…Says governors buy diesel, vehicles, others for federal police
Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has said that devolving policing to various levels, including the local level, is the only solution to the myriad of security challenges facing the country.
Fayemi stated this in Lagos on Monday while delivering the convocation lecture at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, NIJ, Ogba.
He spoke on the topic “Media, security and nation building.”
As the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, I don’t know of any state governor who is not in support of policing being devolved to local levels. There must be multi-level policing. It is an idea whose time has come. The excuse that state governors don’t have the resources to fund such is a fallacy.
“Right now, state governors are the ones funding federal police in their states. We buy vehicles, diesel, give them allowances and provide insurance cover for them. The only thing state governors don’t have over the federal police is control over them. If you want the Commissioner of Police in your state to do something for you as a governor, he will politely tell you he has heard you and that he would go and put things together in his office. He is not going there to put anything together, but to call the Inspector General of Police and tell him of your propositions. If the IGP gives him the go ahead, he would come back and say everything is ready, and of you don’t hear any feedback from him, his boss probably did not give him the go ahead.
” Multi-level policing does not mean the removal of federal police. They will be handling federal crimes such as terrorism. But there are some things you don’t need to take to Abuja to be able to deal with them. People at local levels know every nook and cranny of their community, unlike somebody you just bring in from say Kaura Namoda.
“Multi-level policing will happen one day in this country. It is one sure way to tackle the numerous security challenges we face now. To say governors would use them to harass opposition is false. Federal police harass people too. I was a victim of such harassment even as a siting governor in 2014,” he said.
On the impact the South-West regional security outfit, Amotekun, has made since its take off in some states, Fayemi noted that without the group, the situation in the region would have been more unpleasant.
On the allegation that the government is over regulating the media space, the governor suggested that journalists should hold themselves accountable.
“There is a threat to journalism, there are gatekeepers in the industry and we must find means to deal with the excesses of some overzealous persons who would just go and post anything that catches their fancy online. It is not for government to address that, it is for professionals to deal with themselves,” he noted.
Giving a background to how journalism has evolved over the years in Nigeria, he praised the media in the country for being in the vanguard of the fight for justice and democracy.
According to him, without the media, one could say there would be no nation.
While agreeing with the fact that journalism should be for the development of the society, he said a number of encumbrances were on the way and charged practitioners not to be discouraged.
The Vice Chairman of the Governing Council of the NIJ, who also chaired the occasion, Mr Ray Ekpu, said the topic for the lecture evoked a lot of passion because of its closeness to people’s hearts.
“It is one that tugs at our heart strings. For the past 11 years, our country has been harassed by Boko Haram terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, herders, and other assorted criminals. Our media have focused attention like a laser beam on these incidents because it is their responsibility to do so as prescribed by the constitution of Nigeria,” he stated.
He charged Nigerians to decide on the type of nation they want to build for themselves and generations yet unborn.
A Professor of Mass Communication, Ralph Akinfeleye, urged state actors not to try and stifle the press in any way.
“The other name for democracy is a free press. The press wants to be the fourth estate of the realm not the fourth estate of the wreck. Government agencies trying to regulate the media are going overboard. Some of them have even become traders. They will be slamming fines needlessly on media outfits to raise money,” he said.
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