PLATEAU: WHY SOME GOVERNORS SHOULD REFUND THEIR SECURITY VOTES.(PHOTO).

Plateau: Why some governors should refund their security votes

By Yemi Oke

By way of introductory background, my personal opinion is that it is illogical to deploy a normal solution to solving an abnormal development. This typifies the recent Plateau killings as well as other criminalities happening in some states in Nigeria.

The most barbaric killing (put frankly, insane murder) of hundreds of Nigerians in Plateau State, or any murder of innocent souls whatsoever anywhere in the country, is a sign of mis-governance, poor/weak leadership or no leadership at all. In a federated political setting like Nigeria, even in a unitary or regional government, a protracted murdering of defenceless persons that lasted from 6pm till around 5am of the next day shows a failure of government in that state. 

We need to urgently begin to re-assess some basic facts and realities as a country:  

The Plateau killing is a clear sign that, as some of us had earlier argued elsewhere, some of the federating states in Nigeria are not viable financially, strategically, functionally, politically, socially, security-wise and from whichever angle you tend to assess them. 

Based on the above, a radical approach by way of constitutional amendment to make for voluntary mergers and de-mergers of some states in Nigeria will create for better efficiency in governance and prudent management of scarce resources. I know this might not be popular because of the needlessly entrenched interest of egotistic political players who prefer to adorn the toga of “His Excellency” or “Senator” or “Honourable” of some bankrupt and unviable federating states.

Assuming voluntary mergers or de-mergers of states proves difficult (though not impossible), failure of security at the level of the states should not be attributable to the federal government but to the chief security officers of the states – the governors.

Constitutionally and legally, protection of lives and properties are the primary bases or reasons for government. Thus, save for war or threat to national peace or security of the federation (defence), state governors should be held responsible for a breach of the peace in their domain. Some of the crisis leading to such killings might not be unconnected with their political imprudence and related factors. Knowing that they’re to be held responsible would make them sit-tight and act fast.

The plausible but lame arguments of some stakeholders have always been that state governors don’t control the police and the armed forces or other law enforcement mechanisms. If this misplaced viewpoint is acceptable, then there should be no basis for the huge or humongous “security votes” of the state governors. The “questionable security votes” are allocated and disbursed to stem the tides of insecurity in their respective domains. It then becomes an unjustifiable spending or allocation if security breaches occur. 

The flip side of the issue is that security votes should be refunded by governors of states where senseless killings are subsequently recorded. Continual allocation and disbursement of “security votes” to governors of such states might be counter-productive. Quite frankly, it might un-intentionally incentivise criminalities unless dire consequences follow breaches, being the essence of such allocation of security votes. Some have even alleged (wrongly or justifiably) that some of those political gladiators “deploy” their security or constituency votes to instigate violent political, religious and/or communal rivalries leading to such senseless killings.

The political architecture of Nigeria suffers extreme deformity, as formed or structured. There is no point pretending otherwise, as it is apparent even to the “blind”. The Plateau incident has made this more apparent. The killing lasted 13 hours across two Local Government Councils in Plateau State. This teaches some bitter lessons in governance and strategies. 

The Plateau incident is a clear sign of failure of leadership and governance at the level of Plateau State and its Local Government Councils. It means the governor couldn’t call the Commissioner of Police and local government chairmen? It means the Area Commanders and the Divisional Police Officers were not available to be reached by the councillors to alert their communities or vigilantes or volunteer forces or team-up to counter the murderers for 13 hours while the senseless murdering of persons lasted?

Federation or federating arrangement comes at a cost. This is one of the costs of an over-bloated federation that concentrates excessive powers at the centres. Certainly, that cannot be attributed to President Bola Tinubu. At least, it is on record that as governor he resisted and fought a tough battle (and won) for the survival of Local Government Councils in Lagos State. Most states “killed” and subjugated Local Government Councils/administration and rendered them impotent to be able to pull any strings to ward-off the kind of murder or criminality that took place in Plateau State. To undo the ills of the current arrangement is left to the National Assembly.

Have we learnt anything as a nation? The time seems right to begin to assume, deploy or play with “unthinkable” solutions. For example:-

Only a truly efficient Local Government administration as guaranteed by the state government (as provided by the constitution) would stem the tides of the kind of murderous criminalities that took place in two of the Plateau State Local Government Councils that are remotely located away from the metropolitan centres (in the rural areas/communities).

State governors should protect their communities and local government areas in cases of basic criminalities, aside from insurgency or threat to national security or sovereignty, without having to wait for the federal government.

Where killing occurs at the level of a state in the way or manner described above (safe for national security or defence issue) the governor of the state should be held responsible and be made to refund or account for every iota of “security votes” allocated to his office.

Options should be provided in the Nigerian constitution for states that are not viable or solvent enough to discharge the primary function of governance (protection of lives and properties) owing to paucity of funds or for other logistical reasons to enter into talks with viable ones for merger or de-merge as the need arises. There is no point playing politics with the obvious insolvency of some States in Nigeria where security, salary, pension, gratuity and other legitimate expectations are dashed on account of “operational insolvency”.

Nigeria’s challenges transcend conventional thinking. All is certainly not well with our country. But, a shining light is already beaming at the end of the tunnel only if we deploy “extraordinary” solutions to our “extra-normal” challenges as a country.

The time to start is NOW. This giant called Nigeria must rise and never made to fall again.

• Prof. Oke, PhD, FCTI, FCIArb writes from University of Lagos