INSECURITY: APC govt has not done well —Senate spokesperson

By Shina Abubakar

THE lawmaker representing Osun Central Senatorial District, Senator Basiru Ajibola, yesterday, took a swipe at the All Progressives Congress, APC, led Federal Government over the poor handling of the security challenges saying it has not done well.

Reacting to the massacre of farmers in Borno State by Boko Haram terrorists, Ajibola, who is the Senate spokesperson, restated his call for overhauling the country’s security architecture and urged the executive arm to look into the propriety of retaining the Service Chiefs.

Speaking on a radio programme tagged: ‘Frank Talk’ in Osogbo, Osun State, he said the Federal Government has not done well in securing the lives and property of Nigerians.

His words: “I will say with all modesty, humility that I am afraid and in line with my oath to the constitution, our government is not doing well at all in the area of security. Section 14 of the Constitution stated that security and welfare should be the primary purpose of government. You will discover that security is even mentioned before welfare, a society that is not secure cannot talk about welfare. Our administration, I am not blaming anybody, I am blaming us as an institution, we have not done well in the area of security.

“We have not done what we ought to do. The killings of farmers in Borno State is so scary that I find it very hard to sleep, it is scary when you see innocent farmers been brought down in those circumstances. With that lamentation, I think I will reiterate the call of the National Assembly that the Executive should look into the question of the propriety of retaining the service chief. This has been a resolution that the Senate has passed to the executive arm.

“There is a need to dismantle the over-centralised unitary security architecture of Nigeria. I have sponsored a bill on State Police; it is before the Constitutional Review Committee. The executive needs to work to decentralize the Nigeria Police operationally and budgetary along the zonal line and structure. If we are not doing this, we will just be wasting time over the issue of security.

“We also need to look into the area of the economy; it is an integral issue when it comes to security. Our economic issue has now even been exacerbated, the country has entered into a recession, food items are now expensive, and unemployment is getting scarier. Rather than talking about politics, we need to take the issue of governance seriously; we need to think outside the box on security. We cannot have security for a very large country like ours in this unitary system.

“The EndSARS crisis really put forward the need to have a decentralised structure. A situation where hoodlums destroyed property and loot others unchecked showed that we have not done well. I think there is still time to take the bull by the horn for our party to redeem itself and give what the Constitution demands of us (Security and Welfare) to our people.”