Landmark moment for national security architecture

Last week on this page, we noted that Karl Marx taught us that events in the life of society do repeat themselves. This fact may not be the unique thing about the rich lesson he left behind but the addendum he added: “History would first repeat as tragedy and thereafter as farce.”

In spite of the abundance of experiences documented by history, this country relapsed into civil war. What began as small pockets of isolated security breaches soon graduated into huge security concerns and later a general climate of instability.

Records suggest we lost nearly three million innocent citizens to the senseless war of attrition. In the end we came back talking about peace, forgiveness, patriotism, reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction. These are virtues we ought to have held very high from the word go. It could be true we may not have had the benefit of experience but the lessons of history were available and handy. The thing was that political leaders chose to play their game and not the will. It turned into a very costly mistake or gamble.

The effects have not left us more than 60 years after that debacle. Truth be told, we have continued along the path that led us to disastrous consequences. History is clear that the unitary system isn’t good for a very plural setting. This is the verdict of history going by various past developments around the world. We note it but insist we must do things in a contrary fashion. It is not working. The sense of buy-in has remained elusive. Absence of bonding has shown itself in lack of political direction, each successive administration has run the country with the mindset of the region of the leader. This has widened polarization. It has resulted in stunted economic growth. Of course things would go awry and it has really gone down. It has provoked insecurity and instability on a very high scale. Life has become so cheap in our country. It has reached the point where a very top personality in the leadership of the country could be shot and killed in the street and the incident would look “normal” such that only a few would spare time to want to know what happened and the whole thing will end there. Normal activities would keep running. This is the point we have gotten to and it is very unfortunate to say the least.

   The truth we must keep telling ourselves at this point is the fact that contrary to the wish of the majority that this country should remain one united entity if not for any other reason but for the interest and salvation of the black race, insecurity is gradually doing exactly what we feared. We are gradually sliding into a failed state, we are not yet there but the journey is on. What we can do to halt and reverse the downward movement has been on the lips of everyone and one solution has been to rejig the national security architecture, to allow the country to have in place different layers of security arrangement. Even in the best of a nation’s life, security of lives and property is enhanced by creative legal means by which the government puts more guns in the hands of citizens.

Just last week the President sent a bill to the National Assembly for the amendment of the constitution to allow states to establish their police forces. The Senate and House of Representatives have passed the bill; what is remaining is a conference meeting of a committee of both chambers before the proposal is transmitted to state assemblies and finally to the President for his assent, to make the bill become law.

On this matter we have gone past whether it is desirable. What is before us now is how to make it work and serve the best of national interest. Many have dwelt on fear but fear shouldn’t drive national development. It is wrong to run away from solving problems because a solution may throw up new challenges. What others have done is attempt solutions, make rules to check predictable fallouts and then use the instrument deterrence and law to nip unseen throw up. This is how nations solve problems. They don’t run away. Multilayer security is what is naturally suitable for a country like ours, this is a key lesson of history.

   The fear about Governors is real but it is unsolvable. The law prescribes federal intervention if things begin to get out of hand. The order side to this would be for the President to get the Governors,sit them down and talk sense into their skulls. He sought their understanding before the bill was rolled out. It is equally important that he sits down again to also talk and appeal to them. After all these governors are Nigerians.

  What should bother us would be issues like standards, making the unit a priority, ensuring the recruits would be well trained and checks put in place to keep corruption at bay. These should be the focus and not whether it would work or not.

  For many in the country the development is a landmark moment for national security architecture. State police is an idea whose time came along with independence. This is the Plain Truth!