…Why NASS Rejected State Police
…Women Groups Vow To Fight On
…Aisha Buhari Urges NASS To Revisit Bills
March 06, (THEWILL) – For advocates of state police and gender parity, timing is of essence as their advocacy may stall once the National Assembly transmits the constitution review recently undertaken by members of the National Assembly to the 36 State Houses of Assembly for concurrence.
While state police advocates, like many state governors, have since resorted to inventive ways to arrive at their ultimate demand for decentralisation of the police in the country, the gender equity advocates have mapped out stages of their struggle to consummate their demands right after the constitution amendment by the National Assembly and beyond.
“I think Nigerians have to disabuse themselves of the notion that state police would be hijacked by state governors because the underlying issue is about security of life and property,” Governor Duoye Diri of Bayelsa State said at a town hall meeting organised in Yenagoa by the state government in collaboration with the Police Service Commission on Friday, March 4, 2022, adding, “The federal police is now overburdened by the country’s growing population.”
Diri’s statement was a direct response to Hon. Muhammed Wudil, a legislator from Kano State, who on January 27, 2022, during the debate on a bill seeking to establish state police at the House of Representatives, had said: “There are lots of things as regards the creation of state police. There is a lot of apprehension, most especially the nature of the country now. We are almost, in some cases, divided and any state governor can decide to take out whatever security measures against his political opponents.”
Apparently doing the bidding of his constituents, on that Wednesday at the House of Representatives, Fred Agbedi, a lawmaker from Bayelsa State, raised the motion that the bill, which was sponsored by Onofiok Luke, lawmaker from Akwa Ibom, and had passed second reading at the lower legislative chamber in July 2021, be put to a vote by the House Committee on Constitution Amendment, chaired by Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase. Wase had to put the bill to a vote.
The legislation, which sought to move security powers in section 214 (c) of the Constitution from the exclusive list to the concurrent list, to empower, “both the National Assembly and Houses of Assembly of states to legislate on police and other security matters,” was voted down by 14 legislators as against 11 others who voted in favour of the amendment. Following that voting pattern, the bill failed to secure further legislative attention.
Coming a few weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari had ruled out state police as an alternative to solving the worsening insecurity in the country, the lawmakers killed any further legislative action on the demand for state police, which had reverberated throughout the country in the preceding years.
THEWILL investigation shows that the rejection of the bill is part of the ongoing war between the National Assembly and the state governors.
When the lawmakers failed to prune the powers of the governors through the provision for direct party primary bill in the Electoral Amendment Act, they decided to scuttle the call for state police, fearing that the governors might use it to terrorise their rivals.
When THEWILL sought his reaction, Senate spokesperson, Senator Bashiru Ajibola, refused to answer several calls put across to his phone. But Mr James Oloko, Special Adviser to Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, thinks the rejection of the bill for state police is nothing but politics.
Oloko told THEWILL, “We like to politicise everything in this country, mostly from the selfish angle. The argument that governors will misuse state police is unrealistic, given the fact that the Federal Government has lost control of security matters in the country.”
His Taraba counterpart, Mr Bala Dan Abu, is more frontal in his response.
He told this newspaper that Governor Dairus Ishaku was very disappointed when he heard of the rejection of the bill by the lawmakers.
“He had stood firmly, arguing vehemently in favour of state police. Rejection by the National Assembly is a setback. Considering the insecurity challenge facing Taraba, we believe it can only be resolved by constitutional provision to allow for state police. Yet my governor does not see this as an end to the struggle. We will continue to put the facts on the table before the lawmakers, whether it is the current National Assembly as we are doing or the one after it. Until they do the right thing about state police, the struggle continues,” Dan Abu said.
THE LONG, NATIONWIDE AGITATION FOR STATE POLICE
What the lawmakers cut down in one legislative session took many years to grow. In May 2018, Governor Nasir el-Rufai of violence- prone Kaduna State, said nine governors were in support of state police. In the same year, the then National Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum, Governor Abdulaziz Yari, during the National Security Summit organised by the Senate in Abuja, said 36 state governors had endorsed the creation of state police to tackle the rising insecurity in the country.
In April, 2021, participants at a town hall meeting on national security organised by the Federal Government in Kano, recommended that state police should be supported by federal and state lawmakers.
According to Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, the participants drawn from the academia, civil society and private sector, called for urgent attention and consideration of the nationwide demand for state police to give governors better control over security matters in their states, among other recommendations on autonomy for local government, reformation of judiciary and compulsory and free education to every children of schooling age.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo threw his weight behind the growing call for state police on March 6, 2021. At an international Conference on Patriotism, Security, Governance and National Assembly organised by the Global Patriot Newspaper in collaboration with the Nigeria Consulate in New York and Nigeria Diaspora Organisation, New Jersey Chapter, he said, among other things, “We must accept that there is a need for greater decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force. I have been an advocate of state policing. The National Assembly is in a position to consider some of the proposals that have gone to them for the purposes of devolving powers to the states for security purposes and for addressing security challenges.”
