By Henry Umoru
On Wednesday, 29th January, 2020, barely twenty- four hours after the Senators resumed from the Christmas and New year break, they decided to spend the entire day of the plenary session to brainstorm on the very burning issue of security challenges confronting the country.
For six hours from 11.30 to 4.25pm that the Senators were at the hallowed Chamber deliberating, there was tension, uproar, sharp disagreement, but at the end of the day, they landed on the same page. They resolved that for the very fact that the security infrastructure has failed in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari should as a matter of urgency declare a National Security Emergency.
The Senators also asked President Muhammadu Buhari to walk the talks and if he would achieve this, he must as a matter of urgency, sack the Service Chiefs who they said were no longer fit and had ran out of ideas to tackle the myriad of security problems where Nigerians are maimed, killed, raped, kidnapped daily and property destroyed.
The lawmakers told Buhari that the time has come for Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin; National Security Adviser, NSA, Major- General Mohammed Babagana Monguno; Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Yusuf Buratai; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar and Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Marshal Ibok- Ete Ibas to go and allow new persons who will put in fresh vigour to take over.
To begin the discourse, the Senate Majority leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, All Progressives Congress, APC, Kebbi North came up with the motion, titled, “Security Challenges: Urgent need to restructure, review and reorganise the current security architecture.”
The motion was co- sponsored by 105 Senators. Presenting the motion, the Senate Leader said that the Senate “Notes the recent upsurge of security related challenges and the devastating loss of lives, limbs and properties that it unleashed on the nation;
“Further notes the comprehensive new national security strategy that the government unfolded in December, 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.
“This include:- Terrorism and violent extremism; Armed banditry, kidnapping, militancy and separatist agitation; Pastoralist /farmer clashes and Cattle Rustling; Organized crime; Piracy and sea robbery; and Cross border crimes of smuggling and illegal drugs and Fire arms trafficking;
“Appreciative of the recent effort to redefine our approaches to the security challenges, it is our view that 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, Immigrations, etc;
“Further notes that the various local, state and regional responses to these security challenges by way of self-help initiative such as Civilian JTF, Hisbah, Yausakai, Yanbanga and more recently Amotekun which are mainly expression of peoples desperation and disappointment with the failure of the state security architecture to protect them;
“Opines that the current structure, operational strategies, Personnel training and disposition of these critical institutions have been outgrown by our contemporary security challenges. This is because, in the current challenging dispensation, we must prioritize the restructuring and the reorganization of those security apparatuses that shoulder the direct responsibilities of protecting the Nigerian people and their urban and rural space.
“This is with a view to making them more effective, responsive community integrated and people friendly. Far reaching measures and structural reforms are necessary in order to arrest the rapidly deteriorating internal security environment. The current challenges seem to have overwhelmed our security institutions.”
At the end of the debate, the Senators resolved to summon the Inspector- General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu to appear before it next week Wednesday to brief them on the security challenges, architecture, methods employed so far and the way forward towards addressing the problems.
As part of the way forward, the Senate constituted a 17- Member Ad- hoc Committee with the Senate Leader, Senator Abdullahi Yahaya as the Chairman and saddled with the responsibility of engaging the security agencies and report back to the Senate in two weeks time.
Members of the Committee include Senators Enyinnaya Abaribe, Sabi Abdullahi, Ali Ndume, Aliyu Wammakko, Haliru Jika, Kashim Shettima, Bala Ibn Na’Allah and George Sekibo.
Others are Ibrahim Gobir, Suleiman Kwari, Geisham Bassey, Stella Oduah, Ibikunle Amosun, Abba Moro, Yusuf Abubakar and Kabiru Gaya.
The Committee was tasked to engage the National Security Adviser, Major General Mohammed Babagana Monguno on the implementation modalities of the December 2019 national security strategies and also engage the National Security Institution to discuss their operational structures, funding, equipment and staff disposition with a view to reviewing the national security architecture to make it more responsive in tackling the security challenges facing the nations and the
people. It was also asked to produce a draft implementation modality/blueprint on the ways and means of tackling the current security challenges for the consideration of the Senate.
