The House of Representatives’ Majority Leader, Ado Doguwa, recently floated an idea on the floor of the House that given the state of insecurity in the country, citizens should be allowed to bear arms for self defence.
The suggestion came against the backdrop of an attack on a passenger train heading towards Kaduna from Abuja.
The attack claimed several lives while vital equipment were destroyed.
Obviously, the attack showed the appalling level of insecurity in the country and how easy it has become for any Nigerian to lose their life.
However, the call by Honourable Doguwa for citizens to be allowed to bear arms sounds paradoxical after Doguwa and his colleagues in the House of Representatives rejected the idea of state police.
The stringent calls for state police came against the backdrop of the reign of terror unleashed on different parts of the country by terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and robbers.
Many promoters of state police believe that policing is local and sociological and that state police would make checking of crime easier in the nooks and crannies of the country.
But, the House of Representatives and the Senate in their wisdom have not allowed even the bill to see the light of the day.
The weak reason given for this decision is that state police will be a tool in the hands of state governors. This is a case of throwing the baby away with the bath water.
Proponents of state police believe that the National Assembly would have looked for constitutional safeguards that would prevent the governors from abusing state police rather than outright rejection of the idea.
Ironically, the same people that rejected the idea of state police, were the same people shedding tears on the floor of the legislative chamber over the dire security situation.
The reality is that a well policed country is likely to be able to fight crime to a standstill than a country that is poorly policed.
In the United Kingdom, for instance, citizens are not allowed to bear arms freely but crime rate is not astonishing. It is obvious that the Nigerian Federal Police as presently constituted, is not in a good position to solve the problem of the burgeoning rise in crime nationwide.
State police, if well equipped and articulated, will be able to reduce crime being committed in almost all parts of country to the barest minimum.
WRITTEN BY TONY OKAFOR
Comments are closed for this post.