Southern Governors’ Forum wants all member states to formally incorporate traditional rulers into their state security councils as part of measures to tackle insecurity across the country.
Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum, Dapo Abiodun, disclosed this to journalists at the end of a meeting of the Southern Governors’ Forum with the Southern Nigeria Traditional Rulers’ Council on Wednesday in Iperu Remo, Ogun State.
He said traditional rulers are closest to the grassroots and hold critical intelligence capacities to address insecurity in the region. The traditional rulers in the Southern Region were led by their permanent Chairman and Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, with key traditional rulers from each part of the zone present.
The meeting between the Southern Governors’ Forum and the Southern Nigeria Traditional Rulers’ Council was their first. As part of the measures to strengthen security in the region and to deepen grassroots participation, the governors encouraged states to provide direct financial and operational support to traditional councils to enable them to play a more effective role in security and peace building.
The communique also resolved to establish a zonal security fund, with member states contributing to a dedicated pool to support regional security operations and enhance capacity building across the geo-political zones.
Also part of the communique from the meeting was the call for the establishment of state police. Member-states were also encouraged to collaborate with the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC to implement a unified state resident identification system, among other measures.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