When the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Abia South stood up to speak after the Senate Leader, there was uproar on the floor of the Senate when he called for the immediate resignation of the All Progressives Congress Federal Government, led by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Abaribe who was disturbed by the level of insecurity in the country, with massive killings and wanton destruction of property, said that the resignation of Buhari had beome imperative in view of the present government’s inability to curtail the alarming security challenges confronting the country.
Abaribe who noted that the attitude of the President to insecurity in the country, surprised him, said that those who live by propaganda will die by propaganda, just as he stressed that on several occasions, Nigerians have been told that Boko Haram and bandit have been defeated, but the reality on ground stated otherwise.
Abaribe warned that Nigerians were coming with stones to chase out the government since it has failed in all its ramifications to protect lives and property of the people against the backdrop that the government had once asked the people to stone it if it fails to perform.
His comment that President Buhari must resign caused a clash between the PDP and APC as the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan consistently interjected, warning that the issue should not be seen from the political angle, adding that the issue at stake was about Nigeria and as statesmen, they should be apolitical and proffer solutions on how to get out of the problem.
Abaribe who also took on the Spokesman of President Buhari, Femi Adesina that Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was talking like a political party over the killing of one of its own in Adamawa State, said that Adesina should describe Senators who were discussing the matter as a political party.
“Because we have to get to the root of this matter, I can only say one thing, those who live on propaganda will die by propaganda. It is a matter of life and death.
“Boko Haram has been defeated, Nigeria is now safer. Everything was being done to make sure that the hard work that was supposed to be done in securing Nigeria was not done because certain people did not do their work and preferred to cover the eyes of Nigerians with propaganda.
“All the time that we wasted in Nigeria trying to find all these excuses for non performance has now come to stare us in the face. Reality is no respecter of persons, the reality we are facing now, Sen. Sani Musa shouting every day his people were being killed in Niger, we just took one from Jos, a student who was murdered in the full view of everybody with a pistol. And we are told that they have been defeated. Nigerians did not elect the IG, we did not elect the chief of staff, we did not elect the joint chiefs, we did not elect the national security advisers. We elected the government of APC in 2015 and re-elected them in 2019. When you want to deal with a matter, you go with the head, so we will go with the government and ask this government to resign because they can no longer do anything.
“Yes the Nigerians voted a government into power and that government even said, if we don’t perform, stone us, we are going with the stones to stone them now because they are no longer performing.”
There was an instant noise in the camps of the majority and minority caucuses of the red chamber which lasted for a while before the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, brought the rowdy session under control.
While some senators hailed the submissions of Abaribe, others described it as unnecessary.
However, when the uproar subsided, former governor of Nasarawa state, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, APC, Nasarawa West described Abaribe’s submissions as unnecessary and wondered why Lawan hasn’t stopped Abaribe earlier because senators should be seen as statesmen.
Adamu who urged the Senate President to demand an apology from the Minority Leader, however admitted that Abaribe had legislative immunity to express his views.
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At this point, the President of the Senate who appealed to his colleagues to approach the security issue with caution, did not ask Abaribe to apologise.
On his part, Senator Matthew Urhoghide who noted that findings by the 8th Senate indicated that there was no inter -agency cooperation among the security agencies in the country, said that approving huge sums to them would continue to be a waste.
According to him, without cooperation among them, the funds would continue to be efforts in futility, just as he said that there must be adequate border scrutiny to prevent the invasion of Nigeria by armed herdsmen.
Urhoghide who demanded the immediate sack of the service chiefs, said, “ there is restiveness in the Armed Forces, the Service Chiefs have done very well, they have done their own, but they are short of ideas, they should go.”
Senator Rochas Okorocha also called for the immediate sack of the service chiefs claiming that they had outlived their usefulness. Senator Elisha Abbo who also called for the sack of the Service Chiefs said, “ We have never had it this bad in this country in the area of Security, the Service Chiefs were appointed in July 2015 and according to report by the Budget Office, from 2012 to 2014, N4.5 trillion has been received by the Military and there is grumbling within the Military and silence is no longer golden. The Service Chiefs have ran out of ideas.”
On his part, Senator Francis Alimikhena, APC, Edo North said, “it appears that we do not have an effective security network, the National Security Adviser ought to be the one to coordinate the Security Architecture of the country, but he has no legal backing and the Act is not giving him the needed power that he can brief the President on daily basis and because of this, the Security Agencies are doing things individually, no Espirit De Corps. “For him to effectively fight insecurity, he needs effective information.”
