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From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State has said that northern governors will soon meet to map out ways of ending the Almajiri system in Northern Nigeria. He described the Almajiris as the biggest feeder of insurgency and insurgent groups.
Mutfwang also said that the state will send a technical team to begin the conversation on installing surveillance cameras, adding that the state had already made some investments in that regard.
Speaking in Jos, Mutfwang said the Almajiri system, which is a practice in northern Nigeria where youths are put in care of Muslim clerics, had become an anathema and outdated and must be stopped.
His words: “After this, I am going to meet with my brother governors in the North to see how we can solve the problems of the Almajiris because these insurgent groups get a lot of feedstock from them. Indeed they are the biggest feeder of insurgency in the region.”
He said that the reason insecurity persists in the country is a situation where leaders speak differently without one voice.
“With the leaders coming together, collapsing our differences, I think the unity of the leaders is one of the most critical building blocks for the attainment of peace. When leaders speak from different sides of the mouth, when leaders speak in discordant tunes, it creates room for the enemy to come in and to be able to attack.”
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Mutfwang also gave tacit support to state police, saying that it would go a long way to solving the security problems in the country.
He said that he had always believed that the Nigerian police force, as it is presently constituted, is too large to be managed as one unit and therefore needed to be decentralized.
His words: “You know, I have been an unapologetic advocate of state police. It has more benefits than disadvantages. I’m glad the president has accepted it. The new Inspector General of Police has keyed in and they’ve submitted a memorandum to the National Assembly.
“I also set up an advisory committee. We are coming up with a report which will also complement whatever the IG has sent because I did think we need to have more robust conversations about the form, the structure, the financing, the staffing, and all the safeguards we need to put in place for possible abuses.
“But I’ve always believed that the Nigerian police force, as it’s presently constituted, is too large to be managed as one unit.
“We therefore need to decentralize it. And so I believe that creating state police will go a long way in achieving that aim. Are there fears? Are there concerns? Yes, I am aware of them. But I think those fears can be allayed. Those fears can be addressed. I don’t think we should fear moving forward and sticking to what is obviously not, being efficiently optimized, as it were.
“I have great respect for the past Inspector General of Police and many of the top police officers. They’ve done their bit. The current IGP, I’m sure, is going to do a lot. But I still believe that we need state police and it will help a lot.”
