The Nation Newspaper

Tag: INSECURITY

  • ‘Youth empowerment, leadership solutions to insecurity’

    Nigerian former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili has urged the Federal government to curb the challenges of insecurity going on in the country through youths empowerment.

    She lamented the leadership style prevalent in most African countries. She added that  the continent has faced so much crisis in the past, adding that there is need to urgently address the situation before it goes out of hand.

    Speaking as guest lecturers at the Women of Essence Programme which had African Women in Leadership in a Troubllet Era as theme at Eko Hotel, Lagos, the former minister said corruption has taken over the entire system of governance in Africa and should be fought.

    Citing Nigeria as an example, she said the country is badly affected because of the selfishness of the human heart, adding that everybody is jostling to become a political leader and occupy an office but when voted in, they don’t deliver the dividends of democracy to the electorate.

    She said: “The country is full of deceit. Nowhere is safe, most especially with the killings by  herdsmen and Boko-Haram killings.

    “Singapore got independence same year with Nigeria but Nigeria has been so backward because of the height of corruption in leadership style in Nigeria. We are not developing rather we are reducing in terms of styles and size, if everybody is killed in Nigeria who are they going to govern.

  • FG restates commitment to end insecurity

    The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to end the current insecurity facing the country.

    The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo gave the assurance in Talata-Mafara, Zamfara, during a one day visit to inaugurate multi-billion Naira projects in the state.

    He assured that the current security challenges will soon be over as the Federal Government was doing everything possible to tackle the menace

    Osinbajo, who particularly mentioned the effort being made in Zamfara to combat criminal activities especially armed banditry, kidnapping and cattle rustling, said with the recent deployment of 1, 000 troops to the state by the federal government, most of the bandits were being neutralized.

    “I want to inform you that, just yesterday, many of these criminals terrorizing our communities in Zamfara were killed by men of the Nigeria Air Force under Operation Diran Makoda.

    He said the operation will continue with all the deserved seriousness until the peace we used to know is restored, “he maintained.

    He said it was in order to check the issue of insecurity in the country that the federal government introduced measures that opened more employment opportunities especially to the youths so that they would be gainfully employed.

    Earlier in his speech, the state governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari commended the federal government for responding to the state government’s calls to address the security challenges bedeviling the state.

    Yari said his administration gave priority attention to roads construction and rehabilitation, agriculture, health care and education so as to improve security and boost the economy of the state.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Acting President had earlier inaugurated water, roads, health and education projects worth billions of Naira which were executed by the Yari administration in the last one year. (NAN)

  • ‘How Buhari can successfully tackle insecurity’

    Former Minister of Education, Co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) and founder of the Red Card Movement Dr Oby Ezekwesili speaks on the Buhari administration, national security and preparations for next year’s elections on a live Television Continental (TVC) programme, Platform, anchored by SAM OMATSEYE, Chairman of Editorial Board of The Nation newspapers.

    You embarked on a one-person protest at the State House. Take us through what you went through?

    Well, you know, earlier in the year, there have been spates of killings and as a matter of fact, it was the gruesome killings that we saw on the third of January that prompted about my tweeting about a red card to all of our political class for the cyclical pattern of poor governance that was resulting in the cheapening of the human life in Nigeria. And following that, many more deaths continued and one of those times, I put out a tweet and said someday, I would embark on a solo march in order to state clearly that I certainly am not comfortable with this idea that many people now die and we all just move on as though we have normalised this idea of death, people killing without any recourse, without any consequences. So, when I did that tweet, I was hoping that I would not need to because the government would get a handle on it. But wasn’t it shocking to wake up and to hear Plateau. And the fact that Plateau was happening without the rest of us knowing because it appeared to have started many days before it really blew up. And so, when I saw the sheer numbers and I saw the pictures of children and women, I said, there’s no excuse for not doing what I already said I would do. And so, I put out a tweet again and said, ‘next day, I’m going to be embarking on my solo march to the Villa.’ Of course, when I went off on my march, I got all the way to the first gate which is called the pilot gate. I know the topography of the villa. So, the first gate known as the pilot gate is the furthermost gate from the villa itself because you’ve got to go through two more gates and the final gate of the villa in order to get to the villa. And my destination was exactly there because I knew that once my name wasn’t on the list, I won’t be allowed. I didn’t even want the idea of being allowed. I just needed my message to be available to the president. That at least one citizen, this is not us. You can’t just allow this to continue. And in many ways, I also wanted citizens who were sitting at home who are in some way complicit in normalising what we’ve been saying, that you have a voice. Use that voice to say to the government that this is not acceptable. They stood in my way. One of the young men grabbed my sleeves, then grabbed my banner and said I wasn’t going to take my banner. First they said, ‘you have no right to come here.’ I said, no, no, no, stop it. The truth of the case is ‘I have a right to come as far as this place.’ You need to engage me to know what I have come here for. He said, ‘no’ we’re not listening to you. Just go back to where you’ve come. And then, the next thing, grabbing my banner, seizing telephones. And I simply said you are not getting away with this because you’re picking on the wrong person. Today, I will get my banner, you’re not going to get it off my hand. And the phones that you’ve taken, I’m going to get everything back. And finally, I would do what I came here to do. And so, one of them appeared from somewhere who seemed to have better command of the situation and he engaged me. And then, I made my statement and then told him that I needed to hang up my banner somewhere. I pointed to the place. And he said, ‘okay, I will lead you there, you will put your banner.’ And I did that and I turned and left.

