By Magnus Onyibe
Following the shooting down of a U.S. airforce aircraft by the lranian military and the bailing out of an airman before it crashed, the lranian authorities offered via public information a handsome financial reward to anyone who could capture and bring to the authorities the U.S. airman. Thus a highly multivated search for the airman was triggered. But the US Central Intelligence Agency, ClA reportedly deployed the tool of disinformation in lran to keep them off the trail of the distressed airman until he was able to safely climb to a high mountain from where he was rescued by the U.S. military.
That narrative underscores the power of information management and manipulation.
In the light of the negative and positive purpose to which information can be deployed, avoidable negative information about government should not be allowed to fester.
Rather, the efficacy of state police concept currently in the making should be emphasised to underscore the president’s priotisation of addressing insecurity in Nigeria.
In my view the 60 months (five years) implementation framework proposed by the lnspector General of Police (IGP) panel set up to implement the establishment of state police system appears to be unviable or efficacious. Ending insecurity in Nigeria is urgently desired and a phased implementation begining from 90 days from today-three months is a more feasible proposition to me. The IGP panel’s recommmendation reminds me of what happened to the Petroleum lndustry Bill, PIB which remained on the drawing board defying passage into law for nearly two decades until it was finally passed into an Act, PIA in a piece meal manner under the watch of Muhamadu Buhari’s presidency. Learning a lesson or two from that terrible experience, President Tinubu’s administration should be cautious lest the adoption of state police aimed at stemming the worsening tide of insecurity in Nigeria, get caught up in a similar web of bureacracy that had bogged down the PIA.
In my considered opinion, a centralised policing system in operation in Nigeria’s is hindering Nigeria’s security ecosystem from being effective as petrol and naira subsidy had been doing to the economy until it was ended roughly three (3) years ago by president Tinubu.
The tax system dating back to the colonial days which left a lot of Nigerians outside the tax bracket therefore denying our country of the highly needed revenue also recently reformed via the passage of new tax laws is another clog in Nigeria’s wheel of progress that Tinubu’s administration has removed.
Yet another positive developement via a court ruling is the direct payment of the federation allocation into the bank accounts operated by the 774 local governments across Nigeria as opposed to the payments currently being passed through state governments into the LGAs. That supreme court ruling if and when implemented, would make the 774 LG headquarters the hub of economic activities nationwide instead of the current situation whereby only the 36 states receive the funds from the federation accounts directly and from which local government employees are paid monthly. Which is why no real economic activities are going on at the grassroots level therefore triggering/fueling the rural urban drift that currently defines our beloved country and one of the reasons there is human congestion in the state capitals and cities.
The two other yokes strangulating Nigeria yet to be removed through reforms are the archaic and colonial days electricity system anchored on a centralised national grid platform. The second remaining factor yet to be removed and which is also hobbling Nigeria’s growth is the centralised state policing system currently in the process of being reformed.
In conclusion, l would like to recommend to president Tinubu that the proposed reform in the electricity sector should be pursued with a similar vigor that Taiwo Oyedele, ex KPMG tax expert now elevated to minister of state finance drove the tax reform initiative culminating in the passage of the new tax laws. As such a dynamic and passionate individual with private sector orientation like Oyedele should be saddled with the responsibility of driving the reform so that the initiative can materialize sooner rather than later.
The same strategic approach should be applied towards actualising the long sought decentralisation of Nigeria’s policing system for prompt realisation of the taming of the monster of insecurity currently suffocating Nigeria instead of the metaphorical kicking of the can down the road for a whooping 60 months -five (5) years gestation period that the implementation of state policing system panel set up by the IGP has recommended.
Concluded.
Onyibe, an entrepreneur, public policy analyst, author, democracy advocate, development strategist, an alumnus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA, a Commonwealth Institute scholar, and a former commissioner in the Delta State government, wrote from Lagos.
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