A former Deputy Inspector General of police, Udom Ekpoudom (retd) on Monday, called for a review of the salaries and allowances of parliamentarians in Nigeria and what is left to be used to fund security.
He noted that if this was not done, peace would continue to elude Nigeria.
Speaking with Journalists in Uyo, the DIG said the problem with Nigeria was that wrong emphasis was being placed on wrong things, saying that it was high time the issue of humongous salaries and entitlements of lawmakers are reviewed.
He said “The problem we are having in Nigeria is that we are laying wrong emphasis on wrong things. How do we spend most of our resources on National Assembly members?
“The money they take home every day is just too much. If the salaries and allowances of these parliamentarians are not cut down to fund security issues, Nigeria will not see peace.”
On the call for the sack of security chiefs, Ekpoudom said security challenges in Nigeria were not due to over stay of service chiefs rather lack of equipment for security sectors to tackle the menace.
He said the agitation for the removal of Service Chiefs was not entirely the solution to the nation’s security challenges, though according to him, retaining them might be part of the problem.
His words, “I don’t think that removing the security Chiefs is the problem. That might be part of it, but our biggest problem is that the armed forces and the police are not well equipped.
”If they are not well equipped, you don’t expect them to perform magic. Let us copy from what other countries are doing and equip our security agencies adequately.
“If you remove the Service Chiefs one hundred times and fail to give them the necessary equipment you have not changed anything. I worked with the Nigeria police for many years and I know that our problem is lack of equipment.”
