Tuesday last week, it was fit of rage in the Senate over the gruesome killings of 67 rice farmers in Zambarmari village , Borno state by Boko Haram insurgents penultimate Saturday. TAIYE ODEWALE reports.
The fit of rage by Senators over the killings was triggered by a motion sponsored on the dastardly act by Senator Kashim Shettima (APC Borno Central) and exhaustively debated by many of the Senators at the plenary.
Shettima had in the motion anchored on orders 42 and 52 of the Senate’s standing rule, chronicled horrendous activities of the Boko Haram insurgents in the North Eastern part of the country in general and Borno state in particular over the years which had claimed over 40,000 innocent lives, displaced millions of residents in the affected areas and led to destruction of properties cum infrastructure worth trillions of naira.
He, according in the motion titled: “‘Beheading of 67 Farmers in Borno by Boko Haram Insurgents: Need for Urgent Decisive Action”, sought for far reaching resolutions of the Senate against the service chiefs and invariably against President Muhamnadu Buhari .
Specifically, Senator Shettima in the eight – prayer seeking motion , convinced the Senate in calling for immediate sack of the service chiefs who in the eyes of the federal lawmakers , had outlived their usefulness and as well, called on President Muhamnadu Buhari to sit up as far as compliance with section 14(1b) of the 1999 Constitution is concerned.
The section states, “The primary purpose of governance is welfare and security of citizens ” , which they argued, are not in anyway being provided for Nigerians going by realities on ground.
“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”, Shettima said .
He lamented that Borno state has remained the epicenter of Boko Haram insurgency over a decade now despite assurances given that the insurgents had been technically decimated .
Accordimg to him, within the last ten years, Boko Haram terrorists had killed not less than 40,000 people , displayed 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 losses ary iota of legitimacy”
After Senator Shettima’s lead debate on the motion , virtually all the Senators who contributed to the debate , concurred with all the prayers sought by adopting them as resolutions.
Consequently in adopting the prayers as resolutions, the upper legislative chamber, 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.
“Urge 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.
“Urge 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 are actually spent on the needs on ground.
“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 Fcrce and finding a lasting solution to the scourge of insurgency in the Lake Chad region;
“Urged the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency, recruit at least 10,000 Civilian JTF, versatile with the local terrain in Borno as Agro-Rangers under the aegis of the NSCDC to complement the efforts of the Nigerian Armed Forces; and Direct NEMA and NEDC to provide succour and psychological support to the bereaved families”.
Though about 13 senators contributed to debate on the motion lampooning the federal government on the spate of insecurity in the land , but the submissions of Senators Micheal Opeyemi Bamidele ( APC Ekiti Central) and Ahmad Baba – Kaita ( APC Katsina North), captured the views of others.
Senator Bamidele in his own contribution said: ” This is the time for President Buhari to allow the service chiefs to go since nobody can give what he or she doesn’t have.
“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 refuse 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”.
Baba Kaita who incidentally is the Senator representing President Buhari in the Senate ( Katsina North), fired a subtle missile against him by saying ” though the President seems to be doing his best but doing one’s best without result, is nothing” .
Toeing the line of senators in his closing remarks on the motion after adoption of the far reaching resolutions, the President of the Senate , Ahmad Lawan , also came out smoking , by telling those in charge of security matters in the land , ” enough of excuses on persistent failures”
“People who have nothing to contribute as solutions to the ranging problems and occupying sensitive positions , should be shown the way out “, he said .
According to him , the resolutions taken this time around by the Senate against the rising wave of insecurity in the land , will be delivered to the president directly for ensurance of their implementations .
But it is a week today that the resolutions have been taken without any sign of implementation of any , particularly the one that has to do with the sacking of the service chiefs .
Time will definitely tell whether the resolutions being advisory in the eyes of the law , will be ignored by the Presidency like previous ones, or implemented .