Next in line: #EndBicameralLegislature

By Carl Umegboro

KUDOS to Nigerian youths and masses for speaking out and standing against the oppression and intimidation of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force attached to the Criminal Investigations Department.

President Muhammadu Buhari deserves encomium for listening to the voices of the masses as a sensitive and proficient leader. Giving ears and listening to the governed is an essential attribute of leadership which the President has displayed.

However, it must also be noted that a total and critical reforms of the Police is inevitable towards addressing their inefficiencies and excesses right from the grassroots. Interestingly, President Buhari has assured that disbanding the SARS is merely a first step that a holistic reform is on the way. If this is done, Buhari will score a good point knowing that Police renders an essential service to the nation.

For instance, without adequate funding of the Police, changing the unit from SARS to conventional Police or whatever nomenclature may not bring any meaningful difference or dividends the masses target to see.

To call a spade a spade, Police whether SARS or ordinary Police provide for daily runnings in their various divisions. This is a blunder and must be addressed.

Maintenances at Police stations, vehicles and many other necessaries are provided from bribes and inducements from Police officers on duty posts, and locations determine amounts to submit to superiors. Then, some to secure their duty posts if ‘highly profitable’ to avoid transfer by superiors.

Suffice to say that many official tasks are being done with funds generated from bribery, inducements, and all manner of corrupt practices at the detriment of the voiceless masses. This therefore suggests that police brutality and excesses may never end without dealing with the matter from the source. This must be done to address Police excesses and improve the operations of the Force.

Now, the danger of out-rightly banning SARS is that the ‘bad-boys’ will jubilate as SARS was the only name that rings bells to their ears. If care is not taken, crime rate may rise beyond expectation any moment from now.

To reform Police adequately, it has financial implications. To fund the Police and its stations across the nation demands that funds must be created. And one of ways to create the needed funds is to block the leakages in the country. One major leakage in the country is the National Assembly that is running a Bicameral legislature for a developing nation that still struggles to put basic infrastructures in place.

The Senate which is the upper chamber performs exactly same tasks as the lower chamber; House of the Representatives, and needs to be critically looked at particularly as the nation is facing Covid-19 lockdown resultant effects like many other counties around the world.

Besides, all the states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) run a mono legislature; that is only one arm unlike the National Assembly.

Those thirty-six (36) states in Nigeria that run a Unicameral legislature; that is single legislative chamber are operating without hitches, and therefore, there is no sensible justification for federal government to continue with Bicameral legislature when the tasks can be performed by one arm. No doubt, the nationalists borrowed it from developed nations with good intentions, but at the moment, it is not practicable but counterproductive. Maybe, in future, it may be considered.

If we critically think about the volume of funds required to maintain and run the two chambers that perform similar tasks, the results will show that the country is wearing oversized shoes imitating developed nations like USA, United Kingdom etc. We must not copy those developed nations in everything. Let’s look at the size of our treasury first.

During the tenure of Babatunde Fashola (SAN) as Governor of Lagos, the government created a Security Trust Fund and many can attest that with the funding, the Police performed above average in their tasks of protecting lives and property of citizens. So, adequate funding is fundamental.

It’s when the necessary things are put in place that we can actually know those that are bad eggs in the Force. But as they are always given targets on providing funds from their duty posts for administrative tasks by superiors, it may be difficult to fish out the bad eggs in the Force.

Umegboro is a public affairs analyst and Associate, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (United Kingdom)

Published By: Admin

Hon. CARL UMEGBORO is a legal practitioner (Barrister & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and human rights activist. As an advocate of conflict resolution through ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution), he has acquired intensive training and has been inducted into The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (United Kingdom) as an Associate. He is a prolific writer and public affairs analyst. Prior to his call to Bar as a lawyer, he has been a veteran journalist and columnist in all national newspapers, and has over 250 published articles in various newspapers to his credit. Barrister Umegboro is also a regular guest-analyst to many TV and radio programme on crucial national issues. He can be reached through: (+234) 08023184542, (+234) 08173184542 OR Email: umegborocarl@gmail.com

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