The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC), Comrade Auwal Musa Ibrahim Rafisanjani, on Thursday urged President Bola Tinubu to implement more policies and initiatives that support the national security state of emergency, which he declared on Wednesday.
Comrade Rafisanjani made this allegation during an exclusive chat with Nigerian Tribune, describing the declared state of emergency on national security as a step in the right direction.
He said: “I believe this is the right step that the President has taken in declaring a state of emergency and security in Nigeria.
“It has always been a big challenge in the last two decades. Insecurity is increasing in this country in different forms, and the murder and destruction of lives and properties of Nigerians across the country by different criminals claiming to represent different interests and entities is a matter of great concern.
“So, for the President to have declared this means that he has bowed to the advice that many Nigerians have been giving him, but this statement should not be a mere statement.
“It should come with more commitment, more seriousness, more policies, you know, initiative and implementation.
“For example, there is a need to carry out deep reforms in the security sector in the country. There is a need to set priorities. In the security of this country, there is a need to ensure that the process in which recruitment is done is not tainted by corruption, you know, nepotism.
“There is a need to ensure that deserving people are promoted and given the necessary welfare and facilities. There is a need to ensure that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. For example, now the Nigerian Army has been dragged into virtually every security challenge in the country; internally, this should not have been the case.
“They should have been a last resort to supplement the work other internal security organizations were supposed to be doing, but they are overwhelmed and too many people have been put on the line.
“In the fields without the necessary capacity and equipment, as well as modern facilities, equipment and facilities, they can do this job. So, what I hope Mr. President will do by declaring this set of emergency is to ensure that we establish a Committee that will design comprehensive patriotic reforms of the security sector, removing all the barriers or corruption, all the inefficiency, all the unnecessary jealousies and the lack of coordination, cooperation, partnership and collaboration that have undermined the security sector in the country. If we do that, then we will know that the government is really committed and serious about the set of emergencies in the security sector and then also stops creating artificial crises.
“For example, we have seen what they have done, for example, in the Kano case, where you have what you call a federal area and you deploy more than 20 police officers guarding, you know, someone who, you know, is this one who has received an email, and you do not have that constitutional power to do that, an artificial crisis.
“Now we have also seen how police have been entrenched and deployed in the main opposition ruling party, the main opposition political party, you know, creating chaos.
“So, you know, some people that you consider allies there. These are problems that are not supposed to be. So, we need to prioritize the placement of our staff, use them effectively for governed spaces, not use them for people’s assistants, you know, causes that you create.
“So it is also equally important. In terms of funding the security sector, you have to properly equip the security sector at all levels, the police, the DSS, the Civil Defense and the Nigerian military in general, you have to give them the necessary equipment, modern facilities, modern devices, you know, and also motivate them, you cannot, you know, throw them on the battlefield without even subsidies.
“You know, you can’t throw them onto the battlefield without even concessions. You know, you can’t throw them onto the battlefield without even concessions or without even giving them, you know, equipment and facilities. So you need to remove all those barriers.
“These are the steps that I think if Mr. President, you know, is committed to addressing insecurity issues in the country, he should do so. So the issues around partisan issues around selective promotion and undermining of the legal framework to promote some people and demote others unfairly, all of this will have to go.”
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