Press Releases

State Police Imperative For Security, Good Governance – Fashola

Dec 5, 2009 - Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Saturday charged Nigerians to have the courage to change what has not worked for the country by discarding the centralized Police structure inherited from the British colonialists.

Governor Fashola made the assertion while speaking on the topic: “Security and Good Governance: The imperative of State Police”, at the conferment of an Award for Excellence in Leadership on him by the Arewa Youth Forum, at the ASAA Pyramid Hotel, Kaduna. The Governor noted that the British Government despite the fact that it runs a unitary government has a decentralized Police System.

“Why are we clinging to old methods that have not worked for us? Why don’t we allow states that have legislative houses to make laws and courts to participate in the process of enforcing the law”.

Said he:“The 1999 constitution does not suggest that the responsibility of ensuring security and welfare of the people as defined in chapter two should be restricted to the Federal Government. It is contradictory to exclude state and local Government from discharging the critical function of providing security”.

According to Governor Fashola, “the capacity to fund a Police Force that is big enough to be controlled by the Federal Government and sufficient to protect all of us is not there, so why not allow the States in a structure that will still allow uniformity to recruit people and send them to an academy that is controlled by the Central Police for a uniform training, but recruited by States, trained on a national curriculum and sent back to the State to be funded and supported by the State”.

“It would also create job opportunities and careers for many young men. It would also create a standing force of people who will assist in ensuring that crime is prevented by regular beats and patrols as against Police officers being posted out from a present posting when they are about to settle down in a place. Several cases have been stalled because the investigating IPO has been posted out”, he added.

Governor Fashola who rejected the arguments of critics of State Police on the grounds that it will be abused by political office holders added that if Nigerians accept that argument, it means that the country cannot produce good leaders who can rise above politicizing the use of the Police.

The Governor declared: “Whatever may have been the shortcomings of the Native Authority NA/Local Government LG Police, they helped to enforce law and order at the grassroots level. Although they did not carry arms and ammunition, the Dogari of the Yan Doka in Northern Nigeria and the Olopa and Akoda in Western Nigeria were most effective in checking certain categories of crime”.

Governor Fashola said the security challenge of Nigeria today knocks at the very heart of democracy and good governance and the scope of freedom and dignity that is available to the average Nigerian, adding that what is needed to be addressed is how best the security and law enforcement network be improved upon, deepened and made more efficient to make the country safer for individuals, for business and for government itself.

He reiterated that if there has been any strident criticism of the governance process in Nigeria, it has been that the governing authorities tend to place greater emphasis on their ‘security and welfare’ to the disadvantage of the ‘people’.

Governor Fashola said the security and welfare of the people is the foundation of democratic governance that has served as creed that has been guiding the administration since it assumed office in 2007, noting that from the outset there was a commitment to remove desperate conditions as a way of improving security.

“We started by trying to make Lagos, a cleaner city and environment. We identified all the dirty spots which provide a haven for criminally minded persons or those spots which encourage the abuse of the environment and under the Greater Lagos, mega city initiative we launched a city beautification project. We started by planting flowers and establishing parks where none had existed”.

Continuing Governor Fashola explained that planting flowers was not an end in itself. “We were convinced that people are likely to feel more secure, more humane and more dignified in a clean environment”. Government also took a look at all the shanties around the city and directed that existing laws about urban and physical planning should be enforced.

He also explained that traffic was not moving because many roads were not being used due to the erection of gates which were meant to prevent armed robbers from gaining access to the streets but ended up making movement impossible especially during emergencies. With Stakeholders’ engagement, the gates have since been opened with the resultant improvement in traffic.

The Governor said what is happening now is a gradual transformation of the city and the local neighbourhoods, explaining that one of the key lessons is that in ensuring the security and welfare of the people making them the owners of the process is very critical with their buy- in being the key to success.

Governor Fashola said Oshodi market which used to be a busy and chaotic part of the city has been freed with traffic moving freely and refuse generated dropping by 36 percent.

“Our most remarkable experience since 2007 is the realization that Nigerians are not entirely a community of cynics but normal people who can be motivated to achieve more if government plays its part. With the Lagos example, the credit must go to the people themselves whose support and understanding have been the driving force of the process of development and renewal”

He said to date the State has committed over N3Billion to the Security Trust Fund with and interesting feature being the enthusiastic support it has received from Corporate Lagos and from ordinary members of the community.

He said in all, from statistics provided by the Commissioner of Police during the Third Town Hall Meeting on Security with the Theme, “Sustaining and Growing the Security Model” crime has been reduced substantially in Lagos by 79.9 percent as at the end of September 2009.

Governor Fashola advocated a process of making the security process people driven rather than power driven, making it participatory, rather than exclusionary as the philosophical foundation of the proposed new policing and funding model being considered by the Federal Government and Inspector General of Police.

The Governor also called for the giving of a special status to Lagos as a former federal capital city just as it has been done in many locations like Germany, Brazil and Spain.

Also speaking, the representative of the Kaduna State Governor, Mr. Yakubu Bityong who is the Commissioner for Non Governmental Organisations urged the Lagos Governor to continue the good works which had fetched him the award.

While urging all Nigerians to ask for good governance, the Commissioner called for a change of attitude from Nigerians by ensuring that a stoppage is put to the use of youths as political thugs.

Earlier in his welcome address, the National President of the Arewa Youth Forum (AYF), Alhaji Gambo Ibrahim Gujungu said Governor Fashola was being honoured as an illustrious son of Nigeria who had made his impact felt positively in the last two and a half years in Lagos. “Driving around Lagos, what one sees is a State that resembles a massive re-construction site. The concentration is the areas where Lagos has suffered the greatest public infrastructure deficit: Roads, Bridges, Drainage, Iprovement of Market Environment and Development of Commerce, Schools, Hospitals Rail Transport and Water Transport. The main focus of the Fashola’s administration has been on the renewal of critical infrastructure so as to reduce the pressure on existing infrastructure. The Man Fashola harps on attitudinal change which he calls “Development of Infrastructure of the Mind”, he said.

In his address, the representative of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Alhaji Mohammed Lawal said Governor Fashola deserved the honour being bestowed on him by the Arewa Youth Forum.

He said with leaders like Governor Fashola, Nigerians must be ready to go to the next level in terms of purposeful leadership.

Governor Fashola was later presented with an Award for Excellent Performance by the Arewa Youth Forum at the colourful event attended by numerous representatives of the Yoruba Community in Northern Nigeria and indigenes of Lagos resident in Kaduna.