Policing in various communities is the way to erradicate security challenges.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made public the government’s new thinking on the security architecture of the country at a summit on national security organised by the Senate.
Osinbajo’s pronouncement on state police received spontaneous applause from participants at the summit, where Senate President Bukola Saraki said the government needed the political will to end the violence in the country.
Osinbajo said: “We cannot realistically police a country the size of Nigeria centrally from Abuja. State police and other community policing methods are clearly the way to go.”
He added: “The nature of our security challenges are complex and known. Securing Nigeria’s over 900,000sq km and its 180 million people requires far more men and material than we have at the moment.
“It also requires a continuous reengineering of our security architecture and strategy. This has to be a dynamic process.
“For a country of our size to meet the ‘one policeman to 400 persons’ prescribed by the United Nations would require triple our current police force; far more funding of the police force and far more funding of our military and other security agencies.”
