Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has canvassed for state police to tackle the growing insecurity in the country.
Obasanjo said the creation of state police would be a better option than community policing.
The former President said state police should be given priority above community policing to curb the wave of insecurity.
According to a statement by the Special Assistant to Obasanjo on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, the former President said this when the leadership of the National Association of Ex-Local Government Chairmen in Nigeria paid him a visit in Abeokuta on Wednesday.
Obasanjo spoke on the need to strengthen the traditional system and local government administration.
“Our situation in Nigeria concerns everyone, particularly the case of terrorism. The case has gotten over the issue of community police. It is now state police. It is from that state police that we can now be talking about community police,” he said.
Speaking on the local government administration, Obasanjo stated, “I prepared it during the popular Murtala/Obasanjo administration because I believe that there was a need to enable that tier of government to work truly as a local government. They have their own executive, judiciary and legislature.
“They were working and they were very visible, building and managing roads, looking into education, health, local administration, agriculture, but they were all gone.
Obasanjo, who was presented with a letter of a life patron, assured that he would look into their request, assuring that he would be available on request for their needs.
Speaking on the initiative, the former President who commended the people behind the formation of the body said the development clearly showed that some local government chairmen in the country were better than some top elected leaders.
The pioneer national chairman of the body, Albert Asipa, who told the former President why they decided to come together from all the 774 local governments in the country, stated, “We can also contribute to the economy and political developments of the country.
“And realising your position as a father of local government in Nigeria, we need you to actualise our goals, hence this important visit to you. And we have come to say happy 85th birthday celebrations.” (Punch)
