Chief Owolabi Salis, is an Attorney at Law, a politician and certified public accountant, who is committed to building a united and enduring society. He contested for the governorship of Lagos thrice and has since been involved in humanitarian services. He spoke with SEYE OLUMIDE, Southwest Bureau Chief, on the agitations for the creation of State Police in the country and other issues. Excerpts:Those days, there used to be native police and others that made the society a safer place. I remember when we were growing up in the 60s and 70s; we could walk from Lagos to Ikorodu and also move around at any time of the day without fear of anything. But that is not possible again today. What I am saying in a grassroots governance is that in that circle of relationship, the government should be the one to coordinate the people and the stakeholders and make them part of governance. In other words, the government should empower the people, give them something to do and know how to fix the neighbourhood in collaboration with the local government. I sent the idea to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in which I suggested a kind of grassroots governance, whereby the Presidency relates directly to the people at the grassroots, particularly at the ward level. You can imagine the kind of money that was reportedly mismanaged by the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu; if N2 million or N4 million of such cash went to every ward, it would have made a significant impact.
I have had the opportunity to assist many people financially in Nigeria even right from where I am in New York. The situation is costing me a lot of money even though I am not in government. I met the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu in Qatar during President Tinubu’s visit to the country but I couldn’t get to see Mr. President to discuss some of these ideas and observations with him.There is no problem without a solution. The fear that those governors can misuse state police for selfish and political purposes could be addressed. We can find a solution to this in the Constitution. Another fear that people would use it for ethnic agenda can also be addressed. These are the things I wanted to share with Mr. President but unfortunately I couldn’t see him.
For instance, a solution to the fear of using state police for ethnic agenda is that the governor may not be made responsible for the appointment of the head of state police. We can say whosoever is going to head the state police has to contest or whoever is to head the state police department has to be appointed by the President or many designs could be put in place to address this.Most of the crimes in the country today are poverty induced. Eighty-five per cent of the crimes in Nigeria are caused by poverty and they will be very difficult to control in the sense that the government itself has failed the people. I mean all the three levels of government have failed Nigerians. That’s why I said for crime to reduce, there must be grassroots governance. If President Tinubu can do it, I can offer to help without collecting a kobo. If the effect of governance is reaching the grassroots people there will be lesser crime.
There are three major problems, which if effectively addressed at the grassroots, will reduce crime. They are hunger, medical and housing. I won’t lay much emphasis on housing because our weather in Nigeria is good. Many people can sleep under the bridge or in an uncompleted building but in the Western world, you dare not try it else you get frozen under the cold atmosphere.
A lot of people are dying in Nigeria because they cannot afford simple medicals. Is it someone who couldn’t feed himself that will now afford a good medical care? Most importantly, the cost of drugs is totally out of what the masses can afford these days.
If we form the people into organised groups at the grassroots, government’s palliatives that were wasted will get across to them. Imagine if someone could misappropriate billions of money meant to reach out to the grassroots people and the news are all over the place; what would the less privileged do? Look, I experimented this during my campaigns in Lagos, and I was named ‘Oba awon mekunu’ meaning ‘the king of the poor’. The slogan became so popular then that it enabled us to reach out to a lot of people at the grassroots and it was very effective. We had our support base at the grassroots, which cut across party sentiments. Poverty does not discriminate between political parties.
All these Boko Haram and terrorism challenges are because of poverty; I mean abject one because the rich could easily recruit these younger ones, give them peanuts and lure them into crime. In 2007, the Lagos State Police Command gave me an award for peace. As a politician I don’t believe in using younger people for violence. These same youths can be tutored and organised at the grassroots governance to the benefit of the country and to themselves. But when we miss it at the grassroots level, there is nothing we can do but to expect dangerous crimes as we are witnessing now.
Do you know that with less than N2 million some people can use it to recruit youths to start committing crime. As a matter of fact we do listen to crime stories where people caught with fresh human heads or body parts said they did that for as little as N10,000 to N20,000 reward. Those who engage in baby factory crime, how much do they sell those innocent babies to their clients? If these people have something legitimate to do there will be less crime.
The western world gave support for the grassroots people with the aim to bridge the gap between the rich and poor. The three basic things – food, health and shelter – are never a challenge in those societies. We also need to revamp our education system at the grassroots.
Source: