21022018 - APC CRISIS LATEST :Governor demolishes senator's house

IN the 1920s, the American
Institute of Criminal Law
and Criminology defined State
Police as “a specially
organised and highly trained
body, acting under state rather
than local authority, and
constantly employed in the
prevention of crime, the
apprehension of criminals,
and the protection of life and
property generally throughout
the state and especially in the
rural and sparsely settled
districts distributed over the
entire state in small groups for
patrol duty, but quickly
mobilised in larger units in an
emergency.
In the selection of such a
force the greatest care is taken
to eliminate political
considerations and to secure
persons with the highest
physical and moral
qualifications and with more
than average intelligence”. It
is the latter part of this
statement which should worry
the reader.
It is a well-known fact that
in today’s Nigeria jobs such
as teaching, postings to the
civil service or political
appointments, only seem to
attract the dregs of society
rather than the best of what our
country has to offer.
What are the qualifications
of most of the gun slingers
patrolling the nation today?
The creation of state police is
the perfect opportunity to reorganise
and professionalise
the police force by making it
an attractive option for
promising young people
rather than the dumping
ground for poorly trained,
even worse paid and illequipped
people who often
seem to be under the influence
of one substance or the other
despite their easy access to
assault rifles.
Successive
governments
After each crisis, one hears
the common refrain from the
governors “the security
agencies were informed the
attack was coming but they
were slow to act”. State police
would indeed solve this
particular issue. It is tragic that
successive governments,
starting with the military,
focused more on accumulating
money and power than
enabling all of Nigeria’s
regions and entities to thrive
by giving them the tools to do
so.
Having said that, I have
written quite consistently in
this column that without
solving corruption, one could
restructure Nigeria under
every possible angle and still
find the same result which is
underdevelopment.
It is corruption (and bad
leadership) that have held us
back as a nation and not our
inability to restructure.
However, given the unending
killings plaguing many areas
of the country, the creation of
state police appears inevitable
given the support of a few
governors and the national
assembly. It is up to Nigerians
Confronting the inevitability of state police
with Nigerians’ tolerance for abuse
•Nigeria Police...will state police be abused?
to be vigilant and to insist that
whatever recommendations
are made include clauses to
stop this new police force from
being misused by desperate
political actors.
Imagine the havoc state
police could cause in a state
such as Rivers where virtually
every election is fraught with
violence. There were actual
beheadings in Port Harcourt in
2015.
What would happen if the
political class of whatever
party disposed of their own
personal force? In response to
the “lack of maturity” of
certain governors, Senator Ike
Ekweremadu, quoting Senator
Victor Ndoma-Egba recently
Femi Falana (SAN)
HE recently called on the
Nigerian Bar
Association, NBA, to
investigate Attorney-Generals
who have shielded murder
suspects from prosecution. It
seems an obvious request,
except, this is Nigeria, a
country where almost every
level of society colludes to
ensure the perpetrators of
injustice walk free.
Many of the gunmen
running amuck are known to
politicians, the security forces
and the judiciary. In fact, the
sponsors of Boko Haram and
other terrorist groups are
allegedly known to the
political class.
Until we kill corruption, the
reforms we want to implement
simply won’t work, no matter
how well-intentioned. Most of
the violence in Nigeria is
sponsored, used as a tool to
said: “It is not a question of
maturity, but a question of the
federal system we opted for. If
you choose to travel in a car,
you just have to use the road,
not rail. If you get a flight
ticket, you have to fly”.
What happens when many
of the roads aren’t fit for
horses or mules let alone cars
or if the plane you boarded
turns out to have an engine
problem?
You don’t “have to” manage
whatever you find on ground,
hoping or praying for the best
(that is sadly the Nigerian
story). This mind-set is
destroying Nigeria, it is at the
root of our people’s apathy, it
is also subtly encouraged by
•Femi Falana
destabilise the polity or as a
bargaining chip by those who
want to make a statement to
other power groups. We are
easily distracted in Nigeria:
until we continuously insist on
a resolution to corruption
cases, violence will always be
easily funded while the courts
and the entire justice system
will be easily bought.
Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FBRUARY 21, 2018 —17
our leaders who tell us the interested in fixing the plane
situation we find ourselves in and the road? It isn’t enough
isn’t of their doing forgetting to say “we must have state
it is their responsibility, once police” without presenting the
elected, to repair it.
measures taken to ensure it
Senator Ekweremadu’s won’t be abused.
analogy hits close to home Unfortunately we are not
because both scenarios in used to asking for more
regards to malfunctioning details, we don’t insist on
roads and planes, are all too knowing our leaders’ plans.
With our little regard for
details, we allow them to be
vague and imprecise
forgetting the devil is in the
details: Nigerian politicians
leave room for error, for chaos
to seep in because they profit
from dysfunction.
We must no longer allow it.
We must refuse the disregard
proper planning and insist the
finer points of the state police
issue are discussed and
handled appropriately. All our
lives depend on this.
Given the
unending
killings
plaguing
many areas
of the
country, the
creation of
state police
appears
inevitable
given the
support of a
few
governors
and the
national
assembly
real in Nigeria. Countless
people have died on our bad
roads and lost their lives in
plane crashes which could
have been avoided, if not for
the negligence of our
authorities, corruption and the
failure of the Senate in its
oversight duties. So, the
question is, do you keep flying
regardless of the difficulties or
stop, pending when the plane
is fit to take off again?
Moreover, what happens
when nobody seems
Obasanjo
THE former President was
recently in Otuoke,
former President Goodluck
Jonathan’s home town in
Bayelsa where he was
pictured at a church service in
the latter’s company. Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo was
dressed in traditional Niger
Deltan garb, as politicians
often do when they visit each
other.
Hopefully no one is fooled
by this attempt at portraying
“oneness” and brotherhood
when barely three years ago
Obasanjo in his long letter to
Jonathan barely stopped short
of calling him clueless as well
as a failure.
Alliances shift depending on
politicians’ whims and not
what is best for Nigeria. Has
Obasanjo “forgiven” Jonathan
for all that went on under his
watch? Obasanjo himself is
fond of mentioning “his watch”
as if he were God’s gift to
Nigeria or the only man suited
to the task.
Privileges of the
political class
Poverty in Nigeria enforces
a dog-eat-dog society: we are
not, as of yet, appreciative of
justice and the rights of our
fellow man, so long as we feel
our own rights are protected.
Many of us would simply
look the other way (as we
already do) if governors used
the police to terrorise
communities etc.
In fact, it isn’t so much the
governors we should be afraid
of, but Nigerians themselves.
Our “see no evil, speak no
evil” attitude is precisely what
worries me. We don’t stand up
to the abuse of our system nor
do we rise against the undue
privileges of the political class:
exploitation is the new normal.
If the creation of state police
now seems inevitable to tackle
our many security challenges,
let us refuse what always
seems to happen to any idea
in Nigeria, that is, its
predictable abuse or distortion
by those who profit from
dysfunction.
•Obasanjo
History will judge his
contribution to Nigeria if we
are too shy, cowardly or
sentimental to do so. The same
old guard is active once again,
in the shadows. Nigerians
must remain vigilant.
Tabia Princewill is a
strategic communications
consultant and public policy
analyst. She is also the co-host
and executive producer of a
talk show, WALK THE TALK
which airs on Channels TV.