In the face of persisting insecurity in the country and rising cases of kidnapping, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FERMA), Gershon Bassey has said that the adoption of technology to fight these blight would go a long way.
Bassey said this while addressing reporters in Abuja, adding that developed countries tackled the issue of kidnapping with technology.
He asserted that the adoption of technology in some states in Nigeria and the drop in kidnapping cases was proof of the power of technology in the fight against kidnapping.
He said. “You don’t see or hear of kidnapping in many countries, why? It’s because of technology. Once you have the technology, kidnapping becomes extremely difficult.
“Why not acquire the technology to reduce kidnapping significantly. In Nigerian states, where technology has been introduced, kidnapping has been virtually eliminated like in my State , Cross River , same with other crimes.”
He called for the proper funding of the police force, stating that the country is “under-policed” is “far below the international standard” in terms of police-citizen ratio.
Bassey said that funding should not only be available to the police but to all security agencies.
“There is no doubt whether we have state, federal or local police, they must be properly funded. Nigeria is under-policed, we are far below the international standard when it comes to the ratio of police to citizens. We need to recruit more police.
“Second, we need to fund not just our police but our security agencies. Like some of my colleagues were saying on the floor of the Senate that we need to have an emergency in security, that emergency must include funding, like the federal government is doing for COVID-19.
“Let’s go to the fundamentals first. The ones we have, let it work. They other one, like state police, is a medium term issue. You cannot amend the constitution today, it takes process.
READ ALSO: Top 10 States Received N1.03 Trillion FAAC Allocation In 2020
“But in the meantime, Nigerians are having problem, so let address the problem now. If today we have an emergency in security, then we can quickly allocate fund, recruit the personnel and acquire the technology needed within few months.”
On Police Recruitment
He said that there were enough university graduates that are unemployed and would be fit for service in the police force.
The senator urged that there be a screening of “potential bad eggs” from the police force.
He said, “We have one of the highest graduate unemployment rates in the world. So finding graduate to recruit into the Police Force shouldn’t be a problem. We have enough ablebodied men and women who are ready to go into security agencies. We need them to secure the country.
“And if you say there may be bad eggs amongst them, even in journalism, there are bad eggs. What should be done is to find a way to screen out the potential bad eggs.”
READ ALSO: Atiku Condemns Arrest Of Lekki Protesters By Police
On Social Intervention Programmes
The senator said that he agreed with the government’s social intervention schemes because of the suffering of the masses and the shrinking economy in Nigeria.
He posited that the only way for a country to come out of a recession is to “inject more money into the economy”.
He said, “In theory, I totally agree with the social intervention programme, because our people are suffering and the economy is shrinking. In practical economics, one of the ways to come out of the recession is to inject more money into the economy and direct very fast ways of putting the money into the hands of the vulnerable people, so that they will have disposable income.
“The idea of the programme is something I agree with, but I’m not too conversant with the way it is being implemented .
“What I will advise is that those responsible for the programme implementation, should move with speed in disbursing funds to people. If they move fast, I think people will feel the impact”.
