2013: Why insecurity may persist —Fakeye

UNLESS the existing police structure in Nigeria is decentralised, the prevailing insecurity of life and property could subsist in the New Year, a leading cleric, Prophet (Dr) Olubunmi Fakeye, has said.
In his New Year message to the nation on Monday, a copy of which was made available to the Nigerian Tribune, the General Leader of Cherubim and Seraphim (C&S) Movement, said major stakeholders should agree to a four-tier police system, to stem insecurity in the land.
Describing the current policing system as extremely weak, he noted that the Nigeria Police had been incapacitated by incompetence and graft, with the consequence of making the force an extremely weak arm among law enforcement agiencies.
“I have in the years past called for a four-tier police system: federal, state, local and community police. Until we do this, the security of lives and properties will continue to be in jeopardy in the country,” he said.
Lamenting over the despicable state of the national economy, he said it required more proactive measures that could accelerate the process of diversification and dependence on oil as the main source of foreign revenue.
“The simple way out of the looming crisis is to refocus our economy into the area of production, manufacturing and processing.
“We have all it takes to be the highest producer of both food and cash crops in Africa, if only we can return to the pre-Independence days of the nation, when agriculture was the mainstay of the economy,” he stated.
On the energy sector, he expressed concern over the hardship occasioned by the current fuel scarcity in the country, as he also criticised the dirty politics involved in the ongoing efforts to reform the oil industry.
He advocated the fixing of local refineries so that they could produce at full capacity.
While blaming youth unemployment and pervert values by parents for the upsurge in violent crimes in the country, the cleric called for a general moral re-awakening among all stakeholders in the Nigerian nation.