-
Says establishment of State Police clearly unavoidable
By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
The Director General of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Moh Lukman, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has succeeded where other previous Governments, including the ones led by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidents, including Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan, Umar Musa Yar’adua, failed.
In a statement he issued yesterday, the DG however expressed concern that insecurity is still a challenge which requires a long way to go, suggesting that the Constitution should be amended to allow the States tackle some security challenges within their domains.
Lukman said with the level of insecurity across the country, the establishment of State Police has become clearly unavoidable. “Everything considered, the current security structure in the country needs to be radically reformed. Issues of amending the laws to enable state governments establish state police
are clearly unavoidable”, he said.
While challenging the PDP to bring on board its achievements over the sixteen years the party is in power, Lukman said “how many kilometers of road contracts were constructed, reconstructed or rehabilitated throughout PDP’s sixteen years rule? What was the specific agricultural initiatives of all the PDP led Federal Governments between 1999 and 2015?”
He commended the APC government for numerous policies and programmes initiated to fight poverty, saying “If APC led Federal Government has initiated the kind of ambitious National Social Investment Programme in the country, which no other government in the past has undertaken, including PDP governments, isn’t that a confirmation of the difference between PDP and APC?
“If APC led Federal Government has successfully revived Nigerian Railways, actively implementing around 900 road contracts, covering the construction, reconstruction or rehabilitation of more than 13,000km of Federal roads and highways across the country, out of a total of 35,000km of Federal roads in existence.
“In the context of these three achievements, and in other areas, the APC led Federal Government was able to succeed where other administrations, including the PDP have failed. Take the case of the 327km Itakpe-Warri Standard Gauge Rail, completed by the President Buhari led APC administration 33 years after construction began.
“There was the evidential case of the second Niger Bridge, originally conceived decades ago, which is now more than 50 percent completed, and scheduled for commissioning in 2022. There was the case of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, which has defied every PDP administration since 1999.
“There is the case of the new Petroleum Industry Act assented to by President Buhari on Monday, August 16, 2021, which is going to restructure the operations and management of the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The initiative to put in place a new legal framework for the oil and gas sector started under the PDP government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, more than two decades ago.
“It was shrouded in endless national debates and stalemate but was eventually passed by the two Chambers of the National Assembly under APC leadership with a six-month transition for the emergence of new institutional framework for the operations of oil and gas industry in the country.
“If with all these, it means that PDP and APC are the same and have all failed, then failure must be defined in a way that invalidates APC’s achievements since taking over the reigns of Federal Government in 2015. However, recognising that the issues of insecurity inherited by the APC led government of President Buhari remained a major national challenge, it is important that assessment of performance of APC government is not reduced to opinions of individual politicians.”
The PGF DG said the reality is that both President Buhari and all APC leaders acknowledge the enormity of the challenges of insecurity in the country, especially given that notwithstanding all the achievements of the APC administration, once the problem of insecurity persists, it means the government has failed.
He said the tide has turned against Boko Haram and ISWAP in the North-East and is turning against the bandits and criminals in the North-West, in the South East, relative calm has returned, and efforts are ongoing to fully neutralise the militant networks that have been troubling the region, in the Coastal Areas, the full rollout of the Deep Blue and Falcon Eye surveillance and security projects is certain to deal a strong blow on the activities of pirates and militants in the weeks and months ahead.
