Kayode Fayemi, governor of Ekiti, says the police get more
funding from states than from the federal government.
The governor said this on Thursday, while commenting on
security vote at a panel discussion organised by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum
(NGF) in partnership with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).
Security vote is a monthly allocation given to state
governments for improved security.
Fayemi, who is also the chairman of the NGF, said aside from
the police, other security agencies also get support from governors.
“Some states have
something called security vote. It is not all states. Security vote has a
history and I will urge you to look for a book by chief Jerome Udoji — ‘[Under]
Three Masters’, that’s what the book is called. You will find in that book the
origins of security vote in Nigeria,” he said.
“I also get feedback from other states in my capacity as
chairman of the governors’ forum. There is hardly any of these institutions
that you are talking about that we don’t fund. We fund the police — we fund the
police more than the federal government. Quote me.
“State governors fund police more than the federal government.
We buy them vehicles; we pay them allowances. In some cases, we even buy
ammunition; of course, under the authority.
“In 36 states in this
country today, the military is involved in internal security operations, which
really is a problem, because for me it’s a role inflation.
“Now, when you inflate the role of the security institution
beyond its primary responsibility, you also have consequences that will come
with that. That may not be palatable, but that’s where we are, because most
Nigerians don’t trust the police.
“But if you engage the military in a civil authority, your
state is only responsible to pay for the rations of the men that are engaged in
that activity. It is not expected to have the military also share that burden because
that’s not their primary responsibility. You’ve taken them out of their primary
responsibility; you have to pay for it.
“So, we pay for that. We pay for civil defence. There is no
security institution that you have that states are not responsible for more
than the federal government that has primary responsibility for them.”
The governor, who also spoke on local government autonomy,
saying the third tier of the government is the business of the state.
The local government autonomy, he added, is a “populist
demand”.
Fayemi also said elections at the local government level
should be conducted by the state electoral body and not the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC).
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