Insecurity: Governors to Meet Buhari This Week

Insecurity: Governors to Meet Buhari This Week

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Barring any last minutes change, President Muhammadu Buhari will meet with the 36 state governors this week over insecurity in the country.

The governors had already forwarded their request to the office of the Chief of Staff to President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari.

According to a source that confirmed this to THISDAY, “After the visit of the governors to Borno State to commiserate with their counterpart, Prof. Babagana Zulum, over the killing of rice farmers in the state by the Boko Haram insurgents and the meeting that followed, the governors resolved to meet the president

“The governors have forwarded their request to meet the president to discuss the security situations in the country

“The governors are on the standby to meet the president on Monday or Tuesday. The idea is that the president will meet the governors, and analyse the security situations in the various states of the federation before meeting the members of the House of Representatives next Thursday.

“In their last meeting on December 1, the governors variously complained on the worsening security situations in the country. The governors are saying that they are overwhelmed by the security challenges in the country.”

The governors had said through a statement issued by the Head of Information and Publicity of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Abdulrazque Bello Barkindo, that they would seek a security order in their meeting with President Buhari.

The source said: “It is not certain what the phrase ‘new security order’ means, but they may be asking for an enhance police reforms and the federal government-backed policy on the employment of more people in the vigilance group in the states.”

The source also stated that the position of state police would feature in the governors meeting with the president

It is also not clear if the governors would be pushing for the sack of the Service Chiefs, whose tenure of office has since elapsed. Nigerians from all categories of life have been calling for the sack of the security chiefs and the appointments of new security chiefs that would inject fresh ideas into the security network in the country.

In a communique issued last week, which was signed by the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who is also the governor of Ekiti State, the governors resolved to “meet with the president as soon as possible to address security challenges across the country, particularly in the light of the carnage in Borno State.”

Also, the governors agreed in the communique of their meeting to “support the necessary reforms that will result in a police force that works for all.”

Also, the communique of the governors meeting said that as “an immediate to medium-term measure, members agreed to pay close attention to the conduct of police officers across the country in order to get them and other internal security operatives fully back to work as they have not been functioning to full capacity since the #EndSARS protests with the attendant security exposure to the safety of lives and property of the ordinary citizens.”

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