Rep links clashes to ‘poor’ recruitment of security agents

The member representing Etsako Federal Constituency of Edo State in the House of Representatives, Johnson Oghuma, has blamed what it described as the “poor recruitment policy of security personnel” for the deadly clashes between farmers and herdsmen in parts of the federation. 

He told newsmen in Abuja that the citizens were being denied of effective protection because appointments into this key sector were being politicised.

He therefore backed the clamour for state police, adding that it was in line with the need to devolve more powers to the 36 state governments. 

Oghuma faulted the notion that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was not doing enough to curtail the murderous activities of herdsmen in the country. 

The All Progressives Congress (APC) claimed that those keen on “sabotaging the administration are partly responsible for the incessant herdsmen-farmers clashes.” 

He said: “I am not happy that they are killing our farmers, our people can no longer go to farms because of the fear of the unknown. I am not happy. 

“We need to tighten up our security system. We need to increase surveillance, intelligence gathering and in recruitment into security services, let us not quotarise it, let us not politicise it.

“ Normally when you want to identify people that can work in secret services, they are identified right from primary schools. It is not because somebody is unemployed. Not because SSS is recruiting, you push him into it, Army is recruiting, you push him into it, same applies to police and by the time they get there, you discover that they are doing business and not the business of the core calling of the security of the country. 

“You can’t do that in the U.S., you don’t do that in the UK and other countries. We must go for gifted people. Our major problem is this ethnicity, religion, quota and primordial sentiment. Even when it comes to academics it is the same thing. 

“You don’t drag people into schools to go and teach simply because they are unemployed. If we continue like that, we keep on producing mediocre and people that would not be able to stand the heat. This calls for a national concern. 

“So I am advising M. President to look into these things I have mentioned. There are certain sectors of the economy you don’t use quota for if we want to succeed as a nation. “