The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has described the ongoing debate for and against a State Police as uncalled for, unhelpful and diversionary.
The NLC’s Vice President, Comrade Issa Aremu, who stated this while briefing Journalists in Kaduna said that Police was not divisible.
According to him, the debate should rather be on how to make the Nigeria Police more effective and noted that the appointment of incumbet Inspector General of Police, has witnessed a new activist policing.
He added that any attempt to decentralise Pan-Nigeria institutions like the Nigeria Police into state institutions will be unacceptable.
Aremu said that State Governors have no moral basis to maintain critical institutions like the police.
“Many of them have been proven not to manage any institution under them well and therefore cannot manage a state police.? For instance, many state governors opposed the minimum wage for civil servants.
“Yet one of the problems of Nigeria police is the crisis of compensation.? You can now imagine armed men and women embarking on strike over non-payment of minimum wage under a state police. The federal government with all the shortcomings pay minimum wage to the police,” he said.
Aremu, who also spoke on the proposed new N5000 note by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said, “The CBN should concentrate on stabilising the value of the Naira rather than legitimising the devaluation of the currency”
He said, “we oppose the proposed introduction of a higher banknote of N5000? next year as announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria? under its currency redesign programme tagged `PROJECT CURE.’
“Lower banknote denominations of N5, N10, and N20 will be also coined according to the Central Bank of Nigeria.”
The labour chief said, “Nigeria is better off with smaller banknotes that can deliver goods and services? than higher bills without any value.”
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