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Recently, there has been a lot of hue and cry about the Nigerian Peace Corps Establishment Bill. The bill, which intends to establish another security agency, to be known as the Nigerian Peace Corps was passed by the National Assembly and sent to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent last December.
However, the President in a recent letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara said he would not assent to the bill, because of security and financial concerns.
According to President Buhari, “Specifically, reasons for the decision to decline assent to this bill include among others: “ Security concerns regarding the proposed Nigerian Peace Corps being authorized to undertake activities currently being performed by extant security and law enforcement agencies; and Financial implications of funding the establishment and operations of the proposed Nigerian Peace Corps, given the scarce financial resources may pose serious challenges to the government.”
Since the President communicated his decision on the bill to the National Assembly, there have been a hullabaloo about the bill, culminating in the decision of the National Assembly to override the President on the bill. Already, the process of overriding the President ‘veto on the Peace Corps bill has commenced in the House of Representatives.
Owing to the kind of interest the bill has generated within the National Assembly, one is forced to ask what is special about the Peace Corps bill? One wonders why the parliament is so much interested in this particular bill. Or is there more to the bill than meets the eye. This is because apart from the recent amendment to the 2010 Electoral law, no other bill in the National Assembly has generated the kind of interest like that of the Peace Corps Bill.
The proponents of the bill in both chambers of the National Assembly have argued that the establishment of the Nigerian Peace Corps will enhance security in the country and help in curbing youth unemployment.
Canvassing support for the bill on the floor of the Senate recently, Senator Dino Maleye has this to say: “ the same thing happened when the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) was to be established; there was also the same complaint that there was no money and all of that. “But today we can see the advantages of the civil defence and how they have helped in safeguarding the government infrastructure. About $5.5 billion was borrowed from euro bond; what part of it will the youth of this country benefit from. About one billion dollars is to be spent on security and how does this affect the youth of this country.
“If the Peace Corps is given an opportunity to exist, thousands will be employed and this will help to fight unemployment in this country.”
As persuasive as the argument by the proponents of the bill may be, they completely missed the point. The argument that the Peace Corps, when established will enhance and help in employment generation for the youth is neither here nor there.
I totally agree with President Buhari on the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill. The bill is completely unnecessary. It was even a grave error that it was passed into law in the first instance. However, that is not to say there is no need to create job opportunities for the army of unemployed youths in the country. But the truth is that security agencies are not set up because you want to create jobs for unemployed youths. A serious issue like security should not be used as a job creation tool. When you establish a security agency because you want to give employment to unemployed youths, you invariably end up compounding the problem you are seeking to address. Security is too serious an issue to be used for employment generation.
During the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the government probably as part of efforts to tackle unemployment, embarked on massive recruitment into the police force.
In the course of the exercise, all sorts of characters were admitted into the force. The end result was that some of those recruited because of their antecedents became security threats to the society. It is not in doubt that we are confronted with serious security challenges. Unarguably, there is an urgent need to take serious measures to improve the security situation in the country.
Regardless, the establishment of the Peace Corps as our lawmakers are canvassing is not the solution. I strongly believe that the solution to our security challenges does not lie in the multiplicity of security agencies. If there is a nexus between the number of security agencies in a country and how secured the country is, then Nigeria should probably not have a problem with insecurity. After all, apart from the armed forces, we have the police, the Department of State Security(DSS), the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps(NSCDC), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) etc, yet all sorts of crimes are on the rise daily.
I share the sentiment of the lawmakers on the need to enhance security at every nook and cranny in the country, particularly at the grassroots. But even at that, methinks the establishment of the Nigerian Peace Corps is not the solution and can never be the solution to our security malady.
It is not in doubt that the police force, which is saddled with the duty of ensuring the security of the country has not lived up to expectations. But the question is why has the police failed so abysmally in the discharge of their constitutional responsibilities? Why is it that when our policemen go on peace keeping missions outside the country, they do very well, but when they are in the country, most of them become huge disappointments? The answer to these questions, in my view, is key to getting the police to be alive to its constitutional responsibilities.
If we do not address the issues militating against the police, as the main security agency saddled with the responsibility of maintaining law and order in our country, we will keep establishing security agencies in a bid to improve security, all to no avail.
Therefore, instead of obstinately pushing for the establishment of the Nigerian Peace Corps, our lawmakers in their quest to enhance the security of lives and property in the country should come up with new legal framework that will enhance the capacity of the police and other security agencies.
The country stands to benefit more if the human and material resources that would be deployed in the establishment of the Nigerian Peace Corps is channelled to existing security agencies.
It would also not be out of place for the parliament to take a second look at the NSCDC Act, with a view to amending it, so that the corps can be saddled with the task of complementing the police in providing security at the grassroots, especially in the area of the much talked about community policing.
