Community policing panacea for Nigeria’s security challenge – Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has once again restated his stance on community policing as the solution to the lingering security challenges in Nigeria.

Prof. Osinbajo stated this on Tuesday in Lagos while delivering the 70th Anniversary Lecture of the Lagos Country Club, entitled, “Promoting National Cohesion for Progress and Prosperity.”

He explained that the federal government was committed to ensuring the safety of live and property across Nigeria.

Talking on ensuring the protection of rights, lives and property in a diverse society like Nigeria, Prof. Osinbajo said, “one of the most important ramparts of national cohesion are the guarantees of fundamental freedoms.

“The right to life, which comes with the duty of governments to ensure peace and security, freedom of movement, freedom of Worship, and the rule of law.”

According to him, “everyone must be reasonably assured that their lives and livelihoods will be protected by government, that their disputes will be fairly and justly resolved regardless of their ethnicity or faith.

“Our challenges as a nation basically centre around these issues – religious conflicts, farmer-herder clashes in the North Central and many parts of the North West, Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, and militancy in the Niger Delta. 

“When law enforcement institutions are weak there is a huge opportunity to run divisive narratives. By that I mean that where, for example, the security agencies do not speedily apprehend criminals, or the criminal justice system is slow, then there is room for people to say that authorities don’t arrest and prosecute Fulani herders when they kill because the law enforcement officers are often not resident in the communities where they are posted for policing duties; then it is easier to promote doubt about their commitment to ensuring the safety of the communities they police.”

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Still on the issue of law and order, the Vice President said, “where the quality and integrity of judges is in doubt, it is easier to find parochial reasons for unfavourable decisions.”

Citing the reforms carried out by the Lagos State Government between 1999 and 2007 as an example, the Vice President said “we must strengthen our judicial system, first by the appointment of judges of integrity and sound legal knowledge and then putting in place a welfare package that discourages misconduct.”

He added, “In diverse societies we must do all that is necessary to strengthen the institutions of law enforcement, security and the rule of law. The challenge is dynamic and our approach must also be dynamic. 

“Which is why I believe that State Police in a large, diverse federation is imperative. However, this requires constitutional amendment a product of consensus of our legislators. In the interim the Federal Government has approved the community policing option.

“The IGP recently announced the plan. An important component is that in the new approach to police recruitment, police officers will be recruited in each local government and after training will be required to remain in their local governments.  

“The plan also involves interfaces between traditional rulers, State neighbourhood watch or vigilante programmes and the police. The security architecture is now being reengineered for greater use of technology and more integration of the use of security platforms.”