The Vice-President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo, while attending a National Security Summit organized by the National Assembly in Abuja, said: “state police is the way to go because having a centralized system cannot effectively secure the nation.”
He said every Nigerian was entitled to adequate security by government and that the security failures of the government were not deliberate.
“We cannot realistically police a country the size of Nigeria centrally from Abuja,’’ he argued.
“As a people any killing undermines the security of the state,’’ he stated as he mentioned several killings that had taken place in different parts of the country in recent times.
Prof. Osinbajo said that government had worked on some policy objectives some of which needed legislative approval and cooperation of the judiciary.
He said that the security challenges of the country were complex and nuanced that securing Nigeria’s over 900,000 square Kilometres and 180 million people required far more men and materials than we have at the moment.
“It requires a continual reengineering of our security architecture and strategies; this has to be a dynamic process.’’
According to him for the country of our size, to meet the one policeman to 400 persons approved by the UN, will require triple of our current police force, far more funding of the police, the military and security agencies.
The Vice-President said the country must intensify its collaboration with the neighbours to prevent the movement of persons with small arms and disarm pastoralists and other bandits passing through the nation’s borders.
“We must avoid the danger of allowing these conflicts to turn to religious or ethnic conflicts,’’ he said adding that it was the responsibility of political, religious and other leadership elite in Nigeria.’’