All through 2021, 17 governors of the country’s southern states, at their meetings in May of that year in Lagos and Enugu in September, called for state police as against the Federal Government’s current policing model.
THEWILL could not reach the Chairman, Southern Governors’ Forum and Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu, on phone on Friday and the message sent to his email line was not returned.
However, his Chief Press Secretary, Olatunde Olabode Richard, told THEWILL that Akeredolu’s views on state police remain unchanged.
‘’His views remain unchanged despite the current position of the proposal at the Constitution Review. The governor is a man of his words and he has always stated that one of the ways to achieve true federalism is through devolution of power,” the Ondo CPS told THEWILL.
Just like the long walk for state police, the struggle for gender equity has seen many years.
WOMEN’S STRUGGLE FOR GENDER EQUITY
It took last Thursday’s protest at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja by women groups to internationalise what they had been doing through advocacy for many years.
Their current quarrel with the lawmakers revolved around four major areas that they considered contentious and “inhuman, inconsiderate and calculated to embarrass us,” as Barrister Ebere Ifendu, Executive Director of Women In Politics Forum, put it in her brief interview with THEWILL.
The four areas are citizenship, indigeneship, affirmative action and reserved seats. Following the transmission of the 68 harmonised proposed Constitution amendment bills by the Joint Constitution Review Committee of both chambers, members of the National Assembly voted on the four areas affecting women empowerment.
On citizenship, the bill was to amend Section 26 of the 1999 Constitution, which grants a foreign woman married to a Nigerian man the right to become a Nigerian citizen.
This citizenship by registration forbids the same right of citizenship for a Nigerian woman whose husband is a foreigner.
In the voting done by the lawmakers last week Tuesday, March 1, 2022, the outcome of the vote was: Senators: 33 Yes, 2 No; House of Representatives (HoR): 135 Yes, 143 No.
For Indigeneship, the case was no different. The bill which was to alter Section 31 and 38 (1) (Interpretation of the 1999 Constitution to allow a woman to become an indigene of her husband’s state after at least five years of marriage) was voted for, thus: Senators: 90 yes; No 5; HoR:133 yes, No 58.
Reserved seat bill was another thorny area that drew widespread public attention because it was considered to mean conferring women with ‘special privileges,’ constitutionally.
It was meant to amend Sections 48,49 and 71 of the 1999 Constitution by creating a total of 111 seats for women representatives of senatorial districts and constituencies both at the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly. Voting was Senate: Yes-30, No-58. House of Reps: Yes-81, No-208.
The Affirmative Action bill drew widespread concern because it was backed by international instruments to which Nigeria is a signatory. An example is the 1995 Beijing Conference in China, which urged states to reserve 35 per cent administrative and political seats for women globally. The bill was meant to amend Section 223 of the 1999 Constitution to provide for 35 per cent Affirmative Action to ensure that women occupy at least 35 per cent of party administrative and appointive seats across the federal and state offices. Voting was as follows, Senate: Yes-34, No- 53 and three abstentions. House of Reps: Yes-195, No-107.
Also included in this bill on affirmation for women was the amendment of Section 147 and 192 of the 1999 Constitution to provide a minimum of 20 per cent for women ministerial and commissioner nominees. This portion of the bill was however eventually passed by both chambers of the National Assembly. Voting was as follows, Senate: Yes- 93, No- 1 and 14 abstentions. House of Reps: Yes-225, No-70.
WHY WOMEN ARE ANGRY AND CONTINUE TO LOBBY
Barrister Ifendu is miffed by the action of the lawmakers. She told THEWILL, “After years of government’s refusal to put affirmative action in place, following several international instruments it had signed, we decided to devise a means to create special seats for women that will be used during four election cycles, after which they will be able to stand on their own and contest elections. We did the costing, which came to one per cent of the budget of the National Assembly. This is nothing, really. The bill had over 80 male supporters who co-signed it. From the beginning we had meetings with members of the National Assembly at their retreats and they showed support, showed no reservations. So at what point did they change? Ah, this sort of leadership cannot be trusted.”
Explaining further, she said the amendments, if allowed to stand, would strip women of their dignity and impose injustice.
