A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman said the current security structure in the country needs to be radically reformed to effectively tackle the rising insecurity in the country.
Nigeria is presently facing multifaceted security challenges, ranging from terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and abduction of both civilians and military personnel as evident by attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy with at least two people killed and a military officer abducted.
Accordingly, Lukman said the security measures put in place by the APC Administration can be strengthened while the government can do more, especially in relation to getting the security agencies to be more accountable.
He said in statement made available to journalists in Abuja that issues of amending the laws of the federation to enable state governments establish state police have become clearly unavoidable.
The Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) however, said, there are conditions that must be met before any decision to establish state police can serve as a good response to Nigeria’s security challenges.
According to him, such conditions must include the requirement that processes of regulating the operations of the state police should be centralised as part of the functions of the Federal Police.
Read also: APC plans digital campaign for 2023 elections
“Under that, for instance, issues of recruitment, qualification, background checks for those to be recruited, enforcement of disciplinary requirement, arms procurement and training for weapon handling, etc. should be handled at Federal level so that there are uniform standards across the country. It should be like the case of universities with National University Commission (NUC) serving as the regulatory body enforcing standards across all Nigerian universities”.
Lukman also said to address Nigerian security challenges, especially if the establishment of state police is to be considered, there must be a new funding arrangement, which should insulate the operations of Nigeria Police including the new state police to be established from all the uncertainties surrounding public financial management.
“If APC led Federal Government has initiated the kind of ambitious National Social Investment Programme in the country, which no other government in the past has undertaken, including PDP governments, isn’t that a confirmation of the difference between PDP and APC?
“If APC-led Federal Government has successfully revived Nigerian Railways, actively implementing around 900 road contracts, covering the construction, reconstruction or rehabilitation of more than 13,000km of Federal roads and highways across the country, out of a total of 35,000km of Federal roads in existence, how many kilometers of road contracts were constructed, reconstructed or rehabilitated throughout PDP’s sixteen years rule?
“Noting also that APC administration is taking steps to equip the security agencies and build morale, promote community-led solutions, develop new security infrastructure and operations across land and maritime environments, and address the underlying drivers of insecurity (poverty and youth unemployment), encouraging reports are emerging from the various theatres of operation,” he said.
According to him, “If the narrative is that PDP and APC have failed, what is the evidence based on the performances of both the PDP during its sixteen years tenure between 1999 and 2015, on the one hand, and that of the APC since 2015, on the other?” Lukman queried.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
