There Won’t Be Peace Without State Police – Akintoye
A former lecturer at the University of South Florida, Montgomery County Community College, USA, Prof. Adebanji Akintoye, has called for state policing system, saying crises in the country will continue without state police.
Speaking at a discourse commemorating 70th anniversary of Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, Prof. Akintoye said the country needed a radical approach to make it work again.
The programme, held at the institution’s Trenchard Hall, had the theme: “The Nigerian Project and Nationhood.”The professor pointed out that centralised police system is inadequate to take care of the country’s security, hence the need for decentralisation.
He also canvassed restructuring, saying: “Restructuring is the way to go. Let us return to the way each region was developing in those days. We have to change, if the country is to move forward. Each unit of the country has to develop in its own way and pace. Let’s restructure.”
Prof. Akintoye, a Senator on the platform of Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), said the country had potentials for greatness, but has unfortunately become rubbles, saying: “We refuse to know our country. Nigeria is not a nation. We are a country of many nations or nationalities. We refused to accept the reality of our existence.”
A former Head of Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan and former consultant for Nigeria Defence Academy, Prof. O.B.C. Nwolise described the country as a forced amalgamation, which marked the beginning of the nation’s problem.
He lamented that Nigerian leaders have refused to build a federation, but use religion to divide the country, noting that those benefitting from the skewed federation don’t want restructuring.
“The country has no vision, no strategy, no blueprint. Even the Constitution has no vision,” he said. As way out, Nwolise said the country needed visionary leadership, fiscal federalism and resource control, state police, nation-building policies and national economic integrated policies.
Social critic, Odia Ofeimun said solutions to Nigeria’s problems could be found in Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s writings.
Former Secretary to Niger State Government, Prof. Mohammed Yahaya said Nigeria must take advantage of its demographic advantage, by learning from countries that have made good use of their huge populations.
