…Tasks presidency to open up on fuel subsidy monster

By Steve Oko

Former Senate President and the Chairman Board of Trustees (BoT) of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Adolphus Wabara, has backed the All Progressives Congress, APC-led Federal Government, on the move to establish State Police as panacea to the growing insecurity in the country.

A bill seeking to establish state police, Tuesday,  passed second reading at the House of Representatives.

The bill was sponsored by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon.  Benjamin Kalu, and 14 others.

It among others things, proposes to transfer the term “police” in the 1999 constitution from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list.

The draft bill, which comprises 18 clauses, further seeks to amend sections 34, 35, 39, 42, 84, 89, 129, 153, 197, 214, 215 and 216 of the constitution.

Recall that the federal government had last week, inaugurated a committee to explore the creation of state police as possible solution to the festering insecurity across the country.

Senator Wabara in an exclusive chat with Vanguard in Umuahia, noted that although he was initially opposed to the idea, the current security realities in the country had made state police inevitable.

The former number three citizen recalled his earlier interaction with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Governor of Lagos State when he (Tinubu) strongly advocated state police, saying he had expected him now as President, to have  vigorously pursued it as he did in fuel subsidy removal.

” When I was the Senate Committee Chairman on Police Affairs, I led the committee members to meet President Bola Tinubu, then as Governor of Lagos State. He was a strong advocate of state police. But I didn’t see any sense in it then, and I told him it would be abused by Governors.

” But that was my position until recently. Quite frankly, I have changed my mind. There is now urgent need for state police. I agree with Mr President that we need it now.

” In fact, I don’t even know why he has not made a pronouncement on it just as he did on fuel subsidy removal. The President as Lagos State Governor was very keen on state police then, and I expected him to pursue it with the same vigour he pursue subsidy removal”.

Senator Wabara, however, strongly advised that any state police that did not incorporate community policing would not produce the desired results.

” State Police will amount to waste of time if it is not combined with community policing because the community is the grass root”.

On the recent advice by the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, for the Federal Government to eschew pride and review the removal of fuel subsidy, Wabara said that Nigerians had been in the dark concerning the whole truth about fuel subsidy.

He, therefore, challenged the Presidency to come out clean and disclose to Nigerians all they need to know about subsidy.

” The truth is that Nigerians do not know all about this fuel subsidy thing. Until Nigerians know exactly what it is all about, and those who were collecting this subsidy, this confusion will continue.

“So, I will expect that Mr President should expatiate more on the  subsidy. Whatever made him to remove subsidy in his inaugural speech showed he knew so much about it.

” Therefore, he should share what he knows about fuel subsidy with Nigerians so he can be better advised. The whole thing is shady. The Presidency should come out and tell Nigerians the real truth. For now, nobody has the full knowledge of what the subsidy is all about”.