The Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike has reiterated his call for the decentralisation and depoliticisation of security services as a way of resolving the deadly security challenges facing the country.
Wike noted that that the security services as presently constituted, cannot address the security challenges facing the country, where lives are wasted regularly, while governors are helpless.
Speaking during the 9th General Assembly of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria, yesterday, in Port Harcourt, Wike said that the Rivers State Government has taken steps to improve the security of the state through the setting up of a neighbourhood watch.
He said: “For us in Rivers State, our position on state and community policing is very clear. While we join our voices with other well-meaning Nigerians to strongly and emphatically demand for the decentralization and depoliticisation of security services, we are also not resting on the back of helplessness to do nothing.
“Already, we have forwarded a bill to the state House of Assembly to establish the Neighbourhood Security Corps to cooperate, support and complement the efforts of the regular security agencies in policing our communities and advancing their security.”
The governor noted that: “The reality before the nation is that centralised policing has flatly failed and is incapable of resolving the enormous security challenges of a vast and culturally diverse country like Nigeria.
“And even as we may continue to live in denial, the recurring bloodbaths in Benue, Taraba and other states have once again exposed the weaknesses of our country’s centralised policing system as well as the frustrations and near complete helplessness of state governors in their quest to provide adequate security for the communities and the people that they govern.
“We can only imagine the magnitude of the sufferings and pains ordinary Nigerians are going through when the daily pains of violence and insecurity are added to the unending pressure of poverty, unemployment and lack of development,” the governor said.
Wike said that at a time like this, it will be ungodly for good men to remain silent while the nation is dangerously wobbling, and urged all well-meaning persons to be counted among those who will work for the resolution of the security challenges facing the country.
He said that Rivers State was peaceful, working and brimming with ample economic opportunities for investors to take advantage of.
The governor said the traditional institution must wake up to their responsibilities by lending their strong and respected voices to the national agitations for true federalism, resource control, greater devolution of powers, as well as state and community policing and good governance in the country.
Wike said: “In all these, our traditional rulers have significant roles to play to protect and defend the nation’s unity and advance the rights of our people to democracy, good governance and development.”
Declaring the 9th General Assembly of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria open, President Muhammadu Buhari stated that his administration will take steps to promote security of lives and property.
He noted that security challenges seem to be deliberate and an attempt to undermine the nation’s territorial integrity.
Represented by the Minister of Interior, Lt-Gen Abdulrahman Danbazzau , the President said that he was saddened by the wastage of human lives in different parts of the country.
He directed security agencies to identify and bring to book all those involved in deadly crimes.
In a keynote address, Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris said that the police alone cannot tackle insecurity without the support of traditional rulers and their subjects.
In a paper titled: “Community Policing as a Catalyst to Crime Prevention: The Role of Traditional Rulers “, the Inspector General of Police said that community policing involves the engagement of the community in tackling security challenges.
In his address, Chairman of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar requested governments at all levels to work towards enhancing security.
He urged the traditional rulers to take the camaraderie that exist in the forum to their respective communities for national peace.
Chairman of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers, King Dandeson Douglas Jaja said Nigerians must rise above partisan consideration in the quest for peace.
The Co-Chairman of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria and Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi urged Nigerians to keep politics aside, engage in peer review on ways to develop the country.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Dr Ipalibo Harry Banigo has described the state Chief Executive, Chief Nyesom Wike as an astute and sagacious statesman whose commitment to the unity and progress of Nigeria is unequivocal.
Banigo made this known in a statement in Government House, Port Harcourt, in reaction to the governor’s hosting of the 9th General Assembly of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria.
The deputy governor said “Governor Wike has continued to demonstrate an extra ordinary prowess in his inter personal human relationship with people from diverse socio cultural, political, religious and economic divide in the country which has made him one of the greatest exponents of a unified Nigeria”.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike has stated that the process for the re-positioning of all levels of the health sector was effectively on course, with the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment for the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH).
Wike also declared that the total rehabilitation of structures at the BMSH will create the right environment for quality tertiary healthcare delivery.
In an interview after an inspection visit to the hospital in Port Harcourt, last Monday, Wike said that the health sector will continue to recover priority attention from his administration.
The governor, who was accompanied on the project inspection by the National Chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, said that majority of the equipment procured by the state government for the hospital have arrived.
Wike said: “Our objective is to improve the standard of the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital as a centre of excellence in tertiary healthcare delivery.
“In terms of equipment, the contractors have done well. Eighty per cent of the equipment have arrived the hospital premises and they will be installed as soon as the rehabilitation”.
He, however, noted that the progress of work on the structural rehabilitation is slow; hence the contractors should expedite action.
“We believe the contractors should deploy more workforce for the rehabilitation of the hospital. The state government is doing what is necessary to enhance the quality of the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital”, he said.
The governor also inspected the ongoing reconstruction of the Doctors’ Quarters at the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital, and advised the contractors to improve on the pace of work.
He assured that funding of the projects will be sustained early completion.
The governor was briefed during the project inspection by the Medical Director of Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital, Dr Paul Kua, and Director of Nursing, Mrs. Ajumoke Okpu.
It would be recalled that the Wike administration has completed the reconstruction and equipping of 13 general hospitals spread across the three senatorial districts of the state.