Insecurity: Buhari Should Cut Political Office Holders’ Pay To Fund Security – Prof Akinseye-George
By Eric Ikhilae, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to urgently consider cutting the huge pay being enjoyed by political office holders across the country to effectively fund various security agencies in the face of heightening insecurity in the country.
In addition, President Buhari is also advised to direct the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to promptly activate the provisions of the Police Act 2020 on Community Policing to ensure the involvement of the civil populace in the efforts to arrest the increasing tide of insecurity.
Law Professor and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Yemi Akinseye-George made these suggestions while speaking in Abuja at a “workshop to review and validate the Explanatory Notes on the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015,” held by the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS), with support from the MacArthur Foundation.
Akinseye-George, who is the President of CSCL, identified various ways the government could address insecurity and called for massive recruitment of Nigerians into the various security agencies to enable the military focus on its core roles, adding that a national security trust fund was necessary as ready source of funding for the newly recruited.
He said: “The allowances of all political office holders should be reviewed urgently such that the political class should be made to contribute part of their huge allowances towards bailing out and revamping the security sector. The Federal and State governments must be made to account for the deployment of Security Votes. Such votes should be partly devoted to funding the Special Security Trust Fund.”
He added that community policing would ensure that the presence of the government is felt in all nooks and crannies of the country, because “farmers, traders, genuine herders and other innocent persons, who are engaged in productive activities must be protected by the government.”
Akinseye-George, who also advocated the setting up of “a proactive presidential steering committee on security” to coordinate the various initiatives of the Federal Government to address insecurity, in the mold of the presidential committee on coronavirus pandemic.
– The Nation