    Many people have looked at it and said, what is Oby up to? She doesn’t know the state of Nigeria, that Nigeria is not truly interested in shaking the system.

    Well, I don’t know about Nigeria not being interested in shaking the system. This system is already shaken. The system is already shaken. Any group of people, maybe they are not seeing people out there. They’re not seeing people on the streets. So, most of our political class feel very very complacent. They feel that all is well with Nigeria. All is not well. It is important for us to own up to the fact that we are fragile at this moment. The country is brittle. It is pretty brittle and we have to be careful that we don’t push this further; the resilience that we have shown so far. Only God knows how far, how elastic it is. So, I believe that those who sort of say you can’t shake the system, they have another thing coming.

    Someone has also said the era of the vibrant civil society is over and that the civil society now has become so weak because they’ve now been absorbed by political parties, by this surge of corruption in the country. And that civil society has been abused by a lot of people who see it as a platform to get jobs rather than to actually do things for society.

    Well, you know, I think that people also need to recognise that our society has changed as ICT, ubiquitous technology, has changed the topography of social relationships. What we’ve now seen is that you can’t even define civil society the way we used to traditionally define it. So, every citizen, every individual, is an activist their own right to the extent that they choose to engage with the system. So, the whole idea of social contract that exists between the citizen and the nation state hasn’t changed.

    Some people are saying it’s even becoming more and more false because. Where do you hold when the civil society is not there for you to even galvanise it.

    Indeed, but then, the offshoot of that is that people can interact and create their own immediate collectives, right. So, different collectives can have different issues. It is not static. So, we have a situation where at one point in time, you and I agree on a particular issue that we believe should be addressed. We can become civil society with the dynamism that technology brings to the social interaction that we should focus on. And I do believe that we are actually better off now than in those days when just a few people made up civil society and could stay in a room and have meetings and issue a press release. Today, you have seen that it is a wider gamut of interaction. Now, moving it from just talk to real action in the field is an entirely different thing.

