Governors meet on Wednesday, discuss state police, others

Nigeria governors under the aegis of Nigeria Governors Forum will meet in Abuja on Wednesday to discuss salient issues that have to do with constitutional amendments.

The meeting, according to investigation, will address the issue of whether the Forum should support the creation of state police in the proposed constitution amendments or not.

The NGF had earlier supported the creation of state police, but the Northern Governors Forum later met and said they would not be part of the agitation.

The northern governors claimed that the nation was not ripe for such action.

It is expected that the governors will at the end of Wednesday’s meeting, harmonise their positions on this and other matters.

The governors had met on Tuesday, August 7, but could not take a decision on the constitutional amendments due to the absence of some of their members who were in Saudi Arabia for lesser Hajji.

Reading a two-point communiqué after the Forum’s meeting, which was held at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, the Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, said the ‘’Forum differed debate on the issue of constitutional amendment until after the fasting when all members would be back from the Umrah (Lesser Hajj).

“Forum resolved to intensify efforts on polio eradication in the country.”

Apart from speaking on the above issues, the governors are expected on Wednesday to also discuss issues that have to do with the economy and sharing formula from the Federation Allocation.

Wednesday’s meeting will be followed by a National Economic Council meeting, to be presided over by Vice President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The Director-General of NGF, Mr. Asishana Okauru, confirmed the Wednesday meeting.

Presidential Committee on Police Reform Rejects State Police

The Presidential Committee on the Re-organisation of the Nigeria Police Force has rejected the idea of State Police.
It has also recommended the scrapping of the Ministry of Police Affairs.
A former Deputy Inspector General of Police and chairman of the committee, Mr. Parry Osayande, disclosed this when he led other members of the committee to the Presidential Villa in Abuja today to submit their report to President Goodluck Jonathan.
The committee based its conclusions on what Mr. Osayande called the inability of state governments to fund their own forces were they to be created.
In addition, he said that implementing such an idea could lead to the break-up of the country, and described it as irrelevant.
“They (States) cannot afford it,” he said when he spoke to State House correspondents following the submission of the report. “Do you know how much it is to police a country? What we are recommending is that they allow the Police Council to function.”
Commenting on that Council, he noted that the President is the chairman, and its members the chairman of the Police Service Commission, the governors and the Inspector-General of Police.  The governors, he said, would bring their policing plan to the Council, which will then decide on what to do.
“We don't need State Police,” he reiterated.  “The country will break up, take it from me.”
Mr. Osayande further pointed out that the Constitution provides a trilateral arrangement for organisation and administration of the Nigeria Police Council, the Police Service Commission and the Inspector-General of Police.
"However, it is a known fact that the Nigeria Police Council is inactive, as it hardly meets, and hence does not fulfill its constitutionally-assigned role of administering, organising and generally supervising the Nigeria Police," he said.
On the subject of police funding, he said the committee recommended that it be made a first line charge, or that an intervention/special fund be created to accommodate the needs of the force.
In that regard, he pointed out, the committee supports the 2008 recommendation of the M.D. Yusuf committee on the reform of the Nigeria Police that the Police should henceforth be jointly funded by the three-tiers of government."

Why Northern govs oppose state police

Fear of losing their dominance of the Nigeria Police Force has been cited as the major reason behind the sudden change of mind by northern governors over the introduction of state police.
It will be recalled that at the meeting of the governors of the 36 states in Abuja last month, all the governors opted for state police as a panacea for ending rising insecurity in the country.
However, the 19 northern governors met a few days after and kicked against the idea of state police, saying that they were ready to work with the existing police force.
A source close to one of the governors told Vanguard that the northern governors were afraid that their dwindling financial position would not permit the funding of state police like their Southern counterparts, who they claim had more funds than them.
The source, which was in attendance at last week’s meeting of the Governors’ Forum in Abuja, said: “The governors do not want to plunge themselves into what they cannot adequately sustain and they do not also want to lose what they consider as their leading position in the Nigeria Police Force.
“During last Tuesday’s meeting they made their position very clear that they would continue to work with the NPF to contain insecurity in their respective domains.”
It was gathered that the northern governors had opted to present a common position to the federal government on how best to tackle insecurity in the country.
“They believe that the best way to ensure adequate security in all the states is for the federal government to allow commissioners of police to be controlled by the respective governors so that they can take orders from the state executives. But the governors of the Southern states are reported to have insisted that they would press ahead with state police, hoping to embark on serious campaign to convince some of their northern counterparts to change their minds before their next meeting. It was learnt that while most of the governors would not support the growing agitation for more states, they were however in support of the rotation of governorship posts among the people of the 109 senatorial districts in the country to give a sense of belonging to all Nigerians.
They reasoned that if rotational governorship was introduced, it would eliminate the domination of most states by certain ethnic groups to the detriment of the weaker ones. The source said that Benue and Kogi states were used as examples of states were the minority groups could never rule the states without  a rotational arrangement for the political offices in those states.