N560bn for police budget, a mirage, says Arthur-Worrey

Juliana Francis

A former Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, Mr Fola Arthur-Worrey, has declared that the very idea of expecting federal government to allocate N560billion annually as police budget was a mirage.

Arthur-Worrey spoke during a stakeholders’ roundtable on Police Budget, organised by the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) and the Nigerian Policing Programme (NPP).

While presenting a paper on “NPF Financing and Resource Allocation,” at Ikeja, Arthur-Worrey said that the country should begin to tinker with the idea of sources funding for police from other sources other than government.

Arthur-Worrey, while reeling out other sources of funding for the police, also mentioned that government should begin to look at cutting costs on several areas and saving.

He also suggested that policemen travelling for trainings, which gulps so much, should be checked, rather, the foreigners should be brought to Nigeria.

He argued that it was only when police and government cut down on unnecessary agencies and spending and save that money that many issues concerning the police would begin to work out positively.

While stating that there were too many agencies in Nigeria duplicating police work, Arthur-Worrey suggested that such agencies should be scrapped.

He opined that Nigerians should also begin to hold their leaders, accountable for spending too much on themselves.

He said: “The national assembly votes for itself than the police, yet Nigerians are not holding them accountable, something is wrong. Let’s not deceive ourselves, there’s no way anyone is going to allow such estimated billions for police.”

According to him, many nations are jettisoning crude oil, now seeking alternative fuelling system; this he said would impact negatively on the Nigerian economy. He further said that with time, no country would reckon with crude oil. This means that there wouldn’t be any money coming in from oil.

His words: “Many countries are depending on electrification to power almost everything, including cars. When this happens, Nigerians would no longer make money from oil. Where then is police funding going to come from? First principle of funding police is that we should not rely on other people’s money. We need to start looking at the structure of the police and other agencies should not replicate police work. We can also fund the police through lottery. There should be review of sharing national revenue to address security. If the police funds are well managed, it will affect the economy.”

Arthur-Worrey and stakeholders in the security sector also urged the governments and the police authorities to seek for the input of different police commands, units and departments before preparing the force annual budget.