Nationnewslead reports that Following the massacre of farmers in Borno State at the weekend, the Senator representing Osun Central Senatorial District, Dr Basiru Ajibola, said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has not done well with securing the country.
He also reiterated the call for overhauling the country security architecture and urged the executive arm to look into the propriety of retaining the Service Chiefs.
Ajibola, who is the Senate Spokesperson, while speaking on a radio programme, tagged Frank Talk in Osogbo, Osun State on Monday, said the present administration has not done well in securing the lives and property of Nigerians.
“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 can not 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 was 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 propriety of retaining the service chief.
“This has been a resolution that the Senate has passed to the executive arm,” he said.
The Senate spokesperson further disclosed that it is time the country overhaul the over-centralised security architecture, saying the police should be decentralised operationally and budgetarily along zonal line and structure.
He said those running the country need to think out of the box on the issue, adding that it has affected the nation’s economy which slides into recession for the second time in two years.
There is a need to dismantled the over-centralised unitary security architecture of Nigeria. I have sponsored a bill on State Police now it is before the Constitutional review committee.
The executive needs to work to decentralised Nigeria police operationally and budgetarily 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 economy issue has now even been exacerbated, the country has entered into recession, food items are now expensive, unemployment is getting scarier.
“Rather than talking about politics we need to take the issue of governance very seriously, we need to think outside the box on security. We can not 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 destroy property and loot others unchecked showed that we have not done well and I think there is still time to take the bull by the horn for our party to redeem itself and give what the Constitution demand of us (Security and Welfare) to our people”, the Senator added.
