The President-General of sub-apex Igbo socio-political organisation, Ndigbo Lagos Foundation, Maj. Gen. Obi Umahi (retd.), has said Nigeria needs state police to avoid being overwhelmed by insecurity.

Umahi, who spoke on the telephone to our correspondent on the 60th anniversary of Nigeria’s independence on Sunday, said the country had got to the “lowest rung of insecurity” and if something urgent was not done, the country would sink into oblivion.

He added that Nigeria was on the edge of a precipice.

Describing Nigeria at 60 as a “giant in the sands, a big adult wearing a diaper,” Umahi lamented that “we are far from getting to where our grandfathers thought we would have got by now.”

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He said, “Insecurity is overwhelming us in every part of the country. I guess we should not get to that point; and the only thing that will prevent that is to allow for a state police.

“We should be able to come to a fair assessment of the level of insecurity we have and take action that is positive and pre-emptive. And that action that is required now is state police.”

Umahi, however, warned Nigerians to stop primordial and prejudicial way of judging actions that would help the nation, stressing that people often look at issues from religious and ethnic dimensions instead of seeing perspective from a positive approach to rescue Nigeria.