    That’s where I was going

    Yes, because the experience that we have is a very classic case of it. When we started off with the Bring Back Our Girls movement, it took tweets from me and so many around the world began to tweet. And then, the next thing, there was a march of the 30th of April 2014. That march, many people came out for it because we had galvanised on social media and also print media and electronic media. The march was crawling with individuals, all kinds of people, male, female but majority female. Then, we had boys, we had girls, people of all kinds of persuasions, people of all kinds of political leaning, people of all kinds of ethnicity. There was just simply one thing. We all came out on the basis of shared humanity with the girls who have been missing and for whom no credible action was being taken that was known to society, to the public. So, when that crowd gathered on the 30th of April, we got all the way to the national assembly and we engaged with the principal officers. To the credit of David Mark and his colleagues, they came out in the rain. We were all drenched together with them having that engagement. And what we said to them is ’what are you folks doing? It’s almost more than two weeks since girls were abducted in their hundreds from their school. And no word from the government. You are the National Assembly. You represent these children and their parents as their representatives or senators. So, what is it that is going on in the country? This is abnormal. And so, we’re here to say to you that we want to see immediate action of rescue for Chibok Girls.’ And we engaged and then we gave them letters and demands that we were making on the issue of abduction of women and especially children, boys or girls, just do something. And they promised us that they would go to the president and then they would have a response for us. And then, we marched back to the Unity Fountain. And when we got to the Unity Fountain, everyone was looking at me. I was default leader of the march that day. So, they were looking to me to give directions as to what was next. So, I said to them, we have two options. Option one is to say, we have handed over the problem. We’ve been heard loud and clear by the National Assembly. They would now liaise with the Executive and figure out what to do and then we would get feedback and we would disseminate, publicise the feedback. Or option two would be that we would keep coming out until real action is taken concerning the girls because the fact that they promised doesn’t mean that the action would be taken. And we needed to keep up the pressure for that action to be taken for the girls. So, if you wanted results, you needed to do much more than just come out for one day and that would be it. And when I said that to the crowd, they said ‘option two.’ And I wasn’t quite clear as to whether they understood what the implication of option two was. Option two meant that you will come out. I mean, we were coming out. The day that we came out, that April 30th, I was billed to be in one of the countries where I advise the president and the cabinet. But here I was. I had had to reschedule that because this was so important. Now, if they were saying, yes, we needed to be coming out, I was saying to myself, ‘oh, my God, what are you getting into?’ That means you’re going to have to come out yourself. So, I explained the implications. I said it’s easy for all of you to scream now because it’s like a mob. You know, mob psychology, screaming and saying ‘we will all come out’. When the rubber meets the road, it might be difficult for you people to come out. So, if you know that you know that this is going to be tough for you, please be among the people that choose option one. So, I’m going to go through these two options all again. And I did. And there was not many voices that spoke up for option one. So, it was option two. And so that began our everyday sit-out. So, we began to come out every day after the 30th of April. By the way, it wasn’t until about the fifth, regardless of the fact that we came out every day, it wasn’t until about the fifth that the then president then gave a presidential chat which we all looked forward to because we thought, finally, we’re going to hear something very tangible about what government had been doing that we may not have been aware of. But when the president granted that interview, then we knew we were in trouble and that the girls were in serious trouble. And that just killed the spirit of everyone. But in a way, it brought a strong sense of a movement. By the way, on that April 30, some people said to me, why is it that your commitment to this is so strong? What is in this thing that makes you so totally committed to it? And I said to them, certain things may appear very little to other people but they are big to me. On that day, a gentleman that I didn’t know was the chair of the Chibok community in Abuja, went on his knees in the rain and said to me, ‘ma, ma, please, promise me, promise us, promise my people that you will not stop asking for these girls until they bring our daughter back.’ And right there in the rain, I promised. I said to him, ‘we’re in this together. We would stand for these girls until they come back.’ Oh my God, it depends on what background you’re from. I come from the background where my dad said to me, ‘never open your mouth to promise what you don’t plan to do.’ Integrity is not complete until it is consistent.

    So, we have moved a long way from that time. Some of the girls are back. So, what is your sense of the Chibok girls because we also have the Dapchi girls

    So, the Chibok episode is a shame to this administration in every sense of the word. I have and together with the movement, we have appreciated the efforts that led to the return of 107 of the girls. However, it took so much fight for this to happen. The government at many times just behaved, even worse than the government under which the girls were abducted by being so resistant to citizen’s advocacy demanding for action for the girls.

    Now, we have 2019 coming and there is always a sense that maybe we would get something. Do you have any optimism?

    I don’t know for whatever reason, but one of the days that I was really in despair about the state of our nation and I was thinking that how come we’re just trapped. We’re trapped in this low equilibrium of leadership where regardless of what party, it just turns up this poor quality – bad leadership, bad governance and therefore governance failure in every sense of the word. And so, as I was going through this lamentation process, then I heard, when was the first election that led to Independence. I said 1959. I said, when was the next other election that happened? I said 1979. I said how many years? I said 20 years. So, your country seems to travel on a 20 year cycle where you have a very momentous election and then somehow, you make the mistake of squandering it following after. So, we said, 1959 to 1979, 20 years of militarisation, war and everything. But 79, you got into democracy. Then that democracy became short-lived and then you travelled the wilderness again and then the next other time you got election, 1999, 20 years. So, it said, how many years would it be by 2019. I said 20 years. It said, ‘so a historical election would happen in your country. You’re going to get something that is momentous. The issue is going to be, are you going to hold it and enable it to deliver good governance.’  So, in a way Sam, I don’t know, maybe it’s that spiritual side of me sort of saying that 2019 is going to deliver surprises to us.

    Is it the year of the red card then?

    I think that it is a year when citizens are taking their place in democracy. That was always the missing link. You know, our citizens always felt that they were the less part of the chain. So, it appeared as if citizens sort of looked at themselves as people who would react to what the political class has decided.

  • ‘How to curb insecurity’

    Stakeholders have solicited a review of the nation’s security method, following increasing rate of insecurity.

    They spoke at the weekend at a public lecture organised by the Yoruba Tennis Club in Lagos, with the theme: “Current security challenges in the country: The way out.”

    Guest lecturer Maj.-Gen. Adewunmi Ajibade (retd) gave an insightful background to the security challenges and suggested a review of the national security strategy to reflect the security situation.

    He called for the “strengthening of democratic institutions that will engender winning the hearts of Nigerians, to experience peace and not war.”

    Ajibade, a former deputy national security adviser and fellow of the War College,   condemned the non-implementation of anti-terrorism laws and hailed steps by the armed forces to curb banditry in communities in Zamfara State through military fire power and air strikes.

