Chief Owolabi Salis, is an Attorney at Law, a politician and certified public accountant, who is committed to building a united and enduring society. He contested for the governorship of Lagos thrice and has since been involved in humanitarian services. He spoke with SEYE OLUMIDE, Southwest Bureau Chief, on the agitations for the creation of State Police in the country and other issues. Excerpts:
Do you subscribe to the idea that state police will solve the security challenges in Nigeria?
Those days, there used to be native police and others that made the society a safer place. I remember when we were growing up in the 60s and 70s; we could walk from Lagos to Ikorodu and also move around at any time of the day without fear of anything. But that is not possible again today.
In the 70s, you could travel at any time of the day because the policing system then was closer to the people. The closer the police are to the people the better.
For instance, I lived in New York, and the United States has what we called the grassroots policing. I made these proposals when I contested for the governorship of Lagos State, which I named grassroots governance. I campaigned based on this in 2007 and also in 2011.
The greatest thing I emphasised in the proposal for grassroots governance is that there is a circle of relationship in every grassroots. The more the circle gets widened the more the relationship gets loosened up. For example, some people can stay in my area and testify to knowing me or one another. We all can identify one another and the relationship begins to expand. In such a circle of relationship, there must be a government monitoring whatever is going on there and that’s what we mean by community policing. But this is missing in Nigeria, even if it is not a state police.
Former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode did something when he was in office; he established the Neighbourhood Watch. Before he established it, there was serious crime in Lagos but it reduced drastically after it was established. This is an indication of what a grassroots or a state police can achieve.
Is there any correlation between state police and grassroots governance?
What I am saying in a grassroots governance is that in that circle of relationship, the government should be the one to coordinate the people and the stakeholders and make them part of governance. In other words, the government should empower the people, give them something to do and know how to fix the neighbourhood in collaboration with the local government. I sent the idea to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in which I suggested a kind of grassroots governance, whereby the Presidency relates directly to the people at the grassroots, particularly at the ward level. You can imagine the kind of money that was reportedly mismanaged by the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu; if N2 million or N4 million of such cash went to every ward, it would have made a significant impact.
For instance, we have about 7,000 wards across Nigeria. If N1 million goes round the wards, it would be about N7 billion, which is not too much for the Federal Government. If that is given to every ward weekly or in a month, it is not too much. Imagine what that would solve because the community members know one another and they can identify who is who among themselves. They know the ones that need help. Do you know how many people are dying as a result of the present economic hardship?
I have had the opportunity to assist many people financially in Nigeria even right from where I am in New York. The situation is costing me a lot of money even though I am not in government.
In America, state police are crucial and their effects percolate down to the grassroots. The police are the ones that enforce the laws. They give them the opportunity to enforce the laws but under the supervision of the District Attorney. They also parade the neighbourhood and in addition to that, there are also people who are working for the FBI. The FBI is doing its own, the local police are also doing their own and the state police are also doing their own.
There are also a lot of people on the streets but you won’t know who they are. Some of them will wear the character of criminals but will not commit crime. They are just on the streets to collect information.
Have you made any attempt to communicate your thoughts to the incumbent administration about the grassroots governance approach?
I met the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu in Qatar during President Tinubu’s visit to the country but I couldn’t get to see Mr. President to discuss some of these ideas and observations with him.
The painful thing is that the people around the President most often make him a kind of zombie. They will only allow him to see or reason along the line of what they want. This is because there is a lot of pressure on the President.
One of the concerns about state police is that some people, governors particularly, can turn it into a tool for oppression?
There is no problem without a solution. The fear that those governors can misuse state police for selfish and political purposes could be addressed. We can find a solution to this in the Constitution. Another fear that people would use it for ethnic agenda can also be addressed. These are the things I wanted to share with Mr. President but unfortunately I couldn’t see him.
For instance, a solution to the fear of using state police for ethnic agenda is that the governor may not be made responsible for the appointment of the head of state police. We can say whosoever is going to head the state police has to contest or whoever is to head the state police department has to be appointed by the President or many designs could be put in place to address this.
