Stakeholders Charge Federal Govt, States On Grassroots Accountability, Community Policing

Stakeholders have called for urgent reforms to strengthen local government accountability, rebuild public trust and adopt community policing as a sustainable response to insecurity.

This was stated at the 2026 Nigeria Grassroots Governance Summit and Awards (NIGGSA) held in Lagos, with the theme ‘Community Policing, Building Trust at the Grassroots and Bridging the Gap Between Local Governments and Traditional Institutions’.

The convener of NIGGSA and executive director of Hope for the Masses Foundation, Oluwatomisin Adebukola, said the summit was designed to confront democratic attrition, which she described as the slow erosion of accountability, transparency, and public participation at the grassroots.

Adebukola said that despite constitutional mandates on primary education, healthcare, security, and rural development, local government remains Nigeria’s least accountable tier, not merely due to a lack of capacity but also to a lack of political will.

She said the focus is on community policing, financial autonomy and bridging local governments with traditional institutions, noting that insecurity is the clearest evidence of governance failure at the grassroots.

She cited the 15 May 2026 abduction in Oriire, Oyo State, where teacher Michael Oyedokun was beheaded after 56 days in captivity, and the abduction of 42 schoolchildren in Askira-Uba, Borno State, the same day, as examples of communities without internet, functional policing and basic governance.

In his paper titled ‘Building Trust Between Government and the People’, Senator Gbenga Daniel, former Governor of Ogun State and Senator representing Ogun East, said trust is the foundation of good governance, accountability its currency, and service its ultimate test.

Daniel, represented by former commissioner for Special Duty, Alogun Onadipe, said democracy goes beyond elections, noting that while elections confer legitimacy, performance sustains it.

He said that when citizens’ expectations for security, infrastructure, education, and healthcare are met, confidence grows, but when promises are abandoned, trust diminishes, weakening tax compliance, investment, and civic participation.

The former governor urged transparency as an operating principle, with understandable budgets, credible procurement and measurable outcomes, stressing that accountability must include consequences for corruption.

He added that technology should drive responsive governance, not merely digitise inefficiency, and that development must be inclusive and assessed by the value it creates for citizens.

Also, retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG Adeleye Oyebade, said security is not merely the absence of threats but the presence of trust, cooperation and collective responsibility.

Oyebade said top-down approaches that deploy personnel after crimes have failed to prevent damage, calling for a shift to community policing built on partnership, trust and shared problem-solving, not as a replacement for professional policing but as a complement.

To rebuild trust, Oyebade proposed a four-point plan: ward security committees, regulated community watch groups, anti-cultism programmes for schools and youths, and confidential reporting with regular police-community reviews.