QUESTION 3 OF 23 PRESIDING QUESTIONS FOR 2023 PRESIDENTIAL QUESTS: THEIR AMBITIONS VERSUS OUR CONVICTIONS

 



SECTION A: REFORM OF GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE FOR DECENTRALIZATION/FEDERALISM, ECONOMIC REVOLUTION & SECURITY RESTORATION

Happy 2022 Independence Day to all Nigerians. Some of the major triggers of large-scale insecurity in our fragile country are population explosion; youth unemployment; influx & use of hard drugs; porosity of the country’s borders; over-centralized, poorly motivated & ill-equipped Police; and lowly motivated & poorly equipped Military to fight insecurity.

Be that as it may, a stronger Police Force is at the center of it all to effectively man and enforce our internal security and civil authority. Yet, the average Nigerian policeman is ill-motivated, deployed to unfamiliar territories and lacks contemporary policing gadgets (body camera, breath analyzer, internet-enabled electronic device, pepper spray, taser gun - to deliver electric shock, etc.). The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is stoutly over-centralized with a far-away command & control center called the Office of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) that casually deploys thousands of policemen (from neighbouring States) and three police helicopters (from the Police headquarters in Abuja), ‘only when it is time to monitor Governorship elections’. Whereas, I have never heard that a single Police helicopter was deployed during ongoing bank robberies, kidnap sagas and terrorist attacks such as the Owo massacre. Therefore, the current Federal Policing system will remain ineffective for a Federation of about 206 million residents.

However, if the country embraces constitutional devolution of “legal, geographic, administrative, political and economic” powers to the subnational units to allow for creation of State and community police frameworks, subnational police formations would be better empowered to for instance, purchase and routinely deploy police helicopters for security operations from each State capital.

Therefore, I am convinced that constitutional reform of our governance structure to include State and community police structures is a life-saving step that the President to be ushered in by the 2023 Presidential polls must urgently undertake to tackle insecurity in Nigeria.

a. I strongly agree              b. I agree     c. I disagree             d. I strongly disagree

Dr. Adetolu Ademujimi is a Medical Doctor, Author, Reformer, Coach and Public Policy expert who wrote in from Akure in Nigeria. Email: ademujimi@yahoo.co.uk; Twitter: @toluademujimi; Instagram: @adetoluademujimi; Linkedin: @adetolu ademujimi

 

 

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