    Chairman of Yoruba Tennis Club Prof. Adetokunbo Fabamwo said one of the most debated issues in the public space was the clamour for strengthening of the country’s security.

    Fabamwo said the need to address the challenges led to the holding of the public lecture, to chart the way forward.

    The Olota of Ota, Lanlenge Ekun II, Awori Kingdom, Oba Adeyemi Abdulkabir Obalenlege, who was the special guest of honour and royal father of the day, stressed the need to curb insecurity.

    The Founder/Chairman of Space-FM and Convener of the Leadership and Peace Initiative, Otunba Deji Osibogun,

    Retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police Tunji Alapini decried unemployment, which, he said, had made youths vulnerable to crime.

  • Presidential aspirant lists way out of insecurity

    A 36-year-old presidential aspirant from Ondo State, Mr. Patrick Bamidele Oludare Jnr., has suggested ways out of the lingering insecurity situation in the country.

    The presidential aspirant, who is running on the platform of Youth Democratic Party,  said one of the reasons for the persistence of insecurity in Nigeria was that the Nigerian security system  was designed to be reactive.

    Oludare, who spoke at a public lecture in Akure yesterday, said, “Nigeria is currently running a reactive system of police, while it needs to practise proactive system of police.

    “The Nigeria police force needs to focus on and invest in crime detection, crime preventionan intelligence gathering to be able to combat its various security problems.

    “There are known strategies that can be used to disrupt new crime development and prevent the onslaught of criminal activities in the country.

    “It is necessary that most of the Nigerian policemen should be made to work in the area of crime prevention and intelligence gathering,” he noted.

    He added that it would be ideal if 60 percent of Nigerian policemen was deployed in intelligence gathering, assuring that such would preempt debilitating attacks on unwary communities as being witnessed through the Fulani herdsmen strikes.

    Oludare who also promised to create 500,000 businesses in the first six months if elected president, said his immediate task would be to fix Nigeria’s “broken economy.”

    The young aspirant said he would “geo-fix the economy through improvement in credit status” and “financing solutions with a bank-initiated market, to sustain capital growth in the economy.”

  • Insecurity: Ex-envoys back ranching, state police

    THE Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria (ARCAN) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently review the country’s social and security structure as a way to check rising insecurity.

    ARCAN prescribed state police, redesigning of cattle routes, ranching, implementation of voluntary surrender of weapons programme, recruitment and equipping of military personnel, among others, as solutions to the problem.

    In a statement made available to The Nation yesterday, ARCAN President, Dr. Oladapo Fafowora, said the diplomats were “deeply concerned” about the security situation in the country.

    Fafowora said: “Government should evolve a comprehensive programme and effective mechanisms to protect the lives and properties of Nigerians, and the resolution of communal conflicts…”

    The mechanisms, he noted, should include, “arrest and diligent prosecution of suspected perpetrators of the killings and arsons, including their sponsors and supporters, no matter how highly-placed”.

    The association warned politicians, government officials and religious leaders against inciting tension and hatred among Nigerians.

    It called for the “immediate repeal of the Firearms Act of 1959 to bring it up to speed with the current realities regarding the proliferation of small and light weapons”.

    ARCAN urged the Federal Government to “embark on a comprehensive and sustained programme of disarmament and voluntary surrender of the illicit arms and their destruction to mop up the estimated over 300 million small arms and light weapons in the hands of non-state actors with which most of the killings have been perpetrated across Nigeria”.

    According to Fafowora, state police, with effective checks and balances to prevent abuse, is a necessity.

    He added: “To enhance the primary role of the Armed Forces, there is the need to increase the size of our military and equip them with sophisticated arms and modern equipment.

    “The Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) in Kaduna should also be revitalised to produce most of the much-needed weapons so as to enhance self-reliance in armaments.”

  • Seized estate: Residents decry robbery attacks, insecurity

    •I don’t have property in estate, says U-Tech VC

    Six weeks after the forceful occupation of about 250 houses in Ire Akari Estate at Soka area of Ibadan, Oyo State capital, by suspected hoodlums, residents yesterday cried out over increasing insecurity and incessant robbery attacks in the area.

    They said life and property were no longer safe in the estate.

    The residents said they were being attacked by thugs day and night for alleged failure to part with their money.

    About 7,000 residents live in the estate with over 250 buildings.

    The siege was said to have affected the homes of some prominent individuals, including President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr Waheed Odusile, and Vice Chancellor, Technical University (U-Tech), Oyo State, Prof Ayobami Salami.

    But the vice chancellor said he had no building in the troubled estate and that he never lived in any house in the place.

