By Solomon Ikechukwu
Irked by the escalating security threats across the federation, the former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu has reiterated his call for the State Police in Nigeria.
He said that Nigeria is about the only federal system in the world with a centralized police system.
Senator Ekweremadu said this in Abuja while delivering a paper titled,“Beyond Branding: Engineering a Citizen-Led Proposition for Nigeria’s National Cohesion and Global Positioning,” at a Colloquium & Book Presentation organized by a renown brand expert, Mr Ikem Okuhu.
He said there are several areas, indeed burning issues, where successive governments have either not listened to the masses or shown interest in building consensus.
The former Deputy Senate President who represents Enugu West Senatorial District of Enugu State at the red chamber of National Assembly added that the bad news is not just that the nation is paying dearly for such intransigence, but also that the country will sadly continue to pay heavier for many years to come.
He said, “Today, Nigeria is in the full grips of widespread insecurity- insurgency, banditry, abductions, armed robbery, and all manner of violent crimes. Nigerians have been offering solutions towards taming the rising waves of criminality. This includes calls for decentralised policing, which I am also a proponent and have a Bill to that effect that is currently before the Senate. Unfortunately, it appears the government is bent on doing the same thing over and over, but ironically hoping to get a different result.
“In the same manner, many Nigerians, including yours sincerely, have been shouting it on the rooftops long before the current economic downturn occasioned by drastic and protracted decline in oil revenues, that the days of high oil revenues were numbered. The West and other developed nations are setting targets to move away from oil. Yet we are not close to activating other abundant sources of income because our federalism is wired for wealth sharing rather than wealth creation.
“Even in the 7th National Assembly when we listened to the yearnings of Nigerians to amend the constitution to devolve aviation, power, railway, etc. from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent List, it was never assented by the Presidency. Now that the chicken has come home to roost, will the Federal Government listen to the voices of reason and devolve powers or will it continue with the micro management (some will say mismanagement) of the nation’s resources?
“Nigeria is now divided as never before. The chasms are increasing by the day. Elder statesmen and women, writers, and other well meaning Nigerians have continued to raise the alarm that the nation is drifting apart. They have equally continued to proffer suggestions on how we can engender national cohesion, justice, and equity”.
He said that Nigerians will continue to pray that the government heeds their patriotic calls and suggestions.
Sen. Ekweremadu said that one of the banes of our democracy is that many political leaders disappear from the scene and isolate themselves from the people, once they are elected or appointed into offices.
“They are ready to visit all nooks and crannies to mobilise votes during electioneering campaigns, but they disappear into the thin air once elected. It is noticeable in the legislature, but even worse among the elected executives. The result is the misplacement of projects and priorities, as the people become objects rather than subjects of governance,” he lamented.
He however, noted that town hall meetings with the people and constant visit to communities will help a lot in gauging the people’s expectations and empowering them to lead development initiatives.
He applauded an initiative of Enugu State government called Visit Every Community (VEC).
He explained that the initiative is about government teams visiting each of the communities to interact with community leaders, which includes youth and women representatives, to hear from the people what their needs are, how they think government may assist, and how government projects affect them.
He concluded that the Enugu State Government gives grants to communities to execute chosen medium scale development projects under the One Community One Project initiative.
