Public Affairs commentator, Mahdi Shehu has said that while many Nigerians agree that creating state police is necessary, he doubts whether Northern politicians are truly prepared to support it beyond public statements.
He made the comments in a post shared on X on Friday, where he accused political leaders in the North of failing to invest in key sectors that could have prevented the security crisis currently affecting the region.
According to him, “State police are more than desirable given the commitment of stakeholders. But I have my doubts if Northern politicians are ready for the state beyond the oral demand.”
He said many of the security challenges that later spread across the country started as local problems but became national disasters because leaders in the region continuously and deliberately refused to make investments into critical sectors.
“This is considering how they allowed local security issues blown and snowballed into national catastrophe on account of their continuous and deliberate refusal to make investments into critical sectors.”
Shehu criticised what he described as years of misguided spending by Northern politicians on projects that bring little or no development to their communities.
He argued that instead of prioritising security, education, and health, politicians focused on elite projects that do not stimulate growth, listing several examples such as:
“High administrative costs at government houses, Building and renovating government lodges and guest houses, Constructing classrooms without teachers, Renovating hospitals with no drugs and medical staff, Spending billions on luxury vehicles like Prado SUVs, Buying cars for traditional rulers and renovating palaces and sponsoring pilgrimage trips for myopic and selfish reasons.
He warned that such spending habits show that the political class may not be committed to the serious groundwork required to establish effective state police.