Also in his contribution, Senator Tolu Odebiyi who called for the mopping up of arms and checking of the nation’s borders, said that proper identification of most Nigerians and foreigners would also check activities of the criminals.
On her part, Senator Aisha Dahiru-Ahmed (Adamawa), said that poor leadership and unemployment contributed to insecurity. Also prominent during the debate was the call for State Policing if the present security challenge must be addressed in all its ramifications because the present central security infrastructure has failed the country.
There was however a sharp division among Senators who called for state policing and those who kicked against it.
The chamber was however, thrown into another rowdy session when the senators protested the rejection of the creation of State Police as raised by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege. Omo-Agege’s Predecessor, Senator Ike Ekweremadu alongside many lawmakers, are currently championing the reintroduction of the State Police Bill in the 9th National Assembly.
Recall that the bill suffered a set back in the 8th Senate, but the federal lawmakers, worried by the rising crime rate across the country, have concluded that State Police is the right way to go.
In his contribution, Senator Omo -Agege, vehemently opposed the creation of state police on accounts of paucity of funds crippling the states and possible abuse by the state governors.
Lawmakers who supported the urgent need for the Establishment of State Policing for effective policing in the country were Senators Olamilekan Adeola, APC, Lagos West; Ibikunle Amosun, APC, Central; Oluremi Tinubu, Lagos Central; Smart Adeyemi, APC, Kogi West; Ibrahim Shakarau, APC, Kano; Matthew Urhoghide, PDP, Edo South; Olubunmi Adetunmbi, APC, Ekiti North; Tanko Al-Makura, APC, Nasarawa North; Sandy Onor, PDP, Cross River; Eyakenyi Akon-Etim (Akwa Ibom; Sam Egwu, among others.
Aside Senator Ovie Omo Agege; Senators Gabriel Suswam and Danjuma Goje, APC, Gombe Central; Adamu Aliero, APC, Kebbi Central and Abubakar Yusuf, APC, Taraba Central, kicked against the establishment of State Policing.
Defending his position, Senator Gabriel Suswan who warned that creation of State Police would solve no problem, however demanded the restructuring of the police with a view to empowering them for effective performances.
Senator Danjuma Goje who disagreed with the proponents of the state police claiming that the governors would take advantage of it to perpetuate themselves in power, said, “The creation of jobs and setting up empowerment strategies would solve the problem of insecurity in the country.”
A former governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun who supported the creation of state police and attempts by regions to put security network in place said that the release of adequate equipment and logistics to the regional and state security personnel would solve the insecurity challenges. On her part, Senator Oluremi Tinubu who expressed support for the creation of state police, described the fears being expressed in some quarters, as unnecessary.
On his part, Deputy Senate Minority Leader, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, PDP, Taraba State, who noted that the Executive, the legislative and the judiciary have failed Nigerians, supported the creation of Operation Amotekun because the police have failed to protect Nigerians and urged his colleagues to speak as Statesmen instead of saying what their leaders want to hear.
Senator Sam Egwu, who also supported State Police, said that governors should be empowered to protect their people saying no foreigner would come in if states wre in charge. Senator Eyakenyi Akon-Etim (Akwa Ibom) also supported the idea of community policing.
In his remarks after the debate, President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan said, “We represent people here, we must not shy away from what affects their lives. The security of our people is the issue that concerns almost every Nigerian. I think we can do better than just discussing but find solutions to issues at stake.
This is not something we can do alone, we must work with the executive to achieve these. The President himself has been working hard with security agencies to ensure that we protect the lives and property of our people but we have come to a point where the legislators will also intervene or we give the necessary legislation and support to the executive arm of Government. So what we have done is the first thing, I think the most difficult step is the next step and that is, we have passed resolution now and the list of the adhoc committee members.
They will be charged to work assiduously to ensure that they finish their work in two weeks but that is the second step, the third step will be the implementation of whatever we are able to adopt from the ad-hoc committee support, in that case we have to work much more closely to ensure the implementation on those things we resolved on”.
We wait as Events unfold.
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