The National Association of Seadogs (NAS), Atlantic Shores Deck, Eket, Akwa Ibom, says decentralisation of Nigeria’s security system will allow states to establish and manage their own policing structures.
The President, Idongesit Ifon, told newsmen in Eket on Thursday that the country’s security architecture was highly centralised, and unable to address community-level security challenges.
Ifon said urged the Federal Government to retain the responsibility of national security, intelligence gathering and cross-border operations.
“The states should be empowered to handle local policing in order to ensure faster response and improved public safety.
“Over centralisation of policing has weakened community-level security due to bureaucratic delays, overlapping responsibilities and limited local autonomy.
“This has resulted in slow response to crimes such as kidnapping, banditry and communal violence,” he said.
The NAS president said that the inherent shortcomings in the nation’s security architecture had exposed rural communities to criminal activities.
“We can see that frequent redeployment of police personnel for national assignments often leaves local communities to be underserved,” he said.
Ifon expressed concern over the rising cases of domestic violence, child abuse and other interpersonal crimes in the country.
He said that the trend underscored the need for a flexible and locally responsive security framework.