    Salami, who spoke through the university’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr Femi Babatunde, noted that the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof Adesola Ajayi, once lived in the estate in an apartment he rented personally.

    Babatunde added: “He (Salami) has since relocated from the area. Even at that, the house in which Prof. Ajayi once lived was not affected by the incident.”

    Trouble started about two months ago, when the families of Chief Emmanuel Ashamu, Chief Femi Majekodumi, Oyenike Ogunsola and the late Ganiyu Bello secured a Supreme Court judgment ceding part of the 30-year-old estate to them.

    The Chairman of Ire Akari Estate Landlords Association, Adetunji Adelani, told The Nation yesterday that security in the estate had worsened.

    The chairman said residents lived in fear.

    He said efforts to bring peace had proved abortive as hoodlums broke into people’s homes at will.

    Adelani, who urged well-meaning Nigerians to rescue the residents from hoodlums, said over 85 per cent of the affected property were sold to them by the families that secured the judgment.

    He said: “We have been to Governor Abiola Ajimobi, the Olubadan’s palace and held meetings with the families that own the land, according to the judgment. And we have agreed to pay N200,000. At least, over 99 out of the 250 house owners have started paying. Yet, the hoodlums have refused to let us have peace.

    “Many have started relocating from the estate while some have even died of shock since this crisis started. We are forced to be paying money before we can go out of the estate as the thugs have taken over the whole place.

    “That is why we are appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to help us because we don’t want anarchy in this estate.”

     

  • Insecurity, fake news and 2019 election

    SIR: The persistence of insecurity and political tensions in the country have become a matter of concern as the country heads to 2019 general election in few months’ time. From Boko Haram, kidnapping, cattle rustling, ethnic militias and killer herdsmen, Nigeria is swimming in the tide of uncertainties. Nigerians are living in fear. The wanton destruction of lives and property continue to take a dangerous dimension. In some Northern states, blood-thirsty bandits are having a field day, sacking villages and killing defenceless masses.

    These killings have defied lasting solution in spite of numerous operations launched by the president and chief of army staff. These includes Harbin Kunama in Zamfara State, strategically launched to contain the menace of cattle rustling and to secure the affected communities, Ayem Akpatuma (cat race) – Benue State to forestall strike from dangerous herdsmen; Operation Crocodile Smile (Southeast) to stem the tide of violent agitations by members of IPOB. Unfortunately, the presence of these security agencies has failed to restore lasting peace in the affected states. Instead, security continues to deteriorate on daily basis.

    The abysmal failure of the security agencies to bring to an end the continuing carnage in troubled states of Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Plateau, Zamfara and now Sokoto indicates that something is absolutely wrong with our security network.

    Of course, the insecurity predates Buhari administration. It has however, worsened under its watch. The questions begging for answers are: why has the spate of killings increased under this administration? Is there any correlation between the abject poverty, unemployment and the present general insecurity? Is the insecurity closely related to desperation by some politicians to be in power as we approach the 2019 elections?

    While the country continues to grapple with numerous security challenges, the purveyors of hate speech and fake news are not helping matters. They have become cog in the wheels of finding lasting peace to the insecurity bedevilling the country. Their actions continue to ignite or fuel more crises than solving them. The proliferation of fake news in our social media has become matter of great concern. Nowadays, social media have become an avenue of spreading false, unverified and fabricated news among Nigerians. One can just wake up and receive video clips of horrific killings in other countries but attributed to some ethnic or religion victims in Nigeria. Sadly, without verifying the sources, they are shared among friends or colleagues. By so doing, gullible minds are fed with wrong information. Even educated people have become victims of the fake news.

    The federal government recently launched a war against fake news. This is a good initiative and should be vigorously pursued. There is the need for aggressive campaign to halt the menace as insecurity, hate speech and fake news may make or mar the success of the forthcoming 2019 election.

     

    • Ibrahim Mustapha,

    Pambegua, Kaduna State.

  • Insecurity biggest threat in the north, says Emir

    The Emir of Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State, Malam Zubair Jibril Mai Gwari II, has said the biggest threat to the North is insecurity.

    According to him, insecurity, especially in the form of Boko Haram insurgency, armed banditry and ethnic clashes in the Northeast, North Central and Northwest, constitutes the biggest threat to Nigeria and its neighbours.

    He said Nigeria needs to develop a strong mechanism of tolerance because the unfortunate religious crises and ethnic clashes in some parts of the North could be avoided through tolerance.

    The monarch spoke yesterday at the Blueprint Impact Series/Awards, themed Tolerance, Unity and Security: Building a Legacy for National Development.

    He added that Nigeria can only be said to be developed when the youths can engage in businesses and transform their talents and skills to produce goods for survival.

