Don calls for state policing as a way of tackling insecurity By Ifeoma Ikem
Prof. Raph Akinfeleye, senior lecturer University of Lagos, Unilag said that Nigeria needed to be restructured because there was no way democracy could work without decentralizing the police system.
Akinfeleye, the chairman of the occasion, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Lagos State Council Public Lecture held at Combo hall Lagos state Television, said there is a need to have state policing, local government policing in order to guarantee peace, freedom, and the corporate existence of Nigeria.
According to him, there is a need for us to change the whole system where the police system is over-centralized.
He also pointed that the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) who were meant to be the regulators of the media space was overregulating to the point that their judgment was no longer regulatory.
They need to reorganize themselves by giving defaulters early warning signals rather than fining them.
“Because it can’t work, you can not fine a station five million nairas who is owing their staff for over one year,he added.
Akinfeleye added that leaders needed to listen more to their followers so that they could solve the challenges at the grassroots.
“It appears many of our leaders do not listen to their followers, they just take everything for granted and make decisions on their own.
“The masses are in the right position to give them the correct information for national development and peace,” he said.
Director of Special Programme, Nigeria Institute of Journalism (NIJ)
Mr. Jide Johnson said that the challenge of overcoming insecurity was to involve everyone in the decision-making process.
Speaking on the theme: Nigeria and Nation Building: Overcoming The Challenges Of insecurity, Restructuring and Self Determination For Progressive Development,he stressed the need why more effort should be looked at the security situation of the nation, and it is not diverse enough but concentrated at a particular region.
“For us to have peace and stability, there must be unity and that unity of purpose comes from the inclusion of every element that constitutes the Nigerian nation in the management of the nation.
“Once we allow every segment of the nation to be involved in the decision-making process, then all of us can come up with an idea on how we can solve insecurity,” he said.
Johnson said that engaging community policing, state policing, or recruiting police based on local government had its advantages because they understood the language, terrain, and culture of the community better.
“For instance, you cannot bring someone from the North to come and solve insecurity in the East, an area where he has little or no knowledge regarding the people.
“How will he be able to resolve the issue of insecurity in that community but if we go by community policing, we will be able to solve some of our problems,” he said.
Another speaker, Mr Olusegun Adeniyi, Chairman, Editorial Board, Thisday Groups of Newspapers said that governors could not do anything about insecurity because their control over the police and other sister agencies was limited.
Everyone has been calling for the establishment of state police but nobody seems to consider this.
“As challenging as the times may be, what we face today is as a result of the bad choices made at different epochs and at all levels.
“Sadly, we have carried this systemic management to the security sector,” he said.
Adeniyi said that the failure of the police in their constitutional responsibility has dragged the military into roles for which they are not trained.
“Roles such as quelling civil disturbances, manning roadblocks, combating banditry, providing security for the conduct of elections among others are not challenges that can be resolved by soldiers.
“These roles are mostly law and order issues primarily within the purview of the police,” he said.
