A former Spokesperson of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Sani Kukasheka Usman (rtd.), has blamed the rising insecurity challenges in the country on the absence of an effective policing system.
General Usman, who spoke at a two-day virtual event organised by Daria Media to review President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s First Year in Office on Friday, lamented that vices like insurgency, terrorism, and kidnappings could have been prevented had Nigeria invested heavily in its policing system.
According to him: “Within the last 25 years that we have been enjoying democratic governance, to what extent have we invested in our policing system? I am privileged to have been to several countries and I realised there are still countries without armed forces. But there is no single country in this world that doesn’t have a police force, I mean a policing system.
“So what happened to ours? It is the neglect of the policing system over time that brought about the problems we are having. Take, for instance, so many policies, where is community policing? Whenever you are talking about policies, the starting point is the legal framework. Many encumbrances need to be unbundled.
“Whenever you are talking about security challenges, it is predicated on three things namely the political and economic atmospheres and the social well-being of Nigerian society. If you look at the Nigerian Police now, you have the police council, which is like a constitutional commission. To what extent has it served over the last 10 to 20 years?
“Then you have the Ministry for Police Affairs, Police Service Commission and the Force Headquarters. So this kind of thing encumbers the performance of these people. If you are talking about the right direction, you have to look at those impediments that prevent people from moving or achieving the desired goals and objectives, even if they are moving in the right direction.”
Earlier in his speech, the Director of the MacArthur Foundation (Africa), Kole Shettima, disclosed that the foundation was committed to ensuring accountability in Nigeria.
According to him, they also have a mandate to support both government institutions and civil society organizations in the country.
A notable economist, Paul Alaje, also harped on collaboration if progressive stakeholders are serious about moving Nigeria forward.
He said, “We cannot say we are building a robust nation without including critical stakeholders. We must demonstrate that we are one nation by including persons with disabilities because they are critical stakeholders.”
@The PUNCH