Niger Senator rejects calls for State Police
By Aminu Garko, Kano
Sen. Sani Musa (APC- Niger East), on Monday rejected the proposed establishment of state Police in the country, saying the outfit will be subjected to ‘political abuse.’
Musa speaking to newsmen shortly after the deliberations at the just-concluded ‘Retreat of the Senate Committee on Review of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’ said: “I am no longer in support of what we want to do in creating State Police.”
”I just took a sample of the Community State Policing that we said we have introduced. It’s not working, look at the infrastructure , look at the demography of the people that work, it’s not balanced. It will only create a problem for this country.”
“There will be political abuse, there will be corruption, ethnic, religious or zonal bias and disparities.”
”Furthermore, in coordination, there will be challenges between the States and the Federal.”
Sen. Musa,who is also the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, however, supported the autonomy for local governments in the country, describing it as very important.
He argued that the third tier of government is non-existent.
“It is just recently I heard a Governor who is against the judgement, saying there is nothing like the third tier of government.”
The lawmaker also stated his position on the creation of a system of federalism in the country.
Musa said, “I am an ardent supporter of what is called federalism but federalism for me is just a tag.”
“When we come to talk about leadership, we have had successive governments in this country from the colonial time right to the Sardauna era to even the Presidential System when we produced Shagari and the rest.”
“One thing that we have missed and that has been brought into our polity is the demarcation of the ideals that brought about the thoughts of true nationalism and patriotism.”
“I do not take whatever we do to our constitution we will get it right. I will give you a simple example.”
According to him, the country has been demarcated into zones based on connecting sub-national states and formed from their regional locations called zones.
Musa said, “Today, if I stand and talk here, I am talking as a Senator. I am representing Niger-East and from Central Nigeria.”
”We have been demarcated and my thoughts and ideals are going that way. Look at the panelist, we have only four of the zones being represented: North-West, South-East, South-West and North-East.”
“If we are going to talk about the amendment of our Constitution and talk about state Police and other issues, there are some basic fundamentals that we are supposed to take as ideals and we work with that.”
