Bauchi governor backs state police to tackle security challenges

Bauchi State Governor, Mohammed Abubakar yesterday declared that if the country should practice federalism as enshrined in the nation’s constitution, it has to adopt state police to tackle its security challenges.

He told State House correspondents on the sideline of a dialogue on ethical values and national security organised by the presidency at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

While giving reasons for his support for state police, he said it would engender true federalism.His words: “Nigeria is a federation. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides for a federal system and in federal system, the federating units are all independent in their own spheres of influence.We copied the Constitution from the American Constitution and if you go to America you discover that there is County Police, there is State Police and then Federal Police.

If we are going to engender true federalism, that is probably the beginning of the process.”On the fears that state governors might abuse state police if it was eventually established, the governor said there would always be fears when new policies are being introduced.

“There will always be fears but we should not think in terms of individuals in Nigeria, that is our bane, we should think in terms of developing institutions.
“When we develop institutions and the plain truth, they take care of the indiscretions of individuals.”

On the meeting at the villa, he said, the leaders had to dialogue on ethics and integrity of service and the launching of a compendium on the life and times of Mr. President and the services he had rendered to the country from when he joined the army to date. “This compendium was conceived well before the consideration for 2019 elections. It is a factual compendium not politics.

“The dialogue is the first thing in addressing the nation’s problems, the need for us to forge unity, to consider the challenges confronting the nation without unnecessarily overheating the polity,” he added.