Pro-democracy group and rights activists have urged the Federal Government to tackle insecurity and rising youth unemployment in the country.
They spoke yesterday at the Gani Fawehinmi Park in Ojota, Lagos, during a protest to reawaken government to its responsibilities to the people.
Activist lawyer Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) said kidnapping, armed banditry, police harassment and other vices were increasing daily.
He said there was urgent need to arrest the trend.
The eminent lawyer said yesterday’s transition of power from one government to the other was meaningless because the people’s development was not paramount in the blueprint of the elected officials.
“Enough is enough of kidnapping, enough of killings, enough of widening gap of youth unemployment, enough of police arresting people for wandering,” he said.
Falana said democracy is not only about the sinking of boreholes and dancing on the streets in a country that used to have good roads that have become death traps.
According to him, the arrest and detention of innocent people for wandering by the police are vestiges of military dictatorship.
The eminent lawyer noted that the anathema had crept into the civilian administration.
He said the police must be adequately catered for to enable them perform maximally.
Falana said: “If the police are properly empower to provide internal security, they should be able to perform their job. Soldiers should not be seen on the street as they are meant to provide security against external aggression.
“No soldier should be seen in a civilian clime intimidating the people with his uniform. It is only the police the constitution gives such powers. It is even wrong for the police to parade suspects as common criminals. All these affronts have continued to work against the civil society.”
“Youth unemployment is a sore episode in the Nigerian state. There is information at our disposal about money recovered through whistle blowers, the ones recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC): the money should be put to use to create jobs for youths.”
The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) President Malachy Ugwummadu said the security votes received by state governments had not been judiciously used.
The activist noted that if the fund was utilised for security, the rising cases of kidnappings, armed banditry, among others, would reduce.
He said the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day would make meaning if government followed the ideals Bashorun M. K. O. Abiola died for.
He said Abiola hated poverty and wanted to banish it among Nigerians.
According to him, Abiola was never a tribal leader; this made him to win the election he contested even though he ran on a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 1993.