Echezona Okafor 
A former chairman of the Police Service Commission, Chief Simon Okeke, has identified state police as an antidote to the unending insecurity that is ravaging many states of the federation. Chief Okeke disclosed that he had been an unrepentant advocate of state police before it gained prominence in the country. He also used the opportunity to recommend that eight ministerial slots should be allocated to the people of the South East.
Speaking further on state police, he stressed that it is the way to go if anybody wanted to be serious about the security challenges in the country. He added in an interview with Saturday Telegraph that the merits of state police are contained in his new book titled; “Policing The Nigeria Police,” which he recently presented in Lagos with a former Secretary-General of Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku as Chairman.
“If we are serious about security, then we should embrace state police as it is done in the United States of America, Germany and some other countries of the world, especially because our democracy is modeled after that of the United States of America. “The system is an antidote to security challenges where the states will be fully in charge.
I’m 100 percent in support of it, “the former police boss said. On appointing eight ministers from the South East, Chief Okeke stated that reshuffling the federal cabinet has become necessary, saying that this will create an opportunity for south easterners to have equal number of ministers with other geographical zones. He emphasised that Ohanaeze Ndigbo had earlier called for cabinet reshuffling, adding that he endorsed the position of the group on the issue.
Okeke however, said that despite the economic downturn in the country that has led to high cost of living, President Bola Tinubu is a courageous leader. He noted that President Tinubu is trying his best to fix the nation’s economy, saying that though the problems are enormous, he has seen a leader who is courageous, especially on the issue of state policing which he said Tinubu supported, when he was the PSC boss.
He stated that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Olayemi Cardoso, and the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mr Olawale Edun, have done their best to improve the nation’s economy. On the nation’s refineries, Chief Okeke said that the managers are not serious about making them work.
He described what is happening in the nation’s petroleum sector as conspiracy against the people and called for concerted efforts to remedy the situation. According to him, Nigerians are tired of failed promises about when the refineries would start working, saying that the refineries should be privatised for better efficiency.
Speaking more on the security challenges in the nation, especially in the northern part, he said that banditry is being masterminded by thousands of militants, who he said were hired to defeat President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election so that a northerner could win the election. The former police boss also called for a review of joint accounts between the 36 states and local governments in Nigeria with a view of giving way to local government autonomy with the necessary constitutional amendments.
