This being so, it is most strange that at its most recent monthly meeting, late April, the National Economic Council (NEC) failed to, as a matter of top priority, discuss and propose ideas on the urgent matter of state police to solve the widespread insecurity in the country. The NEC reportedly concerned itself with and approved such proposals as the creation of a Cotton, Textile, and Garment Development Board, national and regional offices for the Green Imperative Project, and strategies to expand agribusiness and livestock management that is projected to generate up to $90 billion in economic value by (a distant) 2035.
  
Pray, here and now in 2025, how much economic activity can be carried out under the present unsafe conditions to assure that 2035 is realisable? A man who refuses to put his horse before his cart lives in self-deceit; he certainly won’t move an inch, not to talk of going far. Having said this, it is arguable that another statutory body is supposed to be even more concerned about solutions to terrorism in the country.
 
The National Security Council, chaired by the President, has constitutional power to advise the President on matters relating to public security, including matters relating to any organisation or agency established by law for ensuring the security of the Federation. As a matter of urgency, this body needs to bring up the absolute, incontestable necessity to localise policing in this federation. 
 
There is a broad consensus among reasonable people since the All Progressives Congress (APC) party was formed. Its first manifesto in 2015 committed to ‘Begin widespread consultations to amend the Constitution to enable States and Local Governments to employ State and Community Police to address the peculiar needs of each community. This would mean setting boundaries for Federal, State and Community Police through new Criminal Justice legislation to replace the Criminal Code, the Penal Code and the Police Act.’ 
  
In response to vociferous demand across a wide spectrum of society, the party, under the government of President Buhari, subsequently set up a committee under Nasir el-Rufai that affirmed its commitment to devolve policing to subnational government units. The present APC government of Tinubu has committed itself in its Action Plan for a Better Nigeria, personally signed by him, to ‘work in close collaboration with State Governments and the National Assembly, to enact measures necessary to secure and protect communities from criminal violence, particularly kidnapping and terrorism’.

Tinubu said in the document that his strategy ‘may require the establishment of more formal, locally-based law enforcement institutions’. He even promised to ‘revitalise Ranger or Forest Guard Force’ to keep terrorists and other heinous criminals out of the forests. Two years in the saddle, so far, so few of these critical security measures are in place. Put differently, 10 years later, two APC governments have, regrettably, not got a handle on how to make Nigeria safe and prosperous under their watch.
 
NSA Ribadu said that at the behest of a ‘very worried and concerned’ President, security agencies will work with the state governors, local governments and communities. Pray, did it require the President to tell professionals who manage the country’s security system to do this?
 
Ribadu notes, correctly, that “the issue of insecurity often is not just at the higher levels. It involves the subunits. They are the ones who are directly with the people, especially when some of the challenges border on community problems, adding “we need to work with the communities. We need to work with the local governments, and we need to work with the governors”. It is one mark of a failing state that the government is unable to fulfil its primary duty to the governed.
 
Beyond the endless, tiresome talk by people charged to keep the people and the polity safe, it is time to get the job done. Citizens are, understandably, losing their patience with much talk and little action. In response to the ‘unconscionable acts of brutality’ in the North Central zone, hundreds of people in black, red and white dresses, under the aegis of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), are reported to have taken their protest directly to the governor of Plateau State. That Nigerians are constrained to begin with a protest, albeit peaceful, is a wake-up call to the government to live up to its duty. This peaceful act of ‘self-help’ may be less peaceful to another group.
 
The Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly, through its chairman, Hon. Adebo Ogundoyin, is reported to ask all levels of government to get actively involved in securing their areas of jurisdiction, including the enactment and enforcement of laws that promote community policing and other grassroots-oriented security strategies. Now that everyone, including – and it is gratifying to note – the state legislatures, is on the same page as regards devolution of policing to the lower tiers of government, the only reasonable step to take is that a bill from an appropriate source be submitted to the National Assembly to amend the Constitution accordingly. Indeed, in line with the longstanding commitment of the APC to this, now is the time to walk the talk. Without much ado, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should submit an executive bill to this noble end.
 
All said and done, however, The Guardian maintains without reservation that true federalism remains the answer to many of the problems that afflict Nigeria.
Concluded.