It was a moment of tension at the National Assembly Tuesday as lawmakers expressed misgivings over the slain 43 rice farmers in Zabarmari, a community renown for rice farming in Jere local government area of Borno state.
While the House of Representatives resolved that President Muhammadu Buhari should appear before the lawmakers to brief them on the security situation in the country, their Senate counterparts called for the sack of the service chiefs whom they said, had outlived their usefulness.
Reps
Prior to the resolution, it was tensed atmosphere in the House over disagreement on whether the president should be invited.
Members were divided over the suggestion, with the session almost turning rowdy, forcing Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila to call for an immediate closed door session “so that the issue can be resolved.”
A motion was introduced on the floor under matters of urgent public importance by Hon. Ahmed Satomi on behalf of nine of his colleagues from Borno state, on the need to condemn and investigate the insane killing of the unarmed farmers in the state.
Drama however started when one of the co-sponsors, Hon.
Usman Jaha, raised a point of order under matters of privileges, drawing the speaker’s attention to the fact that one of the key prayers of the motion was not read out while it was being presented by Satomi.
“We, all the members from Borno State sat together and agreed that all the prayers of the motion must remain as they are. We all agreed that Mr. President should be invited to come explain the security situation in the country, especially the North East”, the lawmaker insisted.
But replying him, Gbajabiamila said the call for declaration of state of emergency on security issues as moved by his colleague earlier, was sufficient enough to “allow far reaching measures to be taken,” and appealed to Jaha to let the matter rest.
“We were discussing a security matter, and the channels through which such matters are discussed, does not involve inviting the president to come and disclose security strategies. That will be counterproductive,” the speaker noted.
Tension began to mount when Jaha however insisted that unless it was the collective opinion of the 10 members from Borno state, who jointly sponsored the motion to step down the prayer, Buhari should be invited.
In his intervention, Majority leader of the House, Hon. Ado Doguwa toed the line of the speaker, but was barely allowed to make his point amidst shouts of “no”, “no”, “no”.
Similar treatment was meted to Chairman House Committee on Air Force Shehu Koko when he attempted to explain that there was no need to invite the president, as he was shouted down the more, when he said “Mr. President is doing his best.”
With the session turning rowdy, Gbajabiamila said: “Let me say this; I’m a little disappointed with the shouts of no. Let’s go into an executive session and resolve this matter.”
Back from the closed door session which lasted for about 30 minutes, the speaker yielded the floor to Jaha to move his amendment.
And moving his amendment, the lawmaker said the House should invite Mr President to come and explain the security situation, and the motion was unanimously adopted through voice votes.
Beside the call for the president to be invited, sponsors of the motion also prayed the House to condemn the killing of the unarmed rice farmers as well as observe a minute silence in honour of the fallen farmers.
Senate
Also, the Senate Tuesday came out smoking against the current service chiefs over their seeming helplessness on the rising wave of insecurity in the country, and called for their sack, removal immediately by President Muhamnadu Buhari.
It also hit hard at President Buhari over the failure to implement Section 14(1b) of the 1999 constitution which states that the primary responsibility of government is security and welfare of the citizenry.
The president, the upper legislative chamber added, has failed and must sit up in remedying the already worst situation.
Anger of the upper legislative chamber against the Service Chiefs and the President was sequel to a motion moved by Senator Kashim Shettima (APC Borno Central) on recent beheading of 67 rice farmers in Borno state.
Shettima, in the motion, titled: “Beheading of 67 Farmers in Borno by Boko Haram Insurgents:” Need for Urgent Decisive Action” which was exhaustively debated by many senators, said the president had failed in his most rudimentary assignment of securing the nation.
“Whatever it is that the present security chiefs are doing is not working or at least not enough. And if the President insists that the security chiefs are doing their work well, then the logical implication of such assumption is that the President himself as the Constitutional Commander-in-Chief of the country has failed in his most rudimentary assignment of securing the nation,” he said.
He lamented that Borno state had remained the epicentre of Boko Haram insurgency over a decade now despite assurances given that the insurgents had been technically decimated.
