Tackling Nigeria Security Challenges: Nigeria Police Force Should Rise Up Now!
The Project Nigeria 2019 which is a conglomeration of civil society groups with focus on good governance, rising from it's emergency meeting in Lagos came up with a communique on the state of the nation and the resolution is as follows:
That the organization notes with concern and sadness, the recent worrisome incursion of attacks by Boko Haram which has resulted in the loss of lives and damages to properties worth millions of naira. Project Nigeria 2019, while appreciating the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and the security agencies for the giant and commendable strides in decimating the capacity of Boko Haram since the assumption of the administration into office by reclaiming vast expanse of Nigerian territories that were formerly in possession of the murderous group as well as reducing it's capacity even for bombing soft targets, is however worried by the latest attacks of the group, particularly, the Auno attack which is rather unfortunate and must not be allowed to repeat itself.
That Project Nigeria 2019, aligns itself with the position of well meaning Nigerians and Patriots to salute the sacrifices of our armed forces and urge the authorities to remain focused on it's mandate of exterminating this evil group from our land even in the face of the politicization of our security challenges by agents of darkness masquerading as public interest concerns.
That we admonish the military authorities to establish a synergy with the government and people of North East states like Borno, Yobe, etc who are the ones directly bearing the brunt of the mindless massacre of innocent lives, by evolving new strategies for combating the Boko Haram scourge which is achievable.
That we are saddened by the seeming inability and incapacity of the Nigeria Police force to address common internal security challenges like kidnapping, cattle rustling, banditry, cultism, armed robbery, assassinations, fake news, etc which threatens national security.
That we are quite aware that the Nigerian military has become overburdened with our security challenges of late, while the police authorities seemed contented with playing the back bencher role, even in glaring cases of conspiracy to incite public chaos which is a violation of the laws of the land and deserves their attention for investigation and prosecution. A case in point was the recent arrest of the alledged bomber in a church in Kaduna state, in which after arresting the suspect and parading him before the public, some agents of destabilization also went public to impugn ethnic and religious sentiment with the aim to incite public unrest against the commendable action of the police, yet as we speak, those agents of darkness have not been arrested and prosecuted for their violation of the law intention to serve as a deterrent to others in their camp which is growing by leaps and bounds due to the lethargic handling of such cases by the police.
That we are worried about the activities of agents of darkness on the prowl on the social media and other medium of communication with lies, falsehood and misinformation to incite violence and yet the Nigeria Police which is constitutionally charged with the responsibility to maintain law and order, has turned a blind eye to such infraction of the law, the time has come for the police to invoke our laws against such offenders and it is now!
That the police authorities itself need to take stock of it's men and their activities which seems not to be in conformity with it's constitutional roles of crime detection and prevention by adopting new strategies on this, rather than the numerous checkpoints littering our roads and highways which serves more as extortion points than what they were originally created for.
That state governments and local governments council administrations as the chief security officers at the states and local government council levels should design policies to deal with the peculiarities of their security challenges rather than abdicating their primary responsibility of the protection of life and property to the Federal government which is not omniscient and omnipresent. A clear case of responsibility at the states governments levels was witnessed not too long ago when the Lagos State government mobilized the security agencies to exterminate the security challenge of Badoo and oil bunkering in Ikorodu as well as the menace of kidnapping, same or similar method was adopted by the Ogun state government to deal with the security threat of kidnapping, oil bunkering and vandalism in Arepo. We hereby propose that this strategy be replicated in the North East and other areas within the country where acts of criminality is threatening public safety.
That the Federal government government should immediately take stock of the capacity and capability of the Nigeria Police force with a view to positioning it for the task of modern policing in the 21st century through the recruitment of personnel and the provision of materials and the needed tools.
That Nigerians should be resolute, focused, determined and vigilant to defend this democracy which was birthed with blood and sweat of toiling Nigerians, from being imperiled and aborted by agents of mischief who have been politically and economically displaced and are looking for all and any means to incite and upturn our democracy.
That the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is enjoined to remain focused even in the face of orchestrated blackmail and mudslinging by disgruntled political merchants, in confronting the myriad of problems afflicting the Nigerian state which hopefully, will be overcome with the support and cooperation of Nigerians who are the raison detre of government.
Wale Ogunade Esq,
Chairman.
Nelson Ekujumi,
General Secretary.