PRESIDENT URGED TO RELINQUISH SOME SECURITY POWERS TO GOVS

Apparently disturbed by the insecurity in Plateau State, the Gbong Gwom Jos, Da Jacob Gyang Buba has described as defective the country's security system and suggested that the President should relinquish part of his security powers to state governors.

The Gbong Gwom Jos who spoke during a five day retreat on 'Strategic Thinking for Senior Government Officials in Plateau State', called for constitutional amendment 'where Mr. President would surrender part of his unilateral control of security service apparatus to governors'

In his paper presentation entitled: 'The Structure and Challenges of Governance' at the Obudu Conference Resort, Cross-Rivers State  and copy made available to Daily Sun,  he said on the alternative, 'the amendment should allow each state to establish and control its security apparatus' such as state police.

He said same should be applied to all the 774 local government councils in the country and at worst, all police officers should be deployed to their states of origin. The traditional ruler noted that the clamour for the dry inland ports across the country, particularly the North-eastern region would be a wasteful venture because, the zone hardly got more than 30 containers in a year.

'The dry Inland port in Kaduna remains a waste till today because no serious activity is going on there' he noted.

On the structure and challenges facing governments, the Gbong Gwom said there was need for the new commissioners to ensure that their Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) proposed such projects that were captured in the budget so as not to raise unnecessary budgetary stress. He said to achieve target, team work was necessary for each MDA to pick one item in the Ten Point Agenda of the present government, so as to propel development; stressing that for friction to be avoided, they must make realistic goals.

He observed that lack of proper coordination has hampered adequate dissemination of information on government achievements and called on the state government to work closely with the federal aparatus. The Gong Gwom said there was need for the state to begin to liaise and lobby federal MDAs for project establishment in the state.

In his words, 'the MDAs must establish a very cordial working relationship with all federal MDAs for the purpose of attracting federal programmes and projects to the state. All staff of the MDAs must understand and appreciate the interrelatedness of all MDAs and must put away the attitude of protecting our turf'.

He said. 'There is only one economy in Nigeria and the state in formulating policies must factor into the policies of the federal government and seek to understand and appreciate its economic and fiscal policies so that the state can take advantage of it without losing sight of the fact that we're running a federal system of government.