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Tag: Alhaji Tanko Yakasai

  • Okogie, Dickson laud FG as state police sparks fresh debate

    Okogie, Dickson laud FG as state police sparks fresh debate

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s latest call  for state police has sparked a fresh debate with veteran politician, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, branding the suggestion a threat to the nation’s democracy and unity.

    The Senate plans to discuss the desirability  of the proposal,according to Senate leader Ahmed  Lawan.

    Retired Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Okogie,  and Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State are in support of the Vice President, while a   Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader, Chief Emmanuel Iwuayanwu warns against rushing into adopting the plan.

    A former President of the Ijaw National Council (INC), Prof. Kimse Okoko, said it will be an exercise in futility except other ingredients of restructuring are put in place.

    Contacted yesterday, Yakasai said the establishment of state police would destroy democracy in Nigeria and trigger anarchy.

    ”I have all along opposed this clamour for state police  because it is a threat to democracy. You have seen how state governors are abusing state electoral commissions. Tthey are killing democracy.”

    “From all indications and with the rate of unemployment in the country, state governors will recruit party thugs as state policemen so that they can dance to their whims and caprices. They will definitely use them against the opposition,” Yakasai said.

    Yakasai , a Second Republic Presidential Political Adviser  added: ”If Governor Ortom had state police, he would have directed them to kill Fulani herdsmen, not minding whether they are innocent or not.

    “You remember the Nnamdi Kanu saga in Abia—if there was a state police there, they would have taken instructions directly from Nnamdi  Kanu and not even the governor; and there would have been a serious problem in that part of the country.

    “Now, state electoral commissions are driving a nail to Nigeria’s democracy because state governors use them  to win elections for themselves. Now, when you bring state police, you are driving the  final nail into the coffin of Nigeria’s democracy.”

    Differing from Yakasai, Okogie said it is imperative for each  state to have its own police force to complement the efforts of the federal police.

    “The need for state police is long overdue, especially with the current state of insecurity in the country. If you look round, how many Nigerian policemen do you see?  he said.

    “You don’t see the federal police. This is why states should be allowed to have their own police force.  This will help in addressing security challenges we have in different parts of the country. I don’t know why our government is afraid of state police.

    “I don’t care if the  vice president’s statement  is a political gimmick or not. Whatever name they call it is not important. Do you think the security situation would be better when we enter election period? It would not.”

    Prominent Igbo leader and Peoples Democratic Party chieftain, Chief Emmanuel Iwuayanwu, while admitting the importance of state police, warned that the country should not rush  into adopting  it.

    “They should not rush into it. If they do, they will create a lot of problems,” he told The Nation yesterday.

    “ Most of the states cannot pay salaries and if they cannot  pay salaries, how are they going to pay the state police?

    “I believe that state police is good, but how do you get the money? How do you get money to motivate them?

    “If you don’t motivate policemen, they will become criminals and that becomes worse. The problem we have with the police force today is that they are not well equipped and underfunded. They are overstretched.

    “If they are well funded, well equipped, they will rise to most of the challenges. If you have a police force that is not equipped, it doesn’t make sense.  Rushing into creating state police will create more problems in Nigeria.”

    Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State argued that the prevailing security situation and the need for an effective response to the current crime challenge have made it imperative for states to set up their police units.

    Dickson in a statement through  the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said that removing the police from the exclusive list and putting its operations under a more effective arrangement at the level of the state would put a stop to the widespread killings and crimes in the country.

    He explained that state police would be effective as the personnel would be drawn from the various states and would easily access valuable information required to track crimes and criminals.

    The governor added that the current federally controlled police had become overstretched due to wide ratio of the police to the rapid increase in population.

    A former President of the Ijaw National Council (INC), Prof. Kimse Okoko, said without factoring other ingredients of restructuring, establishing a state police would be an exercise in futility.

    Okoko, the immediate past Pro-Chancellor, University of Uyo,said: “State police alone without changing the constitution is a waste of time. We cannot do it in piecemeal. If we restructure, every state will have its own police side by side with the federal police as we have in other countries.

    “We have the Federal Police in the US and the state police. They all have their own jurisdictions.  The state police can ask for assistance from the federal. They can come only on invitation.

    “The constitution needs to be re-written. We need to have a new constitution where some of other aspects affiliated with the state will also be taken care of. Amending one part of it as the National Assembly is trying to do is not going to solve the problem.”

    Also speaking, the immediate past President, Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, Mr. Udengs Eradiri, said though the state police have their value, they should be part of the general clamour for restructuring.

