By Polycarp Onwubiko
The Daily Sun news in the November 22, 2023 edition, captioned "Ohaneze, Afenifere, Middle Belt Forum Press for State Police," was 'laughable' (for want of any other adjective to qualify the age-long agitation by well-meaning Nigerians). This is in view of the fact that the time-honored, feverish, and nationwide clarion call for proper security arrangements in a heterogeneous society like Nigeria (as seen in sane and sanitized federations worldwide) has been discarded in the Aso Rock since the return of civilian administrations.
There is a saying that
"repeating a passionate appeal for something (or doing something wrong
often and hoping to be taken as rightful) which has always been snubbed or
rejected by the 'powers that be' and repeating it with the hope that the
entrenched conscienceless 'power' will see reason to accept it is a form or
variant of insanity."
Concerning the nationwide
clarion calls for State Police, variously called "multi-level
policing" and "decentralized security architecture," as seen in
federations worldwide and even practiced in the First Republic in Nigeria under
the realistic principles of the federal system of government in the 1960
Independence constitution, the "powers that be" (the purported owners
of Nigeria), referenced in the Daily Sun news, taunted the Ohaneze Ndigbo,
Afenifere, and Middle Belt Forum. They reminded them that the contraption
called the 1999 Constitution, supposedly under amendments ostensibly to suit
the unitary mindset of the 'powers that be,' cannot allow state police unless
it is amended.
Of course, they know that if
such a bill goes to the National Assembly, it will be dumped, as was done
during the gimmicks of the committee on amendments of the constitution by the
past National Assembly. The National Assembly was deliberately populated by
northern Muslims. The Legislature was lopsided in favor of the North, courtesy
of the creation of surplus local government councils in the North by the
military regime. In line with the deliberate plan, local government councils
were used to create Federal Constituencies with the deliberate objective that
when the civilian administration comes, the north will always have more members
and more votes during debates in the National Assembly at the expense and
detriment of the southern members in the Legislature.
In a pure mockery of the
repeated calls for multi-level policing by Ohaneze Ndigbo, Afenifere, and
Middle Belt Forum (an integral part of restructuring the lopsided federation
for equity, fairness, and proper sharing of national wealth), the brain trust
of the "Northern Political Emirates Establishment," the Arewa
Consultative Forum (ACF), said: "...unless and until a lacuna in the
current Constitution of the Federal Government is addressed, the clamor for
state and local government police cannot be realized."
Certainly, there is no way the
National Assembly, deliberately lopsided in favor of the Northern Muslims (the
supposed Core North), can support the creation of multi-level policing because
it will disrupt their Islamization agenda. Southerners MUST note that the ONLY
reason the 'core north' vehemently kicked against restructuring the lopsided
federation with decentralized security architecture as an integral part is that
the state governments in the southern part of the country and the middle belt
states will enact laws banning open grazing and compel cattle owners to
purchase lands and establish RANCHES, as obtained in civilized countries
worldwide.
Of course, the "Northern
Political Emirates Establishment," otherwise referred to as
"Caliphate Colonialists and Cabalist Hegemonists," wants the
centralized security architecture that enables their terrorists masquerading as
herdsmen, imported from the Sahel region of West Africa, to occupy all the
forests and jungles nationwide and, with AK-47 rifles, kill people who raise
alarms over the consumption of their farm produce. They don't want to hear
about ranches because it will disrupt their Islamization agenda.
So, it is laughable, if not foolhardy, for Ohaneze Ndigbo, Afenifere, and Middle Belt Forum to be REPEATING calls for State Police and then relax into their shells like tortoises and crabs. The only sensible thing is for the middle belt ethnic nationalities and Southern Kaduna, as well as the South East, South West, and South-South geopolitical zones, to stand their ground for the immediate restructuring of the lopsided federation to restore equity, fairness, and justice in the distribution of the nation's wealth.
A great legal luminary, Afemi
Babalola, SAN, and vice chancellor of Babalola University, in his column in
Vanguard, advised that the 2023 general elections should be postponed until the
lopsided federation is restructured, but the powers that be and the Emilokan
conclave shunned the timely advice. What has happened now? Nigeria has become a
mockery of democracy in the eyes of the international community.
There is nothing to move the
country out of the rot until the lopsided federation is restructured to
reinvent the inexorable principles of the federal system of government as
practiced in the First Republic. Let the Southerners continue groping in the
dark, hoping that the entrenched conscienceless transactional political hawks
will one day realize that the centralized security architecture has ruined the
economy and thrown the country into a tailspin from which it may never recover.
Polycarp Onwubiko, public
policy analyst.
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