By Usman Santuraki Beti
During the presentation of the 2926 budget by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a call was made by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, on behalf of both the senators and members of the House of Representatives to review the withdrawal of policemen attached to VIPs, especially those of the national legislators.
The greatest disservice that would be done to the people of this country is for President Tinubu to harken to the call by rescinding the withdrawal order. The police is meant to provide adequate security to all Nigerians not only to senators and members of the House of Representatives.
It’s imperative and absolutely necessary for President Tinubu not to heed the call of the senate president to review the directive and provide them with policemen to guard them and their houses. If they want security, as the president has rightly said they should approach the Nigeria Civil Defence Corp whose personnel are also well trained to give them protection.
The call is that of people who are bereft of knowledge of the fact that all over the world the primary duty of the police is ensure the protection and safety of the people and not to be around certain personalities as obtainable in Nigeria. It is only in Nigeria, that simply because you are parliamentarian one will have at least more than 10 policemen providing security cover for him/her.⁰
In advanced democracies, the members of the parliament are provided with not more than one security aide. Therefore, President Tinubu has taken the right decision and as such he should not go back on the directive as there are alternatives for them to get secured. The persistent insecurity in the country like insurgency, banditry, kidnapping for ransom is because there are inadequate policemen on ground to provide security to the vast majority of the people of this great country.
The lives of senators and members of the House of Representatives are not more important than those of Nigerians who voted them to be in the red/green chambers of the National Assembly to make laws for the good governance of this country.
President Tinubu should not fall for the antics of parliamentarians, who want him to review his directive on the withdrawal of the policemen providing security cover for them.
As earlier stated, let them go for the personnel of the Civil Defence Corp to provide them with security cover as they are also trained in that aspect.
Nigeria cannot make progress if we continue with policy slipshod. Let the president care less about these self-centred people who are only concerned about themselves. He should not rescind his directive by deploying policemen to the parliamentarians to provide security to them as well as guard their houses scattered all over the country while the people are left to the mercy of criminal elements to continue their business as usual of banditry, kidnapping for ransom etc.
Doing so by the president for them is like sluice-gate for the criminals to continue harming the vast majority of Nigerians on daily basis while a select few enjoy the privileges of state apparatus in the provision of security cover for them.
Nigeria cannot be an exception whereby the world over the police provide security for the generality of the people of the country. It’s only in this country that the bulk of policemen are attached to a select few or what is called Very Important Persons (VIPs).
In some countries even ministers do not have a retinue of policemen and other agents of security outfits following them like bees in the name of providing security cover and some guarding their homes.
Let President Tinubu stick to his directive for the withdrawal of policemen from the VIPs because the parliamentarians have the alternative of using the Civil Defence Corp personnel.
May God help us in this country.
Usman Santuraki Beti is a Public Affairs Analyst.
