President Muhammadu Buhari has again snubbed the House of Representatives that has been inviting him to address federal legislators on the menace of insecurity in Nigeria. The president’s snobbish posturing has drawn the ire of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The worried PDP has accordingly charged President Buhari to abort his ‘’private visit’’ abroad and return home immediately to face the deteriorating security situation in the country.
The House of Representatives had re-invited the holidaying president on Thursday re-invited President to address the Green Chamber of the bicameral Legislature on what his All Progressives Congress (APC) administration is doing about the high spate of insecurity across Nigeria.
It was the second invitation by the lawmakers to Buhari within three weeks. While deliberating on a motion on insecurity raised by Ahmed Safana from Katsina State, Buhari’s home state, the legislators summoned the Nigerian