Governor Sani Uba of Kaduna State on Thursday expressed optimism that the establishment of State Police will end endemic insecurity across the 36 states of the Federation.
Governor Uba, who stated this in Abuja during a media chat with NGF Correspondents at the sidelines of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) monthly meeting, highlighted the constraints facing the state governors.
He said: “Some people say it’s an indictment, that the governors are not doing enough. In my opinion, it’s not an indictment.
“I do agree that we have a limited role to play concerning the constitution of Nigeria. Don’t forget that even tomorrow, by the grace of God, it’s one of the areas we are going to look at the negativity, looking at the possibility of the creation of State Police in Nigeria, which for me would go a long way in addressing insecurity, particularly at the sub-national level.
“But of course, as governors, we must take responsibility. Take, for example, Sarpani Kaduna. When I came in, I inherited a system where we had a series of communal religious clashes before I became governor.
“But I can tell you that in the last 18 months, or precisely almost 20 months since I took over, we have not had one single religious or communal clash since I became governor.
“So for me, I believe as a leader, you have to lead by example by making sure that you carry everyone along.
“You make sure that you handle the problem of particularly insecurity and ethnic merchants. They’re everywhere. There are people who can only benefit if there are political, religious, or ethnic clashes.
“Where we come from, we have states that we have to address this issue of diversity. And in Kaduna, we try as much as possible to make it something we build on and strengthen in our own state.
“Of course, I agree with the National Security Council, but I also believe security agencies in Nigeria should also step up and do what is right.
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“You can see that even the Chief of Defence Staff addresses us today. And it’s a very important meeting where we look at the areas of synergy between the security agencies and the state governors.
“But of course, in my last interview, I already declared that we are not hiding enough goods on the ground.
“So no matter how we try to address the issue, we have to look at other aspects, particularly looking at the non-kinetic approach.
“Because when you look at the security agencies in Nigeria, look at the military. Like I said, we have less than 300,000 soldiers.
“We look at the military personnel in Nigeria. We look at the entire police personnel in Nigeria. There are less than 400,000.
“We are a country of about 230 million. So, there are a lot of government spaces in Nigeria. Whether in the north, in the south, everywhere. So, we have to look at other areas of addressing the issue of insecurity.
“That is the reason why I believe we have to work, all of us, together. We don’t need to blame each other.
“We have responsibility. We are leaders. We must address the problem. We sit together. Have a good night, everyone.”
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