House Approves State Police Bill, Lawmaker Calls It Bold Step to Tackle Insecurity

[00:00:01][music] >> The House of Representatives passed a major bill to establish state police, marking what lawmakers described as a turning point in Nigeria's security efforts. Honorable Barrister Sunday Kyriakou Umahi, who represents Enugu Federal Constituency, said the decision is welcome development and a strong achievement for the 10th Assembly and the country at large. He noted that the [snorts] move come after long debate on how to address rising insecurity across different regions.

[00:00:39]>> For me, it's a welcome development. For me, I see it as a another achievement for this government.

[00:00:48]Another achievement for the 10th House of Representatives.

[00:00:54]Another achievement for Nigerians.

[00:00:56]And I also see it as one of those tough decisions that we needed to make or to take.

[00:01:07]And today we have come to the climax of it by taking the bull by the horn and daring the fears we all expressed about the state police.

[00:01:21]So, it's a victory for the entire Nigerians and for me, I see it as a something we all need to be proud of.

[00:01:30]Today, insecurity is ravaging the entire country. No No part of the country is spared.

[00:01:39]And as parliamentarians, we have been doing everything possible to see the best solution to this uh issue. And uh I think we have taken a right decision by establishing or maybe passing the the bill for the establishment of state police.

[00:02:01]For you to pass it, for you to actualize it, you need to tinker with some constitutional provisions.

[00:02:12]You know, that uh deals with the uh with the Nigerian police force to allow for a delegation of part of the authorities to the state.

[00:02:25]So, we in the course of it, we had to amend or there there there were proposals for amendment of certain provisions of the constitution.

[00:02:34]That was what we have just done.

[00:02:37]We also expect to see a corresponding good news from the Senate, after which we'll now look forward for presidential ascent.

[00:02:47]But, looking at the bill as it is, you would agree with me that he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches him.

[00:02:59]From the far away the southeast to the northeast to the northwest to the south-south to the southwest, you cannot know my house more than myself who occupies the house.

[00:03:14]When you talk about security, security has to do with internal activities of a particular place.

[00:03:23]In my village Akamoye, the forest there, the bushes there, you can't know it more than me that lives in that village.

[00:03:33]So, what state policy seeks to enhance or to encourage is for active involvement of the people, the populace of a particular place or of a particular geographical area to participate in securing and safeguarding their place.

[00:03:53]When you post somebody from the northeast to Enugu state, it will take him some years to get acclimatized or to know the area very well.

[00:04:05]But if you bring somebody from my village who possesses the qualifications and the the knowledge, you bring him to the system and you post him in the area.

[00:04:17]It will It take time. You will immediately get into the job and you will do very well.

[00:04:22]So, for me, it's the right step in the right direction. I also congratulate the leadership of the house and members of 10th House of Representatives for this courage. For the first time, we are seeing this level of unanimous support for this bill.

[00:04:38]Uh 290 and you have about 289 or maybe Yeah, 289 members voting in support. It tells you the level of importance and the level of agreement and the level of awareness that have gone into this campaign for state police. And I I thank God I will actualize it finally today.

[00:04:59]>> According to him, the passage of the bill showed that the lawmaker are finally taking bold decision needed to strengthen national security. He explained that the idea of state police will allow community to have active involvement in protecting their own areas instead of relying on only federal security agencies that may not fully understand the local terrain and challenges.

[00:05:30]>> There is nothing on earth that you can guarantee absolutely 100%.

[00:05:38]Even at times the food we eat, we will make a delicious meal and we'll venture into eating. In the course of it, you see one bone coming to strike you on the neck.

[00:05:51]If you have been told before that time that this will happen, would you have eaten? No.

[00:05:54]So, we must learn to eliminate our fears.

[00:05:58]The truth is that no doubt this that's is likely to happen.

[00:06:05]But I can tell you by the time the full texture of that law or that act comes to full, you will understand that these fears had been taken care of or will be taken care of. You see, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[00:06:25]There are there there will be, I can assure you, certain measures and safeguards in the act that will guard against excessive or arbitral use of that power by the governors or chief executives. And who are these governors, sir?

[00:06:45]You see, you might be talking about or thinking of the current occupant of those offices.

