Edwin Clark,
a former Federal Commissioner of Information, on Wednesday stressed that
restructuring remains the solution to Nigeria’s prevailing security challenges.
The elder
statesman made this point while faulting the centralised security architecture
in the country which he said could not avert, or respond swiftly to security
issues in all parts of the country.
Speaking
with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Clark said Nigeria must restructure to
allow for the creation of state police and other grassroots policing options to
tame the security issues in the country.
He said,
“The security challenges the country is currently facing will be overcome if we
adopt restructuring.
“This is
because the issue of security is local and we cannot have effective security
cover when everything is done from the centre.
“A major
ingredient of restructuring is state police and it is when we have this and
other community policing options that we can have proper security.”
Clark
stressed that restructuring would also promote effective governance and
development, if adopted by the country.
“Restructuring
will ensure that power devolves from the centre to the other federating units
for effective governance.
“Why, for
instance, would the Federal Government be involved in things like secondary
education, health services, agriculture that are better handled by the states?
“The
government at the centre, in an ideal federation, should only control areas
like immigration, defence and maybe prison.
“Restructuring
will ensure that resources are freed up at the centre for the development of
those local things like agriculture, health and secondary education,” he said.
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