A former Benue State commissioner for Lands and Survey, John Tondu, has said only the 36 governors of the federation can address the worsening insecurity in the country by deliberately granting local autonomy as guaranteed by the constitution.
Tondu noted that while governors usually pass the bulk to the federal government because it controls security agencies and clamours for state police, if they decide that there should be no insecurity in the country, it will become a thing of the past.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja, he said, “ The governors are actually responsible for the insecurity that is happening in the country, and the reason is very simple: the third tier of government, which is the local government, is not working.
Tondu said while it is commendable that President Bola Tinubu, through the office of the attorney general of the federation, went to court to grant autonomy to the local government system, the governors still maintain a firm grip on the third tier of government.
He said the development has rendered the local government councils powerless, and they can not discharge the primary function of government, which is the security and welfare of the people, therefore encouraging insecurity.
“There is only one thing that keeps the 36 governors of this country together, and that thing is to ensure that the third tier of government doesn’t work. When it comes to that, all the 36 governors speak in one voice because they feel their interest is threatened if the third tier of government is allowed to function, which is the closest to the people.
“So, if today the 36 governors come together for the interests of the citizens of the country whom they were elected to serve, insecurity will end.
But as long as the third tier of government is not properly functioning, the insecurity, no matter what effort the security agencies will put in, will not be able to address this issue of insecurity because the third tier of government has collapsed because the governors have refused to allow the third tier of government to function. That is the main reason for the insecurity that we are having in this country today.
“If the third tier of government is allowed to function, insecurity in Nigeria will be reduced to 10% at the barest minimum. With the effort of the federal government, the state government, and the local government, it will eventually be reduced to zero.
“Without allowing the third tier of government to function, which is the local government, no matter what the federal government puts into addressing the insecurity in the country, it will never finish. It will only escalate because the third tier of government is not functioning.
“The way out is simple. The third tier of government must be allowed to function. If the third tier of government functions as it is guaranteed in the constitution, in the same way if the federal government has not allowed the state government to function, the federal government can take all the blame. However, the federal government has allowed the state government to function. What is stopping the state government from allowing the local government to function?
“So, the way out is that the third tier of government must be allowed to function. So, as Nigerians and citizens of this country, we must lend our voices loudly and clearly on why the third tier of government should be allowed to function,” Tondu said.
While insisting that the solution does not necessarily depend on state police, the former commissioner declared, “ No, the reason for the clamour of state police by the governors would just be to use it to haunt their political enemies because if you look at the posture of governors in this country today and you empower them to have state police, it therefore means that democracy itself will not exist in Nigeria as a country.
“So Nigeria as a country, we are not ripe for state police because the people whom we elect as our leaders, their temperament is not in the manner that you allow them to set up their independent police. It will just become a tool to haunt political enemies. It’s not going to be for the purpose of protecting the citizens of the state.”
Tondu who lamented the deteriorating security situation in Benue state, however said the fault is not entirely of the neighbouring Nasarawa State government.
“The government of Nasarawa State shared in the blame, but that is not completely the real situation that it is. Like I said earlier, if the thought of government being functional, be it in Nasarawa, be it in Benue, be it in Borno, be it in Kano, be it in Katsina, now the ones attacking other parts of the state that are not Benue, that other states in the country, where are they camping them?
“You see, the people blaming the government of Nasarawa State are just because when this attack happened, how the government of Nasarawa State reacted towards it, they don’t even show empathy. The lack of empathy is the reason why they are being blamed. But it is not that the Nasarawa state government is directly responsible for what is happening in Benue, because these are criminal elements.
“They come from different parts of the country. They come together to execute but if there is intelligent gathering and that intelligence is provided to the Nasarawa state government to know where these people have come to their state and they fail to act on it, they will share in the blame because they have that intelligence at their disposal and refuse to act or maybe share that similar intelligence with its neighboring state, which is Benue on how they can come together and overcome it collectively, leaving it all in the hands of Benue to see how they can address the challenge,” he added.
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