By Augustine Ehikioya
To boost security in the country, the Paramount Ruler of Nortem-Bori Communities in Rivers State, King Lenu Tsaro Igbara JP, has called on youths to avoid being used for violence before, during and after elections.
He spoke with Security Watch Africa (SWA), especially with the rising wave of insecurity in parts of the country and the need to get communities and traditional rulers involved in ensuring security and safety in communities.
Appealing to the youth not to allow themselves to be used to disturb the peace and security of their communities, he urged traditional rulers to sensitize their people on the need for peaceful conduct before, during, and after elections.
He said “But most times, politicians tend to use young people to perpetrate their egos during the elections. My advice to the youths is not to allow themselves to be used by politicians to achieve their aim.
“For these politicians, some of them, they have children. Their children are not even in Nigeria. So they should be wise, if elections come, they should peacefully go and vote for the party of their choice, or the candidate of their choice, and then return home, and not to be involved in any form of political disturbance.” he stated.
Also urging Royal Fathers to stay away from participating in party politics, he urged them to work out strategies to encourage peace in their domain.
He said “Traditional rulers are not supposed to be partisan. They’re not supposed to be involved in partisan politics. But this very particular problem is as a result of most of the governments that are in power.
“Because the trend in most cases, is that the government that is in power tend to use political institutions to compensate for politicians in one way or the other.
“One of the problems that is bedevilling traditional institutions today is that some persons that have no atom of royalty in their blood are made traditional rulers by governments just for political compensation. And this is very, very wrong.”
On what the traditional rulers should do to control their domain and make sure that the elections or the politicking do not go beyond what it should be, he said, “Well, the traditional ruler will help so sensitize their people on the need to maintain peace during elections. That’s the only thing, I think, the only role, I think they can do. But I don’t think they should go to the point of telling people how to vote or participate in politics, I don’t think it’s correct.”
He went on “Well, the traditional rulers, saving Nigeria or security situations in their domain is very, very challenging. The reason why I said it is very, very challenging is that the traditional rulers are like figureheads, and have no real power.
“Or by the nature of their offices, they have no real power to, you know, arrest criminals and prosecute criminals. And so it becomes very difficult for traditional rulers to actually play a direct role in bringing down the security situations in most cases.”
But he maintained that the traditional rulers can liaise with the Police concerning insecurity.
“They have Police Community Relations Committees, and at these forums, they can discuss security concerns in their domains. But they are not really empowered to take action.
“Or even there is another association that is called the Justices of Peace, it’s a very good institution. But these JPs, their powers are also limited because you cannot order the arrest of somebody, or if you see somebody that is misbehaving, Police have their own pattern of investigating a crime, and even if the traditional ruler sees what the Police is not seeing, you know, it’s not really easy for the traditional ruler to just come out.
“And another thing, confidentiality also plays a role. If the traditional rulers cannot be covered by the various security agents, it becomes very, very challenging and very difficult.
Speaking on the security situation in his area, he said “Well, security is under control in the communities. There is no cause for alarm.”