Two Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ozekhome and Mr. Festus Keyamo, have disagreed over the recent request by the Senate for a special fund for security agencies to combat the problem of insecurity in the country.
While Ozekhome, who is also a human rights activist kicked against the Senate’s request for more funds for the security agencies, Keyamo, who now doubles as the spokesperson for the Buhari Campaign Organisation for the 2019 elections, said he was ready to back any measure that would make more funds available to them.
The Senate had declared that special funding should be given to the various security agencies to battle the spate of insecurity in the country.
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, announced the lawmaker’s resolution, asking security chiefs to present an emergency special budget for the consideration and approval of the National Assembly.
But Ozekhome, who carpeted the lawmakers in an interview with our correspondent, said the move was not the solution to Nigeria’s insecurity.
He said that what the government needed was the political will to combat insecurity all over the country.
He maintained that the suggested idea by the Senate was just another means by some government officials to siphon funds in preparation for the forthcoming general elections.
The activist argued that the fund, if given to the security chiefs, would end up in their individual pockets, advising that government needed to tackle insecurity with determination and not additional fund.
He said, “I don’t support getting separate funding for security in Nigeria. There is enough fund. What we are having is government indifference, government collaboration and government tolerance of insecurity and impunity.
“There is so much fund that has been given to government to tackle insecurity; the funds usually end up in the personal pockets of the Army, Airforce, Navy, police or Civil Defence. It is not the amount of money you put in, it is the political will you put in. The determination to tackle it is what our government lacks.”
Arguing that the insecurity was not due to poor funding of the security agencies, Ozekhome asked rhetorically, “Is it lack of money that makes herdsmen to be killing people across the street on a daily basis? Is it lack of money that makes Boko Haram to be stronger today and more potent than it was before? Is it lack of money that has made the government to bring our economy down? It is not. More money will only go into private pockets”.
He stressed that governance in the country was still riddled with corrupt practices by those in government, but who had taken refuge under the banner of the campaign against the vice by harassing the opposition with its anti-corruption crusade.
Ozekhome added, “The same government told us to remove oil subsidy, once they remove it, Nigeria will never pay more for oil; because of that they increased the oil price to N145. Today, the same government has paid over N1.3trillion in the last one year for petroleum importation, two times more than Jonathan’s era. So, we are having a government of corruption by corruption and for the corrupt people and nobody is bold enough to question it. They are putting forward a mantra of anti-corruption and nobody is questioning them, they are covering corruption within the system with sweet smelling perfume while they are fighting so-called corruption against the opposition, against critics with insecticides, herbicides, rabbicides and all the others.
“This government is not genuine at all. It is a one-chance government. We do not need more money for security at all. All we need is political will by government to stop insecurity.”
But Keyamo argued that allocating more funds for the security agency was the best solution to the problem of insecurity that has enveloped the country.
He stressed that contrary to the belief that poor funding was the cause of the current problem, the security agencies only required more funding to make the country more secure.
“Anything that gives more money to security should be welcome; if they are providing a budget, the budget should be funded. I support anything that gives more money to security, because we can see the situation of things in Nigeria. I fully support it. Poor funding is not the cause of insecurity we only need more funding to be more secured,” Keyamo said.