The issue is that state police have to be independent of the federal police because the present federal policing system has failed. We can have a state police board that must have representatives across the zones in the country. What I mean is that for every state police board, the nomination into it must come from all the geopolitical zones in the country.
No police patrol should be on the streets without a representative of officers across the zone. What I mean is that a state police does not mean all the officers must be indigenes of that particular state. And whenever they are going out for a routine patrol, all officers across the geopolitical zones must be represented in the team otherwise the patrol is void and illegal, except for serious emergency situations. We need to make a kind of design that would take power away from those who are likely going to use the state police for selfish and political interests.
As soon as we have patrols going on, the daily crime rate will reduce and of course there will be more than enough officers available for the job.
What are the real factors aggravating crimes in Nigeria today?
Most of the crimes in the country today are poverty induced. Eighty-five per cent of the crimes in Nigeria are caused by poverty and they will be very difficult to control in the sense that the government itself has failed the people. I mean all the three levels of government have failed Nigerians. That’s why I said for crime to reduce, there must be grassroots governance. If President Tinubu can do it, I can offer to help without collecting a kobo. If the effect of governance is reaching the grassroots people there will be lesser crime.
There are three major problems, which if effectively addressed at the grassroots, will reduce crime. They are hunger, medical and housing. I won’t lay much emphasis on housing because our weather in Nigeria is good. Many people can sleep under the bridge or in an uncompleted building but in the Western world, you dare not try it else you get frozen under the cold atmosphere.
The purpose of every government is to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor in basic human needs. If you bridge the gap between the rich and poor in basic needs, crime rate will subside automatically. Rich people hardly commit violent crimes but the poor are vulnerable to do that due to poverty. Imagine someone waking up in the morning without food and no hope of getting any to eat. If the hunger persists, the victim will think of crime. The government must design programmes that will tackle hunger and take it away. Food must be made the cheapest thing in the country.
A lot of people are dying in Nigeria because they cannot afford simple medicals. Is it someone who couldn’t feed himself that will now afford a good medical care? Most importantly, the cost of drugs is totally out of what the masses can afford these days.
If we form the people into organised groups at the grassroots, government’s palliatives that were wasted will get across to them. Imagine if someone could misappropriate billions of money meant to reach out to the grassroots people and the news are all over the place; what would the less privileged do?
Look, I experimented this during my campaigns in Lagos, and I was named ‘Oba awon mekunu’ meaning ‘the king of the poor’. The slogan became so popular then that it enabled us to reach out to a lot of people at the grassroots and it was very effective. We had our support base at the grassroots, which cut across party sentiments. Poverty does not discriminate between political parties.
All these Boko Haram and terrorism challenges are because of poverty; I mean abject one because the rich could easily recruit these younger ones, give them peanuts and lure them into crime. In 2007, the Lagos State Police Command gave me an award for peace. As a politician I don’t believe in using younger people for violence. These same youths can be tutored and organised at the grassroots governance to the benefit of the country and to themselves. But when we miss it at the grassroots level, there is nothing we can do but to expect dangerous crimes as we are witnessing now.
Do you know that with less than N2 million some people can use it to recruit youths to start committing crime. As a matter of fact we do listen to crime stories where people caught with fresh human heads or body parts said they did that for as little as N10,000 to N20,000 reward. Those who engage in baby factory crime, how much do they sell those innocent babies to their clients? If these people have something legitimate to do there will be less crime.
If we also organise good primary health care at the grassroots that will also stop crime. About 80 per cent of the crime within our society will stop. What does it cost our governments to do massive investment in low cost housing and meet the basic needs of the people at the grassroots? It is just corruption. Let me tell you, the kind of crime corruption is fuelling in Nigeria is unprecedented. Do you think the stories about several cases of corruption are just going unnoticed without having a psychological impact on the people at the grassroots? The answer is no. The consequences are the series of crimes we witness on a daily basis.
The western world gave support for the grassroots people with the aim to bridge the gap between the rich and poor. The three basic things – food, health and shelter – are never a challenge in those societies. We also need to revamp our education system at the grassroots.
