Osifo charged the government to come up with some solutions to tackle the menaces, and wondered why the federal government has not thought of so many innovative solutions.
By Eberechi Obinagwam
Following the high rate of insecurity in the country, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has urged the federal government to stand up and live up to its responsibilities in securing the lives and property of its citizens.
The union who spoke through its new president, Festus Osifo during the week at a media parley with Labour Writers Association of Nigeria, LAWAN on the state of the nation noted that the key responsibility of the government is the protection of lives and the security of its people.
According to him, any government that fails in security must have failed in everything. He said: “If we do not live as humans we will not ply the roads. If we do not live as humans we can not go to hospitals nor can we go to schools. So the important function is the security of lives and property, but today as a country, we have failed in this.”
Continuing he said: “All indexes have shown that the level of kidnapping and banditry has increased tremendously. The death that we have recorded due to acts of terrorism and banditry has gone up as a country and this is something that for us we can no longer tolerate.”
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Osifo charged the government to come up with some solutions to tackle the menaces, and wondered why the federal government has not thought of so many innovative solutions.
His words “The government must come up with some solutions. Before now we have been doing something over and over again. We have been using the same method and the same way trying to solve the problem but it has not worked.”
“We are surprised that why as a government we have not thought of so many innovative solutions. They are solutions that are bound. Some countries in different worlds have faced similar challenges but they were able to solve them.
“Our government must be innovative in thinking. Our government must think outside the box to be able to resolve it. And some have said, why don’t we try community policing? Some have said why don’t we try state policing or decentralize the policing system we have today? From the unity system we operate when you send an officer from Kogi to Chibok, Borno state, the person will not be able to understand the community or sending an officer from Bauchi to Bayelsa and maybe the officer has not seen an ocean in his life so if you have people who have committed a crime and they are entering into the water waves, how do you expect this police officer to go with them or to go after them? It is a bit difficult. It is a bit hard.”
However, Osifo tasked the government to employ advanced technology such as the state of the Act Technology in our policing system to fight the menace, ” What the State of Act Technology means is that you can stay in the control room and monitor what happens across the length and breathe of the states or across the length and breathe of the local government.”
“We have not achieved tangible results with the way we are going about our policing system, it is time for us to be innovative and be strategic and imbibe technology if it is all that this government can achieve in the next one year is to revitalize our policing system and to improve our security it will be a very great achievement,” he added.
Also, on the issue of ASUU, he asked the federal government to borrow money and settle them if that is what will cost us to get them back to the classrooms.
Talking about the proposed 19 trillion budget for 2023 by National Assembly for infrastructures, he said: “We have been borrowing money to solve some of our infrastructures but there is no infrastructure that we will build today that will be much more valuable than the human assets. If we borrow money from all parts of the world to fix our roads we are going to need human infrastructure we are going to need engineers from Nigerian Universities to maintain the roads. If we borrow money from the whole world to build hospitals, we are going to need Graduates from Nigerian universities to work in those hospitals. We need them as doctors, engineers, and in all areas. So, if it cost us to borrow let them do it.”
“The issue of ASUU has been a worse strike too many and we have asked some questions in the past who do we blame, and who do we hold accountable? The ASUU that will sign an agreement with the government and wait for the government to implement it? Or the government that will remerge on any single agreement they go into? Today our children have been home for seven months now that is a complete session has gone and we don’t even know when it will be called off. All we keep hearing is blame games. The president should give a sufficient mandate to get the issue resolved as he gave responsibility to some people.” He added.
He urged the government to sit down and do some soul searching and evaluation to fund the education system because education according to him is the easiest way for us as a country to go out of the economic predicament.
“Evaluation is necessary and it is the key because there is no asset that is as important as our human resource. Lots of our graduates and doctors are going outside and traveling abroad our government must sit down with ASUU and resolve this issue. India is a growing concern because it invested in its education. India is the Hub of IT in the world and maybe second to the world. They have faculties and great institutions that are building software. You have youths in India that are multi-millionaires. That points to the fact that they gained sound education. So, the easiest way for Nigerians to even go out of this economic predicament is to fund our education system. Education funding is the key and necessary because it has the key to all other sectors. If we do not fund our education it is of our opinion that we are joking as a country, ” he urged.