    His words: “Nigeria must evolve a strong mechanism of tolerance because our national development is indeed based on that. The unfortunate religious crises and ethnic clashes in some parts of Taraba, Benue and Plateau States could have well been avoided if we have evolved tolerance mechanism among us.

    “Nigeria can be said to be developed only when our youths can engage in various businesses, transforming their talents and skills to produce goods that we need for survival. Nigeria can boast of development only when it uses the God-given opportunity, not only to be agrarian, but principally a country which produces and processes agricultural goods for both internal and external use. When that is achieved, we can then feel secure from food insecurity.

    “Insecurity, especially in the form of Boko Haram insurgency in Northeast, Ethnic clashes in North Central, armed banditry in Northwest, constitutes the biggest threats facing this country and its neighbours. In Kaduna State, several local government areas are attacked by bandits. Our story in Birnin Gwari is that of agony and sympathy; the bandits have made hell out of the people’s lives.

    “Our agricultural and socio-economic sectors have been crippled. The story is same in Zamfara State where people are killed daily by the same bandits and agriculture is crippled. In Katsina and Niger States, the people are still experiencing threats and killings by the criminals who sometimes open fire sporadically on a complete village.

    “Just last Tuesday, in Rabah Local Government Area of Sokoto State, more than 40 people, including the village head of Tabanni, were massacred by bandits after rustling their cattle and scorching the entire village. These and several other crimes are indicators that insecurity has eaten deep into the fabric of Nigeria.”

  • Insecurity: Is state police the answer?

    The Senate has given its Constitution Amendment Committee two weeks to present a bill on state and community policing. The House of Representatives has also received a similar bill. To the lawmakers, a decentralised police system is the answer to the worsening security problem. ROBERT EGBE looks at the pros and cons of state police.

    A JULY 1 post by the Amnesty International Nigeria on its Twitter handle said between January and June, 378 persons were killed in Benue, 340 in Plateau and 217 in Zamfara states.

    Many others, including the 20 killed last month in communal clashes between the Ukele of Cross River and the Izzi of Ebonyi states, lost their lives in separate incidents in other parts of the country in the same period.

    But it was the massacre of about 200 people in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State on June 23 and 24, in suspected retaliatory attacks by alleged armed Fulani herdsmen and the murder of seven policemen in Galadimawa area of Abuja on July 3, by unknown gunmen, that has renewed, with greater urgency, the agitation for state police, one of the components of true federalism.

    On July 3, the Senate pledged to revisit calls for state police and design a framework for mopping up 350 million light weapons suspected to be in circulation within Nigeria.

    Senate President Dr Bukola Saraki said the security challenges across the country necessitated the need for state police and called for the support of state Houses of Assembly in  amending the 1999 Constitution to allow for the creation of state and community police.

    He stated this at a meeting with Speakers of state legislatures, led by the chairman, states’ Assembly Speakers Conference and Speaker of the Gombe State House of Assembly, Abdulmumin Kamba.

    Saraki said: “One of the decisions we took today (Tuesday) is to address the issue of state and community policing. In doing that, we gave our Constitution Amendment Committee two weeks to bring to the floor a bill on state and community policing. The House of Representatives is also working along similar lines.

    “We will send it to the state Houses of Assembly to seek your support. We believe that no responsible country or society can continue to watch helplessly as our people are being killed. We must appeal to our people that we must live in peace and harmony and we must be able to resolve our issues peacefully. As speakers, I urge you to play your part.”

    Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who spoke while delivering his maiden lecture as a Professor and Senior Mentoring Scholar at the Southern University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, pledged to introduce a bill “that will bring about state police or decentralised policing once I return to Nigeria”.

    The same day, the House of Represent-atives passed a resolution backing the establishment of state police.

    On July 4, the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, received a bill seeking to amend the 1999 Constitution to accommodate state police.

    The bill was sponsored by and transmitted to Dogara by the Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila.

    The case against state police

    In 2012, a Presidential Committee set up to look into calls for the establishment of state police said it could cause Nigeria to break up.

    The then Police Service Commission (PSC) chairman, Mr. Parry Osayande, who headed the panel, argued that the states could not afford it.

    Osayande, a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), was quoted as saying: “State Police? It is irrelevant. The states cannot afford it. Do you know how much it is to police a country? What we are recommending is that they allow the Police Council to function.

    “The president is the chairman, the chairman of Police Service Commission is a member, governors are members, the IGP is a member; and governors will bring their policing plan to the council. They will now decide on what to do. We don’t need state Police, the country will break up. Take it from me.”

    Osayande’s worries still resonate among opponents of state police.

    In 2015, former Kaduna State Governor Balarabe Musa suggested that state police could be used as a weapon of oppression.

    According to him, it was state police that were used in rigging elections and scaring voters from performing their civic responsibilities.

    Musa added: “I still hold to my position that state police is a weapon against human rights. The police in the North was used against the people during elections. In this dispensation, they will not be any different from the way they were used in the past.’’

    Defending the North’s opposition to the creation of state police, he said those who supported its creation in the North and used it to campaign during the elections have realised that state police is anti-people.

    He said: “That is why they have changed their position and no longer interested in supporting the creation of state police. They now understand that state police will work against the people and it is not a popular idea.’’

    Broke states, dangerous police?

    Last March 1, Trade Union Congress (TUC) President Mr. Bobboi Kaigama said 35 of 36 states in Nigeria owed their workers’ salaries.

    Kaigama, who spoke at the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held in Lagos, said every state apart from Lagos has “one issue or the other in terms of salaries, wages or benefits of their workers that have not been paid. There is no exception.”

    Less than a month later, an economic news magazine, Economic Confidential, released its Annual States Viability Index (ASVI) which suggested that 17 states were insolvent, because “their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) in 2017 were far below 10 percent of their receipts from the Federation Account Allocations (FAA) in the same year.”

    How would such states fund a decentralised police?

    It is a concern shared by many people, including John Olusegun Odubela (SAN).

    Odubela said: “The most important thing is finance. Do states have the finance to pay salaries, allowances, funds for training, etc? These are key.”

    He urged the lawmakers to work out a legislation that will take care of all the knotty issues.

    Odubela added: “In as much as I support the creation of State Police, we must really prepare for it. Because if you see the example of the recent mobile policemen protest saga in Maiduguri which is Federal Government controlled, you can imagine a situation where civil servants are being owed salaries for upward of six months and more. The institution that is to maintain law and order and will be owed like this? We must think twice even though State Police is desirable.

    His concerns are not without merit.

    Last Wednesday in Borno State, Nigerians got a glimpse of the danger in legalising state policing without adequate funding plans.

    Gun-wielding policemen protested on the streets of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, because of about five months of unpaid allowances owed them. They barricaded major roads around the police headquarters and fired shots in the air. According to them, they had been denied accommodation, among other basic needs.

    Restructuring before state police?

    In his February 27 article, Why state police without restructuring is dangerous, Columnist Azuka Onwuka proposed that restructuring should precede state police, otherwise, it could become a tool for abuse.

    He said: “The attitude of governors to power has shown that they are not capable of fairness to those they do not like. In all states where  governors have supervised the conduct of local government elections in the last 10 years and more, all the councils have been won by the ruling party in the state, contrary to the voting pattern in Nigeria. This is because the State Independent Electoral Commission in each state is appointed by the governor.”

    Onwuka cited the demolition of the state headquarters of a faction of the All Progressives Party (APP) in Kaduna, allegedly on the orders of the state government as evidence of “intolerance of opposition”.

    He added: “With such level of intolerance from governors, one wonders what they would do with state police …

    “It is therefore safe to say that creation of state police is putting the cart before the horse. If the governors want state police, let them push for the restructuring of the country, which will come with fiscal federalism and devolution of powers. State police will naturally be an offshoot of restructuring.”

    The case for state police

    Proponents of an immediate implementation of state police, like human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) and Mba Ukweni (SAN), believe it is an element of true federalism.

    Falana said: “The issue of establishing state police is not really about whether the country is ready for it or not. It is necessary in a federation. What has been militating against the re-establishment of state police has been the fear that the state executives, just like the Federal Government, can use it to harass political opponents.’’

    Shielding state police from abuse

    Deputy Senate President Senator Ike Ekweremadu provides a clue on how to prevent abuse of state police.

    In his article titled, A vote for state police, Ekweremadu said Nigeria needs a system where every layer of government can set up the policing that addresses its needs, while also ensuring that there are legal valves guarding against our fears.

    He said: “The National Assembly should provide the framework for the establishment, structure and powers of the state police.

    “The powers of the governors should be limited to making policies and should not extend to the operational use and control. Just like the National Judicial Council (NJC) the Federal Police Service Commission should exercise a level of oversight over the activities of the state police, such as maintaining common facilities for all Police Services in the country, including training, criminal intelligence data bases, forensic laboratories, and rendering assistance to State Police Services in specialised areas like behavioural analysis, counter terrorism, etc.

    “Others include a system of inspectorates and certification, such as supervision of recruitment, training, supervision of standards, and annual certification of every State Police Service (which should be a statutory prerequisite).”

    Ekweremadu said the state Houses of Assembly should have powers to enact laws regulating state police, “but such laws must be in consonance with Constitutional provisions and federal legislations regarding policing.