    Eradiri said: “In a true federal system, state police is one of the ingredients. Much as you cannot rule out politics, state police have its advantages. The state government can use the state police against perceived opposition. We have seen that the federal one is not working as it should be. I think it is time to try something different.

    “But taking out the state police as one ingredient of federalism will not make it a success except other aspects of federalism that have been canvassed are also put into consideration. When you are talking about state police, other issues of devolving power to the state and local government will also be put in place.”

    Senate Leader, Ahmed  Lawan said yesterday that the Green Chamber  will deliberate on the desirability  of state police.

    He spoke with State House journalists after observing juma’at service at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    According to him, the senate is currently looking towards reviewing the country’s security architecture and will be open to any suggestion that will enable  it achieve the objective.

  • Yakasai flays sale of national assets

    Yakasai flays sale of national assets

    The former Political Adviser to ex-President Shehu Shagari, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai Monday in Kano said selling the country’s assets as solution to the current economic recession will further plunge the nation into another major economic crisis.

    Yakasai who is a foundation member of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) argued further that such action in the name of reviving the ailing economy will at the end result restrict income and impoverish the masses into abject poverty.

    The elder Statesman spoke at his Kano residence when Senator Shehu Sani paid him a courtesy visit to discuss the-state-of-the-nation, said that previous experiences on the sale of national assets have clearly indicated that it is not solution to the present Nigeria’s economic predicament.

    According to him, “I learnt that people were recommending for the sale of our national asset in order to address the issue of economic recession-this is a wrong approach! All of us have a family, if you were giving N100 to your wife to cook for you and it is what you could afford, then all of a sudden you find yourself in a situation that you could no longer afford a N100, it is not a solution for you to begin to sell your furniture, your dresses in order to maintain your N100 meal; because those items will one day be sold off and then you reach the end of all your efforts.

    “It happened to me before, I ran into economic crisis and I decided to sell my things; until I sold half of it, then I realized that there was no end to it, then I stopped. Again, I have realized that in Nigeria, we did it before, the British left us with the Nigeria National Shipping Line, they left us with the Nigeria Air Ways, they left us investment in banks, investments in NITEL and the rest of them.

    “Our military rulers decided to sell our assets. Our predicaments, our troubles started with the coup de tat that took place in Nigeria–three of them, they were unnecessary–the 1966 coup, the 1975 coup, the 1983 coup! Each time one of such coup took place, we lose our direction.

    They didn’t solve our problems, they only multiplied our problems.”

    He further stated that, “even during Obasanjo, I remember Obasanjo said he was selling our assets because 70 per cent of our budget was going to finance recurrent expenditure. So he started selling NICON, Legislative quarters, federal secretariats, federal government houses, ministers quarters, fertilizer company, the Ajaokuta Steel (which was recovered later) and so on; he sold them.

    “We were all here when he sold them. After selling all these things, what is the ratio of our budget today–is it not 70 to 30 per cent? 70 for recurrent expenditure, and 30 per cent for capital expenditure. It is out of the 30 that we service debts. So, to me this idea of selling assets will not take Nigeria anywhere.”

    Yakasai also kicked against the call for restructuring of Nigeria, saying that such move will not bring any political solution.

    According to him, the only thing Nigeria needs is true and sincere leadership, adding that, “the call for restructuring has no road map in the first place. Some call it True Federalism, some call it Fiscal Federalism.

    “I must tell you that there is nothing like True Federalism in the right sense of it. There is  no Federation that is the same all over the world. Go and inquire from political scientists and they will tell you, there is no way the American federalism will be the same with that of Nigeria, there must be differences. So, we should look at ways of telling ourselves the truth and evolve a leadership that can carry all the regions along.”

    He also commended President Muhammadu Buahri’s determination seeking solutions for the current economic quagmire, just as he adviced him to study how the United States of America experience when they had economic recession at the inception of President Barak Obama’s administration.

    Speaking earlier, Senator Shehu Sani representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District regretted that, “we have seen how a culture of waste and mismanagement over the years, how a culture of lack of saving has made it impossible for us to address some issues that are facing us as a country. As parliamentarians, your words will be of help to us and also to the ruling government and party. It is a fact that Nigerians are suffering and the country that was seen to be very promising in Africa in the past is now lacking the capacity to stir the ship of our state and to lead other African states.

    “It is disgraceful that our political ruling elite over the years have not been able to save for the rainy day. It has reached a point today where by states can no longer pay salaries; they are owing deeper and deeper into debt; and it also looks as if there is no clear plan on ground to exit ourselves from the problems we have found ourselves.”

