PEACE CORPS AND STATE POLICE

Nothing kills the integrity of a sitting government faster than double-speak attitudes. Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo was cool about the idea of state police and a lot of people realised that the existing local vigilante corps and Peace Corps structures can be easily integrated into the mooted state police structure. Now, President Muhammadu Buhari has rubbished the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill, thus effectively killing a substrate for state police. This kind of double-speak means the All Progressives Congress government is not sincere about the inauguration of state police. Another double-speak format is observed when the Presidency and its cohorts hollered about “fighting corruption” in all entirety but a slip of tongue by one of those cohorts, the repugnant Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, indicates that this socalled “anti-corruption crusade” is targeted at those “who pay tithes,” that is, the Christians. If this APC government is serious about fixing Nigeria’s security problems, then the inauguration of state police is long overdue. If President Buhari says “paucity of funding” is reason why the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill cannot be signed into law, then federal funding for the Nigerian Peace Corps should be de-emphasised and Mr. Dickson “Asquandi” Akor should be elevated with immediate alacrity to the position of Hon. Inspector-General State Police/Peace Corps. First thing first: let this corps build the state police and then let the governors and other stakeholders worry about funding.

Sunday Adole Jonah,

Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State