    “The National Assembly, in conferring powers on the state police, should clearly define jurisdictional boundaries. There should be caution in the areas of appointment and removal of the Commissioner of Police, the funding and the general control of the police, being areas which may allow the political class to manipulate the institution.”

    Solving the funding problem

    Faculty of Law, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka Lagos lecturer Mr Wahab Shittu believes another way can be found to solve the funding problem.

    Shittu said: “How may state police be funded? My view is that cutting  costs of governance and wastages in the system could save sufficient funds and resources to fund state police and elements of true federalism. The problem is not lack of resources but lack of sufficient political will to overhaul the country for the benefit of the people. lf there is the will, there will always be a way,” he said.

    Ekweremadu also feels the problem is surmountable.

    He said: “The funding of the state police should be a first line charge on the state account. Alternatively, the funds can be deducted at source from the Federation Account and paid to the Police Service Commission for onward disbursement to the State Police Service Commission.

    “An Act of the National Assembly or the Constitution should make provision for the type of arms a sub-national police can acquire.There should also be provisions stipulating unacceptable conducts which can lead to the disbandment of a sub-national police command.”

    ‘Federal, state police can coexist’

    According to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Vice President Mr Monday Ubani, federal police can collaborate with state police to negate and reduce abuse, impunity and excesses of state police.

    Ubani said: “What that means is that states that do not show financial capacity to fund state police should not be allowed to have one as allowing such will be very dangerous. We are aware of states like Lagos and Anambra that are funding the federal police and the evidence of security are obvious in those states and one is sure that those two states represent examples of states that should be allowed to have state police.”

    Constitutional hurdles

    Notwithstanding growing positive public sentiment, unbundling the Federal Police can’t happen unless the Constitution is amended.

    Sections 214 and 215, for instance, place the police under the exclusive control of the Federal Government.

    214(1): “There shall be a police force for Nigeria, which shall be known as the Nigeria Police Force, and subject to the provisions of this section no other police force shall be established for the Federation or any part thereof.”

    It is a problem Gbajabiamila’s bill seeks to solve.

    The bill seeks to amend Section 214 (1) by deleting the phrase “and subject to the provisions of this section, no other police force shall be established for the Federation or any part thereof” immediately after the word “force.”

    This would clear the way for unbundling the police or creating other police units.

    The bill also proposes new sections 215 and 216 by amending the existing sections 217 and 218 to spell out the structure and operations of the proposed state police.

    It further proposes in a new Section 217 that each state should have a police force, while Section 218 will give governors the power to appoint state Commissioner of Police and Local Government police chiefs

    “218. (1) “There shall be – (a) a Commissioner of Police who shall be appointed by the governor on the advice of the State Police Council from among serving members of the State Police Force;

    (b) a Head of Police for each state of the Local Government  Area of the state to be appointed by the State Police Service Commission.

    “(2) The State Police Force shall be under the command of the State Commissioner of Police.

    “(3) The governor or such other commissioner of the government of the state as he may authorise in that behalf may give to the Commissioner of Police such lawful directions with respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety and public order as he may consider necessary, and the Commissioner of Police shall comply with those directions or cause them to be compiled with.

    “219. (1) Subject to the provisions of this constitution, the State House of Assembly may make laws for the further regulation and control of the State Police.

    “The Principal Act is hereby amended by rearranging the existing sections 217 to 320 as sections 220 to 323.

    “The Principal Act is hereby amended by deleting item 45 from the exclusive legislative list in part 1 of the second schedule of the constitution.

    “That the entire items on the Exclusive Legislative List in part 1 of the second schedule of the constitution is hereby rearranged and renumbered as items 1 to 67 with the exclusion of the deleted item under this Bill.”

    The bill also proposes to amend the constitution by creating a new Section 21 in part 2 of the Second Schedule to give powers to state Houses of Assembly to create state police commands.

    Section 21 reads: “(1) The National Assembly may make laws for the Federation or any part thereof with respect to (a) Police force and other government security services in respect of anything pertaining to internal security and the maintenance of law and order in Nigeria; and (b) Regulation of ownership and control of Federal Police and other government security services.

    “(2)  A House of Assembly of a state may make laws with respect to: a. The creation, formation or/and establishment of Police Force and other security services in respect of any matter pertaining to internal security and the maintenance of law and order within that state and with regard to the enforcement of any law validly made by the House of Assembly of that state.

    “b. Regulation of ownership and control of State Police and other state government’s security services.

    “The Principal Act is hereby amended by renumbering the existing section 21 to 30 of part 2 of the second schedule of the constitution as numbers 22 to 31.

    “This Bill may be cited as the Constitution of the Federal Republic on Nigeria (Alteration) Bill, 2018.”

    The House, following established procedure, will gazette the bill for first reading this week.