Curtailing Challenges of Security In FCT
Security as one of the major concerns of humanity, whether at the individual, community, state or national level has always been a challenge that faces governments all over the world. Its importance is emphasized in the constitutions of countries all over the world and Nigeria is not an exception.
The importance of security is amplified vividly under section 14b of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended, and provides inter alia that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary responsibility and purpose of government. Also section 24 of the same constitution provides that it shall also be the duty of citizens to render assistance to appropriate law enforcements agencies in the maintenance of law and order.
When we juxtaposed the provisions outlined by the constitution above, we can see that the management and control of crime is a collective responsibility of both the government and its citizenry. The government has a responsibility in protecting the lives and property of its people and it can do this by workable and practical policies carefully conceptualized and propagated to achieve these objectives. It therefore behoves the FCT administration to develop the policies for the FCT which the people must key into and make the city safe and habitable. The funding and implementations of these critical policies must be taken into account because they will require agencies, men and material that will carry out the objectives.
It is a fact that the jurisprudential value of law is predicated on its enforcement, hence Thomas Hobbes asserted that without the enforcement of the law so enacted, society will collapse. The FCT is supposed to be an epicentre for what is obtainable in our country. It is a vivid reflection of what our overall society looks like. The laws of our country should always be implemented without fear or favour. Security is the responsibility of all. We can never claim to have achieved as a government or community if any part of our society is threatened.
Measures identified to solve security problems differ from country to country, but government at all levels in our country must first acknowledge that constitutionally and morally, its first responsibility is the security and welfare of its people. I must state here that the first measures needed to solve 50 per cent of our security problems is the welfare of the people. When the people see that its government is working and seems to be working for its overall interests and welfare, the people shall obey the laws of the country and also see that just as the governments has a responsibility, the led also equally has responsibility in achieving the goal of securing the society.
A careful study and research on graffiti crimes such as burglary and drug-related prevalent in our society today shows the crimes are behavioural related, caused by poverty and deprivations. Governments are hereby advised to incentivise and subsidize education in low income communities and to invest more in the skills development sector of education. The FCT administration must create and formulate laws quickly that will reform our criminal justice system for better results. Today’s prisons administration all over the world is not punitive-based but reformatory.
A situation where our prisons churn out hardened criminals into the society after the expiration of their incarceration is a dangerous security problem for the society. Governments at all level in the FCT must continue to finance the police force for the effective policing of the territory. The police have an indispensable role to play in the realization of the security dream of residents. The government should fund the logistic needs of the police.