.

We therefore call on the leadership of the trade unions to bring to the fore all of the overriding issues around the state police as it affects the fortunes of the working masses and support the call for the democratic right of the working masses to self-defense and independently control any such initiative.

At the same time, also raise the question of the pool of resources and funds that this will gulp; where will it come from? Will this fund not erode and wipe away the very little currently spent on social amenities for the working masses? The question of a living wage as opposed to the current monthly minimum wage of N70, 000 ($50), with so many states including Osun in the South West and the FCT Abuja struggling with full implementation for all workers. We wonder aloud if this new State police will not be visited with the same poverty wages; will they then not resort to using their arms and uniform to increase their income through a series of illegal extortion exercises as currently done by Nigerian Police Officers.

Police work is not merely a question of recruitment and handling of a gun, paying poverty wages the governors’ dole out currently to a series of militia groups they run in various guises as paramilitary formations. An effective functional police will itself rest on the overall infrastructural development of society in all sectors of the economy as well as reflect on the workforce and it wellbeing. This is what will naturally trickle down to impact positively on the state of the police force through the provision of modern equipment, training and necessarily professionalism. The question of welfare and the democratic right to belong to a police union to democratically agitate for improved working and living conditions.

It follows therefore that the state police will only replicate and reflect itself in the very mirror of the existing police. Only the powers that be will benefit from this new venture. New contracts will be awarded for arms to be procured. New protective force for emerging members of millionaire club, who can directly make a request from the governor to access cheap security personnel in their factories and households with the state footing the bill, these lucky security guards will earn extras from serving ‘Oga’, the rest will be left to carter for themselves, and what this will mean, is that it is only a question of time, before they turn their guns against the mass of the working people, transforms their guns into a meal ticket with which to improve their earnings.

No illusions whatsoever in the state police. Corruption will even blossom; the unaccounted Security votes that run into billions every month will have a new excuse for it to be increased. And for the needs of the working masses to suffer the more. This is why we in the Movement for a Socialist Alternative counterpoises the question of state police with the slogan for the right of the working masses to bear arms to defend themselves against any sectarian attack.