The Transparency International has said state governments owing salaries and failing in education and primary health care will not be able to finance the proposed state police.
The Head of TI Nigeria, Musa Rafsanjani, who stated this on Sunday, said as good as the objectives of state police were, state governments must first be able to pay workers’ salaries, provide health care, manage primary and secondary education as well as other basics of human life, before the police institution could be committed to them.
The Senate and the House of Representatives had last week Tuesday expressed their readiness to amend the constitution to make the state police legal in order to contain persistent killings in the country, declaring the country’s security system as a failed architecture.
The House of Representatives had thereafter passed a resolution backing the establishment of the state police.
The Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, had received a bill seeking to amend the 1999 Constitution to accommodate state police.
The Kwara, Abia, Osun, Ondo and Ogun state Houses of Assembly had also backed the National Assembly’s decision to initiate moves aimed at the creation of the state police, which was to stem the escalating killings in the country.
But the TI Head, Rafsanjani, said on Sunday in an interview with our correspondent, that many state governments were presently unable to finance the state police, as they were still owing workers’ salaries and failing in primary education and health care.
He added, “Secondly, in view of the actions of the state governments, most governors can personalise the state police and use them as an instrument to oppress perceived opponents. So, we have to be very circumspect while putting the state police in our constitution. The state police should be some idea in our long-term, which will manifest when we are more mature in our political process. But presently, I am not sure the states are ready to take on the responsibility of the state police. I rather advocate that the way to improve security should be a proper financing of the police.”
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