“Look at the indigeneship matter. Women cannot benefit from her husband’s place and if you go to your father’s you would be told you are no longer part of us. Then there is the marriage to a foreign husband. Her children cannot be citizens? What kind of injustice is this? Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila even explained to them about the need to get women in leadership roles for inclusive governance, yet they voted the way they did. These men do not understand development issues. They think they are doing us a favour and yet they have daughters who would be mothers one day. So we want the National Assembly to define who we are,” she said.
Mrs Rhoda Tyoden, until recently the National President of International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), believes that tradition and religion was at play during the voting by the lawmakers and made them fail to display the political will needed to do the right thing.
She told THEWILL, “These men know the issues involved. They know the issues affect almost half of the population, including their daughters, mothers, wives and sisters. They just believe that women should be seen and not heard. During the election, you would see how domineering many of our men are. I used to vote in a polling booth in front of my father’s house. Many of the men would follow their daughters and wives to watch them vote.
WAY OUT OF DEMAND FOR STATE POLICE AND GENDER EQUITY
With the amended bills yet to be transmitted to the 36 states of the federation, women think they can still get the lawmakers to make changes.
“We will follow events as they develop. Until they transmit the bills to the State Houses of Assembly, we will continue to intensify our efforts to see the lawmakers revisit the bills,” Ifendu said.
When asked if she supports the view of some women groups that plan to identify the lawmakers who voted against the gender equity bills and mobilise against them in the general election next year, she sighed and said, “We will not let the lawmakers go scot-free, I tell you.”
She said FIDA has instructed its state chapters to sensitise women at the grassroots to their rights and refused to be intimidated.
“We once had women nationalists that fought for women’s rights and the development of the country, women like Gambo Sawaba, Margaret Ekpo and Funmilayo Ransome- Kuti. So we can still walk out and talk again,” she said.
In continuation of her lobby for gender parity before the lawmakers voted on the bills, President Buhari’s wife, Aisha, who visited the National Assembly during the laying of the amendment bill, penultimate Thursday , has waded in again in support of women. On Thursday, she wrote a strongly worded letter to principal officers of the National Assembly, demanding a revisit and reversal of the bills on gender balance.
In a letter titled, ‘RE: National Assembly and the Quest for Affirmative Action’ and addressed to Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gabjabiamila, Aisha Buhari said, “The recent decision of the NASS to ignore the long- standing clamour for affirmative action for Nigerian women was contrary to the very high expectations of forward-looking Nigerian men and women. The anger of Nigerians in the circumstances is therefore understandable, more so that not a single concession was made to women, contrary to the global practices of give-and-take for which people’s parliaments are noted for.
‘’Notwithstanding the temporary setback, however, I, on behalf of the wife of the Vice President, HE, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo, join the multitude of Nigerian men and women to thank relevant UN agencies and individuals, local and international non-governmental organisations, faith-based groups and all other stakeholders, individuals and management of political parties.
‘’I am of the opinion that our esteemed National Assembly can still review its decision and pray that our compatriots will deeply reflect on this political but emotive matter.
‘’I call on both the Senate and the House of Representatives as husbands, fathers, brothers and grandfathers to revise and reconsider reversing their conclusions so that no group, especially mothers, wives, daughters and partners will suffer discrimination or be denied opportunities to contribute to the process of nation building.”
Also, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, who lamented what he called a missed opportunity by the National Assembly to promote inclusion and deepen democratic governance through upholding the women-related bills, urged the lawmakers to rethink their stand and heed the plea by the women lobbyists.
“This is because the legislature is the bastion of democracy and a critical platform for fair representation and inclusion in government,” the governor said.
For the state police, Dan Abu, Special Adviser on Media to Government Darius Ishaku of Taraba State, thinks the demand will never go away until it is granted, “If not by this National Assembly but by the ones which will come after it.”
For both the advocates of state police and gender equity, they may have to resort to weaponising their lobby and struggles until they achieve success.
Many state governments are already doing so by starting local security outfits to complement the efforts of the police, either as individual states or on a regional basis. The women groups thinking of sensitising women to vote against gender hostile lawmakers during the upcoming general elections may have to start early enough if their lobby to revisit the bills fail.
THE WOMEN ARE MARCHING ON AND UNRELENTING
As of Friday, March 4, 2022, their protests had spread from Abuja to Kwara and Bauch States.
In Bauchi, three women NGOs, namely Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria, FOMWAN, led by Hajiya Aisha Kilishi; Attah Sisters Helping Hand, ASHH, led by Comfort Attah, and Fahimta Women and YouthDevelopment Initiative, led by Hajiya Maryam Garba, and CBOs representative, Hajia Binta Adamu, told journalists that they support the occupation of the National Assembly until the lawmakers revisit the gender bills.
The Global Hope for Women and Children Foundation (GLOHWOC) is leading the fight in Kwara State.
About the Author
Amos Esele is the Deputy Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