     

  • Stop Rivers political crisis, Yakasai urges FG

    Stop Rivers political crisis, Yakasai urges FG

    Alhaji  Tanko Yakasai, former Adviser on National Assembly Matters to ex-President Shehu Shagari,  has urged the Federal Government to intervene in the political crisis rocking Rivers state, stating that if urgent steps are not taken, it may snowball into the kind of political crisis that greeted the Western Region in 1965.

    Yakasai who spoke in Kano Friday also warned that the spate of killings, accusations and counter-accusations that characterized the Rivers state election rerun does not speak well of the nation’s democracy.

    According to him, imposition of emergency rule in Rivers state for whatsoever reason will not augur well in the present situation, adding that there was need for the presidency to discourage individuals from using security operatives to intimidate the masses or impose their will on the electorate.

    According to him, way back in 1965, “it was a similar trend in the West that people in power at the centre at that time tried to use the power of incumbency to deny the Action Group victory in the West that gradually transcended into killing and mayhem by political opponents.  They resorted to killing one another by pouring acid on their political opponents in order to kill or disfigure them.”

    He also traced the 1966 coup to the political crises in the West at that time and warned against a replay of such occurrence, pointing out that, “1966 coup was a single act that destroyed political stability of Nigeria and sow the seed of successive political crises which denied the nation the ability to match forward.”

    He recalled that after the 2015 general election in which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost power at the centre and gained control of some states in the South-South and South-East, some PDP leaders alleged plot by the All Progressive Congress (APC)-controlled Federal Government to seize control of the areas where PDP managed to win.

    “After the last election and the PDP gained control of the states in that region, allegations were made that APC leaders were scheming to use election petition tribunal to deny them their victory. And true to the PDP accusation, most of the election results in those states won by the party were nullified by the election tribunals. It was only the action of the Supreme Court that reversed the situation and save the peace in that area in particular and the nation at large,” he added.

    According to him, “it was alleged that a scheme was hatched to use election tribunal by the APC to take control of the state’s PDP managed to control power. True to that allegation, the election tribunal cancelled gubernatorial elections in more than half of the state’s PDP managed to gain control.”

    “After last year’s general elections where PDP lost power, the party managed to win control of some strategic states. A lot of them are in the South-South, this area is where we have the largest deposit of crude oil in our country and it is where large chunk of foreign investment is concentrated,” he added.

    He said there was need for the Independent Electoral Commission to ensure that when next it will conduct the rerun election in the remaining area in Rivers state, electoral official that should be sent to conduct the rerun election must be people with no partisan inclination. If that is done, there will not be any need of sending thousands of security forces to maintain peace during the election.

    “A true democracy is when the minority will have their say and the majority will have their way. So, what I want to say is that a democracy without a strong opposition does not work out. I will like to appeal to those in control of the federal authority not to allow over ambitious politicians to manipulate them to achieve their political objectives,” he added.

    He also reminded the Federal Government of the impending consequences should states such as Rivers and Bayelsa would be allowed to delve into political crisis, noting that, “with the huge presence of foreign investors in that state, particularly in the oil and gas industry, it will be of huge consequence for Nigeria if crisis erupts from those areas because the foreign investors will not be happy. Their property and installations will not be safe and it will not be a good omen for our economy, which is already in trouble.”

    Yakasai also stated that with the battle against Boko Haram yet to be won, given another opportunity for groups like the Niger-Delta militants whose operation almost crippled the economy during the regime of late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua will spell doom for the country.

    He added that, “although considerable success has been recorded in the military campaign against Book Haram tactless killings; to provoke a new insurgency in the Niger-Delta area in the name of imposing unpopular leadership in Rivers state or any place in that area will be unrewarding.”

     

  • Yakasai tells governors to be above petty interests

    Former Adviser to ex-President Shehu Shagari on National Assembly Matters, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, has expressed disgust over the outcome of the Governors Forum election.

    Reacting to the development in Kano yesterday, Yakasai said that he is uncomfortable with the turn of events, mainly because governance is one of the three pillars that the majority of Nigerians regard as the embodiment of national unity.

    According to Yakasai since the formation of the Forum, Governors have been interacting with one another, putting the interest of the nation above all other considerations.

    “They have been dealing with one another without regard to their political party differences,” he said.

    He, said that the other bodies that Nigerians regard as the embodiment of national unity are the National Council of States and the National Assembly.

    What happened on Friday, he emphasised, has put the dignity and reputation of the governors at stake and made the country a laughing stock.

    Yakasai appealed to the governors to put petty considerations and personal interest aside and consider the interest of the nation.