Give us state police now, El-Rufai tells FG

GOVERNOR Nadir El-Rufai has said the only means to  stem the rising tide of insecurity threatening to engulf the nation is by implementing  three specific recommendations of the All Progressives Congress Committee on True Federalism.

The governor thereby urged the Federal Government to see to the implementation immediately.

El-Rufai spoke at a live broadcast tagged ‘The Fierce Urgency of Now: Tactics and Strategies to Pull Nigeria from the Brink,’ yesterday.

The governor noted that Nigeria had failed to “jealously and consistently protect its prerogatives and status as a leviathan” which he identified as “ultimate guarantor of security, the protector of rights and the promoter of the rule of law.”

According to him, that is why the Federal Government’s power is being challenged in a “frighteningly sustained manner” by a phalanx of armed non-state actors.

He said, “I would recommend the following immediate decisions and actions by the federal and state governments, with the support of our civil society and all well-meaning Nigerians. The first is to implement the three key devolution proposals that I mentioned: Give us state police now; vest all minerals in the states now; and decentralise our judiciary now – not later.

“There are certain things governors cannot do. Some of them we have alluded to by saying we don’t control security agencies. So, you are chief security officer, but you can call the CP (commissioner of police) and if the IG (Inspector General) says, ‘Don’t talk to him,’ that is it.

“In five and a half years, as governor of Kaduna State, I have had eight commissioners of police. They are just posted; they spend seven or eight months (each) on average. Do the mathematics. Eight CPs that have virtually no say in their posting, and so on. How can you have security management if you change the frontline chief of security every eight months on average?”

The governor noted that only the National Assembly could make state police a reality.

El-Rufai added, “There is nothing the governors can do. And these senators and House of Representatives members were elected from states. Many of them got elected with our help and support, but when they go to Abuja, they can grow large heads and will not cut their hair for two years, and they start thinking something else. I had one like that; I got him out.

“We want states to have more responsibilities so that we can be held more accountable. The reason I said we need state police, a decentralised judiciary and the vesting of mines, minerals and oils in states now is because if we don’t do it this year, next year, everything will be politicised.”

In response, the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya, who was also a speaker on the occasion, said, “Governor El-Rufai has said, ‘Let us all work together.’ We are very ready to do that.”

The state governors have also advocated for state police with many of them saying the current system of police makes them powerless in the face of growing insecurity rocking their various states.

Lamenting his powerlessness to curb insecurity in his state, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State recently said it’s a misnomer to call him “Chief Security Officer” of his state as nothing in reality proves that.

Wike said the truth is that he is a ” Chief Logistics Officer” of the state

But it’s been argued in some quarters that the governors might abuse state police by turning it into instrument of oppression of the opposition in their various states.

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