The senate and the house of representatives have unanimously condemned the worsening security situation in the country and called on President Muhammed to sack the service chiefs if they fail to resign.
In the debate that took place in the two chambers yesterday, the lamakers said unanimously that the time had come for the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin; National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Monguno; Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar and Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Marshal Ibok- Ete Ibas to take a bow and leave the country’s security system.
The security challenges facing Nigeria include terrorism and violent extremism, armed banditry, kidnapping, militancy and separatist agitation, herdsmen killings, cattle rustling, organized crime; piracy and sea robbery, cross border crimes of smuggling and illegal drugs and fire arms trafficking.
Deliberating on a motion on national security challenges on Wednesday and the need to restructure the nation’s security architecture, the senate said the security chiefs lacked ideas adding that their tenures were long over due.
They called on the president to sack the service chiefs and appoint new ones.
The lawmakers who set aside the whole day to discuss the issue of heightened insecurity in the land also called for the establishment of state police.
The senate majority leader, Mr. Yahaya Abudullahi, who raised the motion ‘Nigerian security challenges: Urgent need to restructure, review and reorganise the current security architecture’ drew the attention of his colleagues to recent upsurge of security related challenges and the attendant loss of lives and property.
He 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.”
He said 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.”
In his contribution, Enyinnaya Abaribe said: “When I was coming this morning, I saw the newspaper headline, “Mr. President, Commander-In-Chief expresses shock at the level of violent crime.” In other words, Mr President was expressing surprise. But in accordance to our rule 53(13), I will not go into that but I will only say, Mr President, in pidgin English, this surprise, surprise me.
“You have told us that on this solemn day that we are discussing this matter, that we may not at any point be partisan and I want to tell you, Mr President, if you didn’t insist that we will not be partisan, I would have called out the presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, who when the CAN leaders complained about the killings of a priest, he turned around and said that CAN was acting like a political party.
“Now that we are talking about it here, let me hear him say that all of us are acting like a political party, when somebody is complaining about these incessant deaths in this country.
“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 is what we are facing now. Senator Sani Musa is shouting every day that 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.”
For his part, Mr. Elisha Abbo who called for the sack of the service chiefs said: “We have never had it bad in this country in the area of security. The Service Chiefs appointed in July 2015 and according to report by the Budget Office, from 2012 to 2014, N4.5 trillion have been received by the Military and there are grumblings within the Military and silence is no longer golden. The Service Chiefs have run out of ideas.”
Ms. Betty Apiafi (PDP, Rivers) in her contribution recalled that at the time the service chiefs were appointed, things were not so bad.
“They have done their bits and their tenure has expired. They are illegally occupying the seat. It will be good for the government to allow the security chiefs to go and bring in new people to add vigour to the fight against security,” she said.
She also urged the lawmakers and other elites to desist from using police as private security.
“We are complaining about the police not being enough. I think all of us and Nigerians should actually stop using police as private security. Let the police people go out and do their jobs.”
Mr. Adeola Olamilekan (APC, Lagos) urged the senate to revisit and review the recommendations made from the Security Summit in 2018 and implement them.
He called for an amendment to the constitution to allow for state police and commended the southwest governors for coming uip with the Western Nigeria Seciurity Network (WNSN) code-named ‘Operation Amotekun.’
For his part, Mr. Elisha Abbo (PDP, Adamawa) said “Nigeria has “never had it this bad” in terms of insecurity adding that the security chiefs have done their best “but have run out of ideas.”
“There’s grumbling within the military. Yesterday’s survivors are today’s victims and today’s victims are tomorrow’s survivors.
“Mr. President should change the security apparatus. And if we need foreign help, we should not be ashamed of asking for help,” he said.
For the deputy senate president, Mr. Ovie Omo-Agege, the current personnel strength of 300, 000 to police about 200 million citizens and the constitutional structure of the police force is appalling.
He, however, wondered if state governors can cater for state police.
“Assuming we decide to go the route of state police, we don’t want to create a Nigerian police and give it another name. If we create state police today, what are the challenges the police is facing that will not be faced by the community police?
“One of the problems is that we have not created enough resources for them to perform their job. Now, we have state governments who want to create State police.
“These are the same state governments that are not able to pay salaries of workers. If we create the state police, we will go back to the Nigerian police and have the same challenges if not worse,” he said.
For George Sekibo (PDP, Rivers), Nigeria needs to turn back to God.
“Anyone that sows the wind will reap the whirlwind. Today, we are reaping the fruit of what we sowed.
“This wind by the grace of God will go away. It will not be there forever. It is not a time to lament or blame each other.
“We should go back to God as a country and say we are sorry, confess our sins and ask God to forgive us and help us,” he said.
Similarly in the house of representatives, a motion by the chief whip, Mr. Mohammed Monguno (APC, Borno) and 14 others, asked Buhari to sack the service chiefs if they failed to resign their positions.
Monguno, who expressed concern over the growing bloodbath from attacks by Boko Haram and the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP), insurgents in the northeast recalled that activities of the insurgents had drastically reduced earlier in Borno and Yobe States, before the latest resurgence in attacks on communities.
“Recently, the insurgents have forced the Nigerian Military to close traffic on the Damaturu-Maiduguri Road for some days. The Damaturu-Maiduguri Road is the only access road from Maiduguri to other parts of Nigeria,” he said.
Abubakakar Fulata (APC, Jigawa) in his contribution, termed the war against insecurity nationwide as a money-making venture for a powerful set.
Fulata called for the withdrawal of security personnel serving in the northeast and their replacement with new personnel.
He added that the long stay of the security personnel has largely contributed to their inefficiency as they were tired of remaining there.
The lawmaker representing Chibok/Damboa/Gwoza Federal Constituency of Borno State, Mr. Ahmadu Jaha said in his contribution that said the insurgency war “seems to be a cash cow for powerful individuals considering the fact that the war has raged on for more than seven years.
Also contributing, Mr. Francis Waive (PDP, Rivers), said the issue of insecurity in the country was general and needed to be addressed holistically and warned that every Nigerian should be concerned about what is going on in the country.
He however, asked the service chiefs to resign, stressing that the president should take another look at the service chiefs with a view to replacing them with fresh hands who will bring fresh ideas into the security system in the country.
