By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – Group under the auspices of “Campaign for Equity” has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to reconstitute the Police Trust Fund Board to reflect regional or geopolitical balance for national interest.
According to the group, as a country that is working hard to get a police force that works, we need the contributions of critical stakeholders to achieve that objective. We need to broaden the civic space to accommodate various shades of opinion. The present parochial arrangement which concentrates everything about the Nigeria Police on one zone of the country is retrogressive and inhibiting.
“The present parochial arrangement which concentrates everything about the Nigeria Police on one zone of the country is retrogressive and inhibiting. Nepotism or cronyism which the present arrangement promotes should be shunned and jettisoned, the group added.
The group which urged President Buhari not to inaugurate the board of the PTF in its present order, made the call in statement signed by its National Coordinator, Oliver Akosa made available to Sundiata Post.
The statement reads in part:
The “Campaign for Equity” is a group of patriotic Nigerians concerned with the enthronement of equity in the national scheme of things. We are driven by the fact that our country, Nigeria, has, over the years, been held down by inequity, injustice and nepotism.
Based on our guiding philosophy, we took more than a passing interest in the composition of the Board of Trustees of the Police Trust Fund recently announced by the Presidency. In the appointment under reference, former Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abbah, was announced as Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Fund, while Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto was pronounced the Executive Secretary.
Members included Representatives of three ministries, namely, Ministry of Police Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and Ministry of Justice.
The Nigeria Police Force, Civil Society Groups and Organised Labour were also represented on the board of the Fund.
While we applaud the President, Muhammadu Buhari, for taking steps to ensure that the Nigeria police force is well funded, well equipped and highly professional in line with international best practices, we note with disappointment that the composition of the Board of Trustees of the Fund is sectional, parochial and lopsided and does not therefore meet the basic requirements of federal character as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 ( as amended).
A cursory illustration will suffice. Suleiman Abbah, chairman of the board, is from Jigawa State in North West Nigeria. The Executive Secretary, Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, hails from Sokoto State in the same North West. It is clearly odd and obscene for a national agency which is supposed to reflect the country’s geopolitics, have its chairman and secretary coming from one zone of the country.
As if this is not embarrassing enough, two other members of the eight-man arrangement come from the same North West. Mansur Ahmed, the member representing Organised Labour and Usman Bilkisu, the member representing Ministry of Justice, are from Kano and Kebbi States respectively. To cap it all, the Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, is from Sokoto in the same North West.
From the foregoing, it can be safely concluded that the entire police apparatchik of the country is in the hands of the North West. This arrangement falls short of both regional and federal balance.
We believe that these salient facts may have escaped those who constituted the Board of Trustees of the PTF.