[00:06:50]They will come and go. Some of us who are here may find ourselves in there.

[00:06:56]It what it means is that we don't even trust ourselves because we don't know who will be the next governors of various states.

[00:07:04]The problem is not about governor, it's about we Nigerians.

[00:07:09]Because we man those offices.

[00:07:12]If these people crying foul would discipline ourselves and say, "Okay, if we find ourselves in this position, we will not use these powers arbitrarily."

[00:07:25]Then that fear will be eliminated. But I know we are human, certain things of that nature at times may occur, but the law will go a long way to address those issues. It has been one of the most expressed fear in the course of this campaign.

[00:07:45]But I can assure you that the law will take care of it.

[00:07:49]Remember that the law alone cannot do everything 100%.

[00:07:54]The people that the law regulates also have a role to play.

[00:08:01]We need to look at our orientation.

[00:08:04]Look at our value system.

[00:08:08]If we get it right, the laws will be rightly applied. But if the orientation and the value system are not correct, because the enforcement of these laws will be done by human beings.

[00:08:21]And they are bound to, you know, have some element of human aspect in it. So, I think we should uh try to live above the fear.

[00:08:34]Let's test run it and see how we come out of it. But I can tell that law to the best of my ability.

[00:08:44]Let me not give it 99%. Let me give you 98% sure that Nigerians will be happy at the end of the day.

[00:08:53]I I I I think I I beg to differ.

[00:08:57]It depends on the people that are expressing that view.

[00:09:02]I think Nigerians have seen and have witnessed the true dividends of democracy as far as this regime is concerned. You see, Rome was never built in a day.

[00:09:15]United States of America that we often quote had their own difficult and trial times.

[00:09:21]Yes, Nigeria, a third Republican country, is also passing through its own time.

[00:09:30]And I believe that the government, this particular government, had been intentional about uh taking measures to cushion some of the challenges we are facing in the country.

[00:09:44]If you look very well, you will see major infrastructure development going on across the country from the coastal highway to different uh major important roads in different uh geographical color parts of this country.

[00:10:07]I come from the southeast.

[00:10:10]And I should speak from where I'm coming from.

[00:10:14]If you go to southeast, today we are very happy with this government.

[00:10:20]No government provides 100% at once.

[00:10:24]This government will do, another government will come and continue.

[00:10:27]Government is continuing.

[00:10:30]If the previous government had done up to the percentage the government is doing in southeast, I don't think anybody would be complaining.

[00:10:41]Go to the southeast. Go and watch, as we speak, go and watch Enugu on the express road continuously being constructed. The work is ongoing.

[00:10:54]It has never stopped.

[00:10:56]In fact, one of the lane is almost completed. The second is ongoing. Go to Enugu-Port Harcourt.

[00:11:04]These are major corridors, major highways. Go to Enugu-Port Harcourt express road.

[00:11:11]It is going on. These are roads that were almost moribund for the past 16 years.

[00:11:20]Do you understand me?

[00:11:21]The light started coming when Buhari came on, but nothing much was done.

[00:11:26]It was this government that took it upon themselves. Look, go to Abakaliki. The road that connect our bone state to Calabar, it is also ongoing.

[00:11:38]We've been agitating for South East Development Commission.

[00:11:43]It started from the I think it is eight assembly.

[00:11:47]It never saw the light of the day.

[00:11:49]And for the first time we had it. Not only having it, you saw the last South East Summit that was held where a lot of policies were articulated. So, government must take it gradual, one after the other.

[00:12:05]It can't come once. You see, there's no way this government will provide within three years. We are The government is marking its three years or marked its three years on 29th of May.

[00:12:17]There's no way it could have provided everything within three years.

[00:12:21]I agree with you that there's hardship.

[00:12:24]There is.

[00:12:26]But that hardship cannot be solved in three years.

[00:12:29]What we should be looking at is are there strong measures this government is putting in place to address some of these challenges. You can see the issue of insecurity. All of us are Even me, I'm crying about insecurity.

[00:12:47]Government tried tried tried and see that the only In fact, one of the best solutions is to have this state police. And today, the house they considered the did everything today, passed it. Everything was done today.

[00:13:03]And let's see where this takes us to.

[00:13:06]So, as far as I'm concerned, much as I I agree that most things need to be done or most things need to be done, but so far, this government is trying.

[00:13:19]I appeal to Nigerian masses to exercise more patience with this government.

[00:13:26]Let's Even if you bring anybody, no matter how sent or thing the person is, you can't do this magic overnight too.

[00:13:37]We must learn to you know, give this uh benefit of doubt to our leaders and watch them.

[00:13:47]At the end of the administration, you'll be able to assess holistically what the government has done.

[00:13:53]You see? So, please, I appeal to Nigerians to exercise patience.

[00:13:59]Watch the policies this government has uh taken and embarked upon and let's see the result.

[00:14:07]If you take drastic decisions, the result most of the times are not immediate.

[00:14:13]It takes time for those things to begin to take shape and begin to affect the people.

[00:14:19]You can't We really The first subsidy was removed.

[00:14:24]It was removed.

[00:14:27]The savings from the first subsidy greater part of it goes to the state governors and local governments.

[00:14:36]Nigerians should learn to hold accountable the right people.

[00:14:43]Everything that happens, you look at President Tinubu, National Assembly.

[00:14:49]What we have is power to make laws and to oversight too.

[00:14:55]Remember, we we we don't execute these policies.

[00:15:01]These funds have been made available to the executives, majorly the governors and the local government chairmen.

[00:15:11]It is the duty of Nigerians to question the effective usage of these savings.

[00:15:22]Look at the governors, ask them.

[00:15:25]You were receiving one naira before, now you are collecting four naira.

[00:15:30]Have you done things to justify the increment of four, the three naira you had additional?

[00:15:38]But nobody will talk about governors.

[00:15:40]Any little thing that happen, bam, president, national assembly, rubber stamp.

[00:15:47]You don't achieve efficiency and result by fighting.

[00:15:54]If what people sees as effective um legislative house is when we begin to fight with the executive, then that we're not getting it correct.

[00:16:07]If we see policies that the executive have come up with and we feel that is of beneficial is of benefit to the Nigerian populace, and we go ahead and give a nod to it, it doesn't make us rubber stamp.

[00:16:23]Rather, we are doing our own part of the job to make sure that there is a cordial relationship between the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary.

[00:16:34]So, I implore you, even the media people have a role to play. You know, when people came here I said, "The fear of media in Nigeria is the beginning of wisdom."

[00:16:45]Any politician that wants to survive in this country must learn how to There is nothing on earth that you can guarantee absolutely 100%.

[00:16:59]Even at times the food we eat, we'll make a delicious meal, and we'll venture into eating. In the course of it, you'll see one bone coming to strike you on the neck.

[00:17:11]If you had been told before that time that this will happen, would you have eaten? No. So, we must learn to eliminate our fears.

[00:17:18]The truth is that no doubt this that's is likely to happen.

[00:17:25]But, I can tell you by the time the full textual of that law or that act comes to full you'll understand that these fears had been taken care of or will be taken care of. You see, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[00:17:45]There are there there will be, I can assure you, certain measures and safeguards in the act that will guard against excessive or arbitrary use of that power by the governors or chief executives. And who are these governors, sir?

[00:18:05]You see, you might be talking about or thinking of the current occupant of those offices. They will come and go.

[00:18:12]Some of us who are here may find ourselves in there.

[00:18:16]What it means is that we don't even trust ourselves because we don't know who will be the next governors of various states.

[00:18:24]The problem is not about governors, it's about we Nigerians.

[00:18:29]Because we man those offices.

[00:18:32]If these people cry foul, we'll discipline ourselves and say, "Okay, if we find ourselves in this position, we will not use these powers arbitrarily."

[00:18:45]Then that fear will be eliminated. But, I know we are human, certain things of that nature at times may occur, but the law will go a long way to address >> Omehia added that the bill still require constitutional amendment, senator approval, and presidential assent before it become law.

[00:19:09]He expressed the optimism that once fully implemented state police will work alongside existing security first to improve response time, reduce attack, and bring policing close closer to the people. Christopher Messey, DaisyTV News.