Senate Minority Leader To Buhari: Resign For Failing To Protect Nigerians
BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – The Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe,on Wednesday called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) to as a matter of national interest resign over their inability to safeguard the lives and property of Nigerians since 2015.
Abaribe, who made the call while contributing to a debate on the collapse of insecurity in the country, asserted that Buhari and the APC told Nigerians to stone them if they fail, saying; “it is now time to pick stones to stone them” in view of their obvious failure.
However, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan interjected Abaribe as he said that the crisis of insecurity has no political party affiliation and therefore urged Abaribe and all those ready to contribute to the debate to be apolitical.
In the words of Lawan; “Bandits and Boko Haram insurgents do not operate on partisan grounds when they kill citizens.”
In his contribution, Senator Abudullahi Adamu, who governed Nasarawa State as PDP governor for eight years, questioned the Senate President for not insisting that Abaribe should withdraw his comments.
The Senate President had on Tuesday said that the Senate would dedicate its plenary on Wednesday to debating the worsening security situation in the country with a view to proffer a way forward.
The Senate Majority Leader, Senator Yahaya Abudullahi, under a Motion titled: “Nigerian security challenges: Urgent need to restructure, review and reorganize the current security architecture” introduced the matter for debate.
In the motion which was supported by 105 other Senators, the Senate Leader called on his colleagues to note the recent upsurge of security related challenges and the devastating loss of lives, limbs and properties that was unleashed on the nation.
Abdullahi urged the Senate to note the comprehensive new National Security Strategy that the government unfolded in December, 2019, “with its very clear statement of goals, objectives and challenges that faced the nation particularly those challenges whose recent upsurge have a direct and devastating impact on the lives and safety of the people.
According to him; “The security challenges include terrorism and violent extremism, armed banditry, kidnapping, militancy and separatist agitation.
Others, he noted are pastoralists/farmer clashes and Cattle Rustling; Organized crime; Piracy and sea robbery; and Cross border crimes of smuggling and illegal drugs and fire arms trafficking.
Abdullahi said that even though the Senate appreciates the recent effort to redefine the nation’s approaches to the security challenges, the “implementation strategy must be operationalized in a manner that takes a critical and intrusive review of the nature, structure and disposition of the security institutions, particularly the Police, Civil Defence, Intelligence, Customs, Immigration, etc.”
