Former presidential aide Reno Omokri has said those criticising President Tinubu's State Police initiative lack awareness of Nigeria's history.

MyNigeria reported that President Tinubu declared a National Security Emergency and urged the National Assembly to review laws to enable willing states to establish State Police.

In a post on social media, Omokri lamented that since the patriotic and strong leadership act was unveiled, some persons, including prominent pastors, who had hitherto been calling for solutions, have taken to criticising the President's State Police initiative, declaring that it would be used as a personal army by authorities at the state level to terrorise their opponents.

According to him, those who say State Police will not work have no sense of history.

He said, "Nigeria first had community policing before a national police. They were known as Native Authority Police. It was after the Nzeogwu coup, which led to the end of the First Republic, that the new Military Head of State, Major General Ironsi, turned Nigeria into a unitary state on 24 May 1966 with his Unification of Assets Decree Number 34.

"Ironsi seized the oil and other resources of the other three regions and gave them to the new Federal Government, which replaced the central government and dissolved the regional civil services and Native Authority Police into the federal civil service and police force.

"Native authority police were brutally effective because they were not controlled by politicians for the most part. In the North and Western Regions, where they had natural rulers, they were under Emirs and Obas. In the Eastern Region, Local Governments controlled them because most Igbo communities had no natural rulers. The only ones who did were the Igbos that the Bini had colonised, such as Onitsha and Asaba.

"In addition to the Native Authority police, both the Western and Northern Regions established their own Regional Police Forces in 1943. Only the Eastern Region did not have a Regional Police. These forces were semi-autonomous.

"In the North, native authority and regional police were known as "Dan Doka" (singular) or "Yan Doka" (plural).

"The Lukumi Yoruba word for police actually originated with Native Authority police. Olopa does not mean police. It denotes the police, specifically a policeman, but in literal translation it does not mean police or police man.

"The word olopa is similar to Oluwa, which many people think means our Lord, but is actually an abbreviation of Olu Iwa, meaning Lord of Character.

"Olopa actually means one who wields a staff. Opa is staff in Lukumi Yoruba. For example, Opa Oranmiyan in Ile Ifẹ̀ actually means Oranmiyan's staff.

"The word was coined in the 19th century, when the British introduced the Hausa Constabulary into Lagos and gradually into the Western Region of Nigeria as Native Authority police.

"Unlike the police you see today, the Hausa Constabulary and the Native Authority police were not armed with guns. Instead, they wielded batons. The word olopa was used to refer to them as one who wields a staff (baton), similar to how my Itsekiri Lukumi people and some other Edekiri Omoluabi Lukumi call witches and wizards olosho, meaning one who wields magic or wizardry.
Osho, or Oṣó, is Lukumi for wizardry, magic, or technology. The modern slang usage of olosho to refer to women of easy virtue is a misnomer.

"Sadly, both Western and Northern Regional police were dissolved after Ironsi took over.

"Nigeria's pioneering filmmaker and thespian, Chief Hubert Ogunde, was a member of the Nigeria Police Force, under the Western Region Command, and was stationed at Ebute Meta until he resigned in 1946 to face theatre and stage production professionally.

"I have attached a photo of him as a police officer in the Western Nigeria Regional Police Command.

"In the North, both the regional and native authority police were successful at addressing farmer-herder clashes, especially under John Hodge, who headed the Northern Region Police in 1953 and enforced the Burti system, which limited herders to specific migratory routes known as butali.

"So, anyone criticising President Tinubu's call for State Police and claiming it is unworkable lacks awareness of Nigeria's policing history.

"Regional and Community policing existed in Nigeria pre-1966, and they worked efficiently in maintaining law and order. But for the January 15, 1966, Nzeogwu/Ifeajuna coup, they would still have existed today.

"And since the best predictor of the future is the past, which shows us that community policing once worked in Nigeria, there is no reason to suppose that it will not work again."