As Nigeria observes this year’s Eid-al-Fitr celebration, a call has been made for a “Pan- Nigerian, bipartisan collective partnership” to end physical, socio-economic insecurity in the country.
In his Sallah message read on the sideline of 2021 Ramadan lecture hosted by Kwara State National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in honour of his late wife, Hamdalat Abiodun Aremu, in Ilorin, a front line African labour leader and a member of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos, Comrade Issa Aremu, observed that what Nigeria had at hand was “a legacy problem of non-inclusive governance, underfunded police force by past military regimes.
He also said that it was time for all-inclusive collaboration among all stakeholders.
The labour leader hailed the recent decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to adopt an inclusive “bottom-up approach” through community policing, enactment of the Police Trust Fund to prevent and curtail violent crimes.
“Having seen the limitation of top-down shoot-at sight-order, I agree with President Muhammadu Buhari that all of us stakeholders must “go back to the basics, from ward to local council, states and federal” to eradicate the cancer of age-long underdevelopment, unemployment and poverty fueling youth indulgence in violence.”
He said, “physical measures must go hand in hand with socio-economic measures to create jobs and eradicate extreme poverty which he said fuels extremism.”
According to him “every crime is local, governors, local governments, traditional rulers must assume greater feasibility in apprehending crimes in collaboration with Federal security agencies.”
Reacting to the recent resolution of the Southern governors calling for a convocation of a national dialogue, Comrade Aremu noted that while Nigerians can make do with “more discussions”, he warned that Nigeria should not be turned into “a debating society” but “a performing Republic” that guarantees sustainable peace and development.
“If you ask me, many conferences had interpreted Nigeria’s problems, the additional summit is one too many too wasteful, too diversionary. It’s time to walk all the talks. Governors should collaborate across regions, across parties, not divisive regional platform initiates Marshall plan of economic renaissance to lift 100 million out of poverty as envisaged by President Buhari, get youths off crimes,” he said.
Comrade Aremu said the call by southern governors for “restructuring” amounts to “hypocrisy and double standard” when on the one hand some of the governors “unacceptably resisted simple autonomy for the state assemblies, judiciary and local governments” which the President commendably championed. On the ban “on open gracing,” the labour leader said governors are not elected “to oppose” but “to propose and implement” new alternative measures that would ensure food security in an environment in which what he called “working farmers and herders would produce in harmony.”
The guest speaker at the occasion Sheik Suleiman Olodan of the University of Ilorin expressed optimism that Nigerians would overcome current security problems with justice, inclusiveness and honesty in governance as envisaged by the holy Quran.
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