Speeches

Third Town Hall Meeting On Security

Oct 15, 2009 - Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I welcome you to the 3rd Town Hall Meeting on Security incorporating the launch of the website, e-donation platform and the Citizens' Contribution Scheme.

To those of you who have been involved in the security initiative since it was established in August 2007 and also attended last year's Town Hall, I say a heartfelt thank you on behalf of myself, the Fund and the citizens of Lagos for your support, and I say thank you for being here again today. To those of you attending for the first time I say thanks. for joining the Security Trust Fund Family.

You have no doubt heard and digested the Chairman's welcome address, the detailed report on the history, functions, finances and activities of the Fund by the Executive Secretary and the very professional briefing on the current security situation in the State and the comparative study of crime trends over the past two years by the Commissioner of Police. I therefore do not need to take up any more of your time on those issues.

My role here today therefore, d.istinguished ladies and gentlemen, is to make a very strong case to you all for continued and indeed increased support for ttlis critical public-private security initiative.

The briefing I receive every month from all the security chiefs, and sometimes in between, at the State Security Council meetings, continuously advises me that we must remain extremely vigilant, focused and proactive.

The challenges of criminal activity, funding and capacity are still there, as they exist everywhere in the world no matter a country's supposed sophistication or level of development.

No country has ever been able to get away with reducing spending on law enforcement and security or with reducing the size of its Police Force no matter how effective they may be.

As things stand now in the face of the potential for continuing violent crime, sectarian tensions, kidnapping and the challenges of maintaining public order and protecting public facilities such as the BRT, there is no immediate and viable alternative to the model we are operating, an intervention mechanism that is able to quickly respond to security challenges and resource operatives in key operational areas and at critical times. A glance through your program brochure will indicate some of such instances. The response of the Fund to the requests of the Navy after the Atlas Cove attack is a clear case in point.

Though, as we have always sought to remind ourselves, command, control, operational and budgetary issues for federal security agencies such as the Police, SSS etc. are exclusively federal responsibilities, and although both the

President and the new IG are working on new policing and funding models based on the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on Police Reform, we know that at the center these things take a bit longer than we are familiar with at the local level.

Indeed, it is safe to say that the key operational backbone of security in Lagos today exists due in the main to the intervention of the Fund.

No doubt about it, the Police Commissioner and his men are very effective and up to the task, Gut even the best workman is merely a theorist without the proper tools. We cannot and should not be expected to take over the role of the Ministry of Police Affairs and the federal treasury in adequately resourcing the Police, but we are bound to fill in critical resource gaps when we can and when the situation is critical.

So, Ladies and gentlemen, I call on you, indeed plead with you, to keep the Fund running with healthy donations. Any other approach will be dangerous indeed.

We cannot afford to backslide, indeed the reality demands that we add even more capacity. On our part the State Government, bearing the moral imperative of leadership by example, has committed over N3 billion to the Fund as indicated in the report of the external auditors.

These are resources that should have/gone into other sectors, those directly the responsibility of State, such as education, health, environment and works, but the reality of the situation demanded that we invest in security since that is,.the very foundation of viable society .

I call on those who have contributed before to do so again in our collective interest. I particularly call on those yet to contribute, both corporate and private entities, and whose improved security could be said to have been subsidized by those. who have donated, to do so now, again, in our collective interest

If we understand that crime is very often the outfall or consequence of desperate social and economic conditions, I think the necessity of a greater commitment to the Fund ata time of global depressed economic outlook will be clear to us all. The logic is simple, when the economy is bad, jobs will be threatened or lost, social conditions will get desperate. Crime will rise.

In a cruel irony, it seems that we will all be expected to spend as much time and money on rebuilding the economy as we do on preventing crime at a time when money is more difficult to earn.

I want to make a special advocacy in particular to the tank• farm owners, the NNPC, the NPA and all other agencies engaged in economic activity around Apapa and the Atlas Cove area. All of you owe a bounden duty to contribute to the Fund. You may not know it, but under-resourced as they are, it is the committed men of the Navy, Army and Police, supported by the Trust Fund, who have been watching your back, sometimes at the cost of their lives.

You need to give back. We are not unaware of the current situation in both the financial and petroleum markets but history has shown us that it is at times such as these that true patriots rise up to the challenge and fill the breach, and I urge you all to show the true and positive spirit of Lagosians in donating to the Fund.

For the Government of Lagos, in sp-ite of the mammoth challenges we face in the areas of healthcare delivery, education, roads, the environment, immigration, public transportation and urban renewal, we pledge our continued support for the Fund.

We must upgrade and increase our fleet of vehicles, we must procure more and nimbler APCs for the various Area Commands, we must maintain our emergency call centers and upgrade their capacity. We need more ballistic kit for the men and more guns and ammunition. We need money for fuelling and maintenance of assets especially in the area of vehicles, boats and communication.

The two helicopters recently purchased by the Lagos State Government from Bell Corporation USA for emergency evacuation, aerial security survey and quick response to security situations will cost a lot of money to operate. Can we do without them as a modern city vying to compete with other world cities for investment in hotels, housing and agriculture? We cannot.

They will strengthen our capacity not only to fight crime but to save lives in emergencies through prompt response.

In order to broaden the Fund's public ownership and attract a wider participation of citizens and businesses of all social and economic levels, the Fund proposed and I endorsed the establishment of two schemes that will provide a platform for ordinary Nigerians here and abroad to make their contributions to this viable partnership, no matter how modest.

Thus, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the pleasure to introduce and launch the Lagos State' Security Trust Fund Website with an e-¬donation payment engine, and the Citizens’

Contribution Security Scheme. I call on all my fellow citizens to embrace this initiative for a Brighter and Rewarding Future.

Eko oni baje o!!!!!!

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State