The former Nigerias’ minister of Education Malam Ibrahim Shekarau says the best way to tackle the Insecurity bedevilling northern Nigeria is through “community policing.”
Shekarau who is the former governor of Kano state disclosed this at the 30th anniversary of Rumfa College Old Boys Association (RUMFOBA) held in Kano Thursday.
According him, if people were recruited to ensure protection of their community a lots of crimes will be history in the past.
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“Community policing or you call it community watch, the idea is for government to organized members of the community, guide them, give them necessary training so that they will monitor and watch over their security by themselves. Their is no anyway that a security operatives will cover every inch of our society,” he said.
“80% of any security is about intelligence gathering and their is no way you can gather intelligence without using the people that you want to served, no anyway you can help somebody without knowing his religion, culture or background and his attitude, that is why we emphasis on community policing. A very example here in Kano is the Hisbah guard, and what make Hisbah guard to succeed is we allowed the community to recruit and we give-them guideline, government didn’t interfaire, we select some elders and allowed them to recruit 20 responsible young men from the community, and that is why every community now is aware of Hisbah and its operations, people trust them and now it works more than Nigerian police in Kano,” he further said.
Asked about some leaders especially politician may use them against their opponent, Malam Shekarau said “the members of community policing would only work within their community and will be recruited by the community so, example is when I was governor of Kano state we recruited about ten thousand Hisbah guards and non of which I nominated, my deputy or any powerful political office holder, so they will work only for their community,” Shekarau added.