President Muhammadu Buhari has been advised to add more bite to the on-going war against corruption by ensuring that those who are found to have looted the nation’s treasury are given appropriate punishment without delay.
The national President, Oodua Peoples Congress,OPC, Aare Prince Osibote who made the remark, implored the President not to hesitate to step on toes if he wants the campaign against corruption to succeed. Osibote who succeeded the late Founder of OPC, Dr. Fredrick Faseun as the new OPC leader in this interview spoke on other national issues.
What’s the way out of the present state of insecurity across the country?
Insecurity has become a worrisome development. It has become a serious challenge that must be quickly tackled to prevent the situation from degenerating. Although government is trying but they still need to do more in order to give Nigerians the confidence that government is up to the task.It is unacceptable that bandits and kidnappers should be making life difficult for Nigerians.
But before we talk about finding solution to the problem, we first need to find out the causes of the problem. It is unfortunate that Nigeria is being turned into a jungle as a result of the insecurity challenge. But it is very important for us to find out why more Nigerians are taking to various sorts of crimes, especially kidnapping and banditry. It is when we do that, that we can now proffer solutions.
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Some Nigerians have suggested that the Federal Government should recruit more policemen as part of the solution to the insecurity challenge, what’s your take on that?
Recruitment is not enough. It is not the final solution. Again,the question we should ask ourselves is this, are the law enforcement agents being given enough motivation or being well renumerated? This is why you see some of the law enforcement agents resorting to extortion. So, what we have to do is to take a holistic approach in tackling the issue.
Another major issue which must be looked into is how to stop policemen from being drafted to do jobs other than which they were recruited, to protect lives and properties of citizens. But sadly today, policemen are being deployed to protect wealthy individual and politicians. Policemen are now being used as private guards to individuals. Some of them are even being used as gatemen in wealthy individuals’ homes and this is not supposed to be so.This illegal practice must stop to enable the Police face its primary duties of securing the society, and not private individuals.
Then, we have to look at how to make use of retired security personnel who are no longer in service. It takes millions of naira to train some of these people who retired as Commissioners of Police, Deputy Inspector-General of Police, and even those who retired as Army Generals. We can tap from their experience in finding solutions to some of these problems. Nothing stops the Federal Government from consulting these retired personnel; they were trained with public money. We must also realise that government is a continuum. What you discover here is that when a new government or new administration comes in at whatever level, instead of continuing and building on what it met on ground, it will start afresh and this is wrong. It is one of those things drawing us backward.We have to realize that continuity is crucial to the success or otherwise of any administration, especially if the policy met on ground is people-oriented.
South-West governors recently announced their intention to partner OPC in order to find a solution to the problem of kidnapping in the region,what’s the update on that arrangement?
It is true that the South-West governors made that declaration but up till now, they are yet to reach out to me. I have also asked the Inspector-General of Police and even the governors to clarify who they are reaching out to or relating with. We all know that late Dr. Fredrick Isiotan Faseun founded OPC and after his death, I succeeded him as the national leader. What I expect the governors to do is to reach out to us,to tell us how they want OPC to help in tackling the insecurity challenge.State governors and the Police should handle the arrangement carefully so as not to exclude original OPC members in whatever arrangement they are making. As the new national leader of OPC, I’m ready to work with the governors and the Police in finding lasting solution to problems of banditry and kidnapping in the South-West.
Everybody knows what OPC can do. OPC has zero tolerance for crime and we will not allow South-West to be turned into den of criminals or to serve as a base for vices inimical to the well-being of Yoruba people. We are peace-loving, and we welcome everybody with open arms but we will never allow criminals to make life difficult for our people.
Apart from using hi-tech to tackle crime, there are also traditional ways to address the issue. Our forefathers used the traditional methods and it worked for them.The efficacy of these traditional ways of tackling crime is 100 per cent guaranteed. So, a combination of hi-tech and traditional methods will help. We can combine the two.The upsurge in some of these crimes can be traced to hunger and poverty. The Federal Government and states should look for ways to address these problems. As the saying goes, an idle hand is the devil’s workshop.
However, like I said earlier, the South West governors including the Inspector-General of Police are yet to reach out to me but if they do, I will honour the invitation and that will provide an opportunity for me to tell them the truth. You can’t solve a problem without identifying the cause and when you identify the cause,you will be able to find the solution.
