A former president of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Mr Kolade Alabi, has backed calls for the creation of state police.
Alabi, who is the current Chairman of Bariga Local Council in Lagos State, expressed the position in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He was speaking on what Local Government autonomy means for governance in Nigeria.
Alabi, who is also the chairman of Chairmen Local Government Areas of Lagos State, said security solutions should be locally tailored.
According to him, security is local and to solve any security challenge, local solutions should be adopted.
‘There is no crime that is committed in any way that does not emanate from a particular ward in a particular local government.
‘So, what that means is that crime is committed by local government, from the bottom.
‘In solving such a a security problem, you have to adopt a local solution.
‘In adopting local solutions, means that state policing and community policing should be adopted. We
believe more particularly in community policing.
‘So, yes, state policing can equally solve that, because there’s no way you can separate the state from the local.
‘If we have state police, then it can also come down to the local authority and we do what we call a strong synergy in solving the security problem,’ he said.
Alabi explained that decentralisation allowed for more effective and responsive governance.
He also stressed the need for a bottom-up approach to governance, suggesting that a decentralised policy could significantly improve Nigeria’s prosperity.
‘Presently, I’m the vice-chairman for the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, involving 55 countries.
‘We do what we call peer review. Also, I’m an executive member of the United City Local Government for Africa, and I represent West Africa in that body. So, we do peer review.
‘We note what happens in other African countries. Whilst we are still struggling to get a decentralised policy, lots of the countries in the world are not even talking
about local government anymore.
‘They are now advocating for community involvement.
‘You will agree with me that community is beneath the local government. So, they have moved deeper than the local government; they have moved to the communities.
‘They want to involve the community in the day-to-day running of the affairs of their countries.
‘If the communities are fully brought on board of governance, a whole lot of things will be solved,’ he said.
The council boss noted that education, the health care system and others were competing for the attention of local authorities.
He said with autonomy, the local government would be able to attend to the needs of the people,without hindrance.
‘So, if you look at the state of our primary education today. If you look at the state of our primary healthcare centres today, these sectors can be better handled by the local authority if they are given the full power to govern administratively and financially,’ he said.
Alabi, however, highlighted the need for capaci
ty building for local government officials to ensure successful implementation.
‘Right now, the local government in Lagos has not stopped what we are doing. We have not stopped.
‘But what we are going to see ultimately is that we are going to move to a higher pedestal with this autonomy,’ he said.
Alabi pointed out that the councils had not been doing badly in the state, saying there was healthy rivalry amongst all the local governments.
He, however, pointed out that some local councils are performing better than others, saying that ‘fingers in local governments in Lagos are not equal.’
According to him, some local governments have more financial resources than others.
‘So, you will see some local governments that will have a lot of financial resources to handle a whole lot of things.
‘Some will be struggling because the financial allocations are not the same.
‘But things will not degenerate if we continue to be good and to move to a better pedestal.
‘So, things are going to be better now. In Lagos,
we are not doing badly.
‘So, after this autonomy thing, what we will be concerned with is capacity on the side of those that will govern the local government,’ he said.
Source: News Agency of Nigeria