By Deborah Hassan
365Daily – Ex-Deputy Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Hon Afam Victor Ogene, has said strengthening Local Government administration to enable it perform optimally would curb rising insecurity in Nigeria.
He stated this when he appeared on AIT’s Inside The Parliament Programme on Tuesday.
The former Lawmaker said there is a nexus between a functional Local Government administration and effective security in the communities that will aid in identifying and addressing criminal incursions.
While commending the Southwest and Northeast Assemblies for supporting Local Government Autonomy and State Police, he added that devolving governance back to the people and proper funding of local governments will help to check incursion of the insurgents.
He said: “They must let our local governments work. How? The Supreme Court just last week made a declaration that Caretaker Committees are wrong, so they must muster the political will, along with the Executive, to make the local government work.
”They are also talking of State Police. I know the National Assembly in the past has done their bits and the state assemblies did not go that route. But on Saturday, the Southwest state assemblies Speakers and Majority Leaders met and voted for local autonomy and state police, same as Northeast. That is the way to go in the entire country.
”If they all do this and devolve governance back to the people who own the original sovereignty and with their power of the purse and put money into those things, that would help it check the incursion of the insurgents,” he stated.
Hon. Ogene also stressed that empowering soldiers on the frontline, alongside youth empowerment through productive engagement will also go a long way in addressing insurgency and criminal activities in the country.
While calling on the National Assembly to actively work towards providing a safe environment in the country, he said: ”I am from Anambra State, I belong to a group, the APC patriots but we are still afraid whether the election would hold on November 6th.
”Our purpose in the APC patriot is to engender a safe environment for election to hold even as private individuals. So I think the National Assembly instead of waiting to engrave their names in infamy must rise up to the occasion. They still have two years to do that.”