According to him, within the last ten years, Boko Haram terrorists had killed not less than 40,000 people, displaced 2.5million people and destroyed properties both public and privately owned worth billions of Naira.
He consequently declared that “we cannot as a nation move forward until the lives of every Nigerian is protected and secured as the primary objective of government is the security and the protection of its citizens.
“Protecting the lives and property of citizens is the primary obligation of government and any government that cannot discharge this basic obligation loses any iota of legitimacy.”
After Senator Shettima’s lead debate on the motion, virtually all the senators who contributed to the debate, called for immediate sack of the Service Chiefs who, according to them, had outlived their usefulness.
Specifically, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC Ekiti Central), in his contribution, said: “This is the time for President to allow the Service Chiefs to go since nobody can give what he or she doesn’t have.”
He said if the president still wants them around him, he can appoint them as security advisers.
“Younger ones with fresh ideas in the military should be allowed to come forward and contribute their quota.
“I call on the Senate that in the event that the President refused to sack the Service Chiefs, we should as Representatives of the people, through a powerful resolution anchored on overriding public interest, call on the tired Service Chiefs to resign,” he said .
Even the lawmaker representing the president in the Senate, Senator Ahmed Baba Kaita (APC Katsina North), in his contribution, said though the president seems to be doing his best, but doing one’s best without result is nothing.
Other senators like Adamu Aliero ( APC Kebbi Central) , Ali Ndume ( APC Borno South), Danjuma La’ah ( PDP Kaduna South) , Sam Egwu ( PDP Ebonyi North ) etc, also lampooned the security chiefs in their contributions and called for adoption of all the prayers sought for in the motion.
Consequently, the Senate in adopting the prayers, urged President Buhari to immediately initiate a transitionary process of phasing out the current over-stayed security chiefs and replacing them with new ones with new ideas and solutions.
They urged the president to take immediate steps to restructure remode and revamp the country’s entire security architecture and provide enough state-of-the-art weapons and equipment to effectively combat the belligerent power of the insurgents.
The lawmakers also urged the president to immediately initiate probe into widespread allegations of corruption and leakages within the security structure and put mechanisms in place to foster transparency and ensure all resources meant and deployed for security were actually spent on the needs on ground.
They similarly called on the federal government to aggressively explore multilateral and bilateral options of partnership with the neighbouring nations of Chad, Niger and Cameroons toward reviving and strengthening the Multinational Joint Task Force and finding a lasting solution to the scourge of insurgency in the Lake Chad region.
The Senate further urged the federal government to as a matter of urgency, recruit at least 10,000 Civilian JIF, versatile with the local terrain in Borno as Agro-Rangers under the aegis of the NCDSC to complement the efforts of the Nigerian Armed Forces; and Direct NEMA and NEDC to provide Succour and psychological support to the bereaved families.
In his remarks after the resolutions, President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan said enough of excuses on matters of insecurity in the land by those who were supposed to provide it.
“People who have nothing to contribute as solutions to the ranging problems and occupying sensitive positions, should be shown the way out,” he said.
Presidency speaks
However, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President Garba Shehu has said the clamour for the sack of service chiefs was untenable.
The presidential aide said Buhari has the prerogative to appoint or sack any of the country’s service chiefs, adding that the president keeps the service chiefs as long as he is satisfied with their performance.
Speaking Monday night in an interview with Arise TV monitored by Blueprint, Shehu said: “I am not aware that the tenure of service chiefs is subjected to any law or regulation that is clearly stated. They serve at the pleasure of the president and (if) the president is satisfied with their performance, he keeps them. The buck stops on his table —with due respect to the feelings of Nigerians.
“The clamour for the sack is out of place considering that the president is not subject to the opinion of opposition political party which has clamoured for this all the time. It is entirely his own determination; he decides who he keeps as his service chiefs and for how long.”
Police explain killing
Venturing some reasons for the increasing internal security, the Police Service Commission (PSC) said lack of adequate weapons was impeding the efficiency of police personnel.
A PSC member, Mr Austin Braimoh, stated this Tuesday while appearing on a television programme.
