Nigerians have been strongly admonished by the Olowu of Kuta Kingdom, His Royal Majesty, Oba Makama Oyelude, Tegbosun III, to stop the habit politicizing issues that have to do with security.
The monarch, who is also the Chairman, Supreme Council of Owu Obas also submitted that it is important for all the people of the country to treat security issues with all seriousness because, according to him, “when there is insecurity, the fact that you are a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or the All Progressives Congress (APC) will not be considered at all.
The enigmatic monarch also drew the attention of the Federal Government and the National Assembly to the fact that the national budget for defence is far too small.
His words “If countries that are not engaged in wars against terrorists can budget huge amounts for defence, what stops Nigerian government from doing more than this?”
The monarch also used the opportunity to call on the Federal Government to make serious provisions for local government autonomy.
Oba Oyelude, who noted that all happenings on insecurity are locally conceived also enjoined Nigerians to support the Military in their quest to battle terrorism.
The Civil Engineer monarch made all these submissions on Friday when he was featured at the breakfast meeting of the South West Group of Online Publishers (SWEGOP), in Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State. The event was held inside the prestigious Development Support Center, Iyaganku GRA.
The Osun monarch said “the management of the security of a country like Nigeria goes beyond the government alone, though the major responsibility rest mostly on the government.
“With this in view, the local government administration should be strengthened and given autonomy. If the local government, lack autonomy, we would still not get to the root cause of insecurity because all security issues are local.
“In the 774 local government areas that we have in the country, we have a DPO, we have Department of State Security (DSS) officers, we have a traditional ruler, and we have civil defence officers. With this, it becomes easier for intelligence gathering and sharing at that level. The funding of that intelligence would also be easier when the local governments have full autonomy.
Packaged by Olayinka Agboola with additional reports from reportersatlarge.com
