A former president of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Kolade Alabi, has backed calls to create state police.

Mr Alabi, the current chairman of Bariga Local Council of Lagos State,expressed the position in an interview.

He spoke about what local government autonomy means for governance in Nigeria.

Mr Alabi said, “There is no crime that is committed in any way that does not emanate from a particular ward in a particular local government. So, what that means is that crime is committed from local government from bottom.

“In solving such security problem, you have to adopt a local solution. In adopting local solution, it means that state policing, community policing should be adopted. We believe more particularly in community policing.

“So, yes, state policing can equally solve that, because there’s no way you can separate the state from the local. If we have state police, then it can also come down to the local authority and will do what we call a strong synergy in solving the security problem.”

Mr Alabi explained that decentralisation allowed for more effective and responsive governance. He also stressed the need for a bottom-up approach to governance, suggesting that a decentralised policy could significantly improve Nigeria’s prosperity.

“Presently, I’m the vice-chairman for Commonwealth Local Government Forum, involving 55 countries. We do what we call peer review. Also, I’m an executive member of United City Local Government for Africa, and I represent West Africa at that body. So, we do peer review.

Mr Alabi pointed out that the councils had not been doing badly in the state, saying there was healthy rivalry amongst all the local governments. He, however, pointed out that some local councils are performing better than others, saying that “fingers in local governments in Lagos are not equal.”

(NAN)