Press Releases

How To Achieve Effective Community Policing – Fashola

Mar 12, 2009 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Thursday declared that successful community policing can only be achieved with the recognition of the component interests of the federating units, especially the states.

Governor Fashola said at the Lagos House while receiving the Minister of Police Affairs, Senator Ibrahim Yakubu Lame who had earlier emphasized on the need for community policing in the country, that this could not be effective without giving due recognition to the Local Governments and especially the state governments as components of the Federation.

“If we want to do community policing, we must recognize the components’ interests of the local governments, and especially the states. We made representations to the Police Reform Committee and we suggested that the Federal Police can work successfully with the state controlled police and there will be no need to fear”, Governor Fashola said.

According to him, “The curriculum will still be the same. The training will be uniform. It gives us the opportunity to create jobs”, adding that the Central Police Command could not decide by rote that it has 5, 000 men and Lagos must take a certain number while other states must take so much.

”Lagos should be able to say, look how many graduates of Criminology are in this system, I want them in the Police and this is what I want to pay for my own State Police. That is Federalism”, the Governor said.

Governor Fashola, who said the State also proposed to the committee that there should still be a National Curriculum for the Police, spoke further on the workability of the State Police arrangement, “I recruit my people, send them to the Police Academy, you train them and send them back to me”. He pointed out that there are clear areas that could be demarcated to improve efficiency.

Governor Fashola also emphasized the need for improvement in the operation of the Police system in the country, regretting that after almost 50 years of independence, the country was still maintaining the legacy left by the colonialists in her police force.

“The truth is that we have not done anything with the Police in any significant manner from what the colonialists left for us”, the Governor lamented adding, “When you compare the Nigeria Police Force as a whole with the New York Police Department, you will realize that we have not started”.

The Governor pointed out that in order to keep up with the times in terms of security the nation must aspire to emulate the models that are successful globally, adding, “We must understand that we must not continue to run our police force with the legacy of the colonial police. We are still running police barracks and police stations built by colonialists. That means that we have added nothing since they left and it will be 50 years next year”.

Advancing reasons why the State Government took up the funding of the police in the State, Governor Fashola declared, “Security is my first priority in the State. It is only people who are alive, who are safe that can do business, that can trade and get jobs and use the roads. It is not negotiable”, adding, “if we think that resources for security is expensive, can the whole of our budget of N405 billion bring back one human life? That is the principle for our decision making.’

He further declared, “What we are witnessing today is a result of an experiment that was started on a clear understanding that we asked men to do certain things without giving them tools to do it. I believe that policing Nigeria will not be a problem if we do the right things”.

“We have resolved to be a Federation, and therefore, there are cascading rights and responsibilities. We could say the police are the responsibility of the Federal Government and so we cannot fund it. But we are funding the police at great cost to other things, because we realize that it is the foundation upon which we build other things”.

The Governor gave the assurance that the State Government would continue to commit resources to funding the police in the state but implored the Federal Government to look into the recommendations for providing for State Police, pointing out that it would boost the commitment of the states towards such project

Earlier in his remarks, the Minister told Governor Fashola that the purpose of his visit was to canvass for support for the funding of the reform of the Nigeria Police Force which according to him is estimated to cost about N2. 8 trillion.

According to the Minister, the Police Committee set up earlier by the President had come out with recommendations from which the Federal Government has chosen some, adding that his visit to states in the country was to drum up support from the states to help fund the recommendations

“We need intervention from the states to have the reform in place”, the Minister pleaded, adding that this would be needed for capacity building and improving the image of the police. When you solve this you have solved 40 to 50 per cent of our problems”, he said.

The Minister, who led a crop of top police officers, including the State AIG Zone 2, AIG M.D. Abubakar and the State Police Commissioner Mr. Marvel Akpoyibo, commended Governor Fashola for the good work he is doing on security, pointing out that of the 10 zones he has already visited in the country, Lagos was the best in terms of security and the most visionary.

Commending the vision behind the State’s Security Trust Fund, the Minister declared, “Every state should emulate Lagos State”, adding that the vision was in line with President Umar Musa Yar’Adua’s vision on security as the foundation and thrust of his Seven-Point Agenda.