He said the death of the 43 rice farmers could have been avoided with police presence in Zabamari.
While saying the police personnel have a vital role to play in stabilising the North-East after the military liberates the territory, Braimoh said the Police lacked the sophisticated weaponry to fight internal insurrection.
“We do not have the required armoury to face internal insurrection. Like what is happening in Borno state, you will agree with me that the police is the number one institution that is supposed to be on ground to maintain peace. By the time the military liberates the territory, we are supposed to have strong police presence in that environment.
“The unfortunate development of the slaughter of over 43 rice farmers may have been averted if we have good presence of policemen in that place.
“The spokesman of the president while defending what happened yesterday, alluded to the fact that when these farmers go into the field, they usually enlist the services of Civilian Joint Task Force.
“The Civilian JTF go before them, give them some level of protection from these insurgents and when they close, they also escort them,” he said.
He said: “If we keep bringing 10,000 men onboard every year, we will certainly get to the required number.”
APC advises
But the Oyo state chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has advised President Buhari to change tactics and seek the assistance of international community in combating the security challenges in Nigeria.
The party gave the advice in a condolence message to Governor Zulum over the massacre of the farmers.
In a statement by its spokesman, Dr. Abdul Azeez Olatunde, the party said the act was cowardly and dastardly and condemnable by all and sundry.
“We wish to advise President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of importance roll out change of tactics and where necessary seek the assistance of the international community in combating this hydra headed security challenges.
“There is no shame in seeking International community’s collaboration in solving this endemic security challenges because all the other laudable achievements of this Government might be watered down to insignificance if the resurgence of Security challenges is not nipped in the bud, in good time.
“From Oyo state APC under the the Chairmanship of Chief Solomon Akin Oke and all the members of APC, we are sending our sympathy and condolence to the government and people of Borno State on the cowardly and dastardly murder of innocent 43 rice farmers that were brutally murdered on Sunday 29th November, 2020 in Zabarmati district of Borno state,” it said.
PDP blasts presidency
But condemning the Presidency’s position that the slain farmers never got clearance before going to the farm, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the statement smacked of support for the insurgents.
The party’s national publicity secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, said the position was an admission that the Buhari administration had been “overwhelmed by terrorists and can no longer guarantee our compatriots a normal life.”
“Our party submits that it is weird, reprehensible and repulsive that the Buhari Presidency now seeks to turn itself into a mouthpiece of terrorists by this subtle attempt to rationalize the killing of innocent and hard working Nigerians.
“This unpatriotic stance smacks of support for acts of terrorism and mindless killing of our compatriots by a government whose Commander-in-Chief had promised Nigerians to lead the battle against insurgents from the front.
“Our party is forced to hold that attitudes such as the unpatriotic remark of the Buhari Presidency embolden insurgents in their ceaseless attacks in our country.
“Such also provides further insights into the escalation of acts of terrorism in our country in the last five years,” the party said.
CUPP seeks apology
In a similar condemnation, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), said Shehu’s statement was “a colossal and disastrous exhibition of the mindset of a government that lacks the basic minimum feelings for humanity and a display of a dead conscience only comparable to the beastly criminalities of the terrorists that carried out the heinous bloodshed.”
In a statement Tuesday by its co-national spokesman, Comrade Mark Adebayo, CUPP said: “That statement by a man (Shehu) who is the mouthpiece of the president of this country is a testimony to the I-don’t-care attitudes of this government to the sufferings of the mass of Nigerians by a presidency that specializes in blaming victims of terrorism for being killed or kidnapped same way it blames farmers and other citizens as provoking killer herdsmen to kill them and destroy their farms, towns and villages because they have encroached on grazing routes.
“The latest outburst by the president’s spokesman against the victims of a Boko Haram that the Buhari presidency falsely claimed to have ‘technically defeated’ was not only irresponsible, but utterly unsavory, inhuman, insensitive and reprehensible.”While asking Buhari to “personally apologise” to Nigerians and families of the victims, it said “if you cannot empathise with the people, at least don’t aggravate their misfortunes.”
