Worried by the increasing rate of insecurity in the country, the Senate, on Tuesday thrown its weight behind the idea of community policing, which it promised to pursue vigorously.
In an address to welcome his colleagues back from the end of 2019 recess, President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, said the security chiefs, especially the police authorities will be invited to brief and update the upper legislative chamber on the progress made so far.
Lawan said that the security situation in the country had deteriorated and requires serious attention and due consideration by the Senate and indeed the National Assembly.
He said: “We need to secure the lives and property of our citizens, as enshrined in our constitution. We all are witnesses to how our economy is also affected by the inclement security situation. Therefore, we need to speedily seek for solutions to fix the security problem bedeviling our dear country.
“There is urgent need for paradigm shift and reform of the architecture and structure of our security systems. Equally important is the citizen participation, and collaboration in providing security. In this regard, the Senate will engage the Executive arm of government to discuss the implementation of the recently launched National Security Strategy (NSS) 2019.
“For a long time, major stakeholders in the security of our nation and police authorities appear to achieve consensus on the necessity of introduction of Community Policing in the country.
“The Senate is going to pursue the implementation of community policing vigorously. To this end, the police authorities will be invited to brief and update the Senate on the progress made so far.”
Shortly after their closed door meeting, the President of the Senate disclosed that aside security, other areas of focus of the Senate are, passage of PIB, electoral amendment act, power sector reform, solid mineral and agriculture sectors reform.
He said: “Our electoral processes and procedures need special attention in order to address the challenges we had observed in the 2019 general elections and the various re-run and bye-elections. It is a fact that free, fair and credible elections work as tonic to democracy, as voters will continue to have faith and trust in the efficacy of their votes.
On the PIB, Lawan said that the 9th will learn from the mistakes that mitigated against the successful passage of the bills, adding, “we need to break the jinx. We must avoid the pitfalls that worked against the passage of the previous bills.
On the power sector, the President of the Senate said, “it is an incontrovertible fact that, the power sector cannot function optimally and thrive under the current circumstances. The anticipated outcome of improvement in effectiveness and efficiency of the privatization process has not been achieved, and doesn’t look feasible. Therefore, we have to take all necessary steps to salvage this indispensable sector.
“The solid minerals sector was neglected after the discovery of oil. Though there have been attempts to revamp this sector, it is yet to make any meaningful contribution to our economy. Today, the solid minerals sector accounts for only about 0.3% of our Gross Domestic Product. It is obvious that we need to take a holistic look into the challenges in the sector.
“Let me remind us that agriculture played an important and leading role in our economy before the discovery of oil. Prior to the discovery of oil in Nigeria, agriculture was the mainstay of our economy. Agriculture was then the highest earner of foreign exchange for the country and Nigeria was also largely self-sufficient in food production.
“However, with the discovery of oil, the lure of petro-dollars turned the focus of the country from agriculture. Despite the present efforts of the Federal Government to enhance the performance of the agricultural sector, there is still much to be done to make the sector perform optimally. No doubt, the agricultural sector is critical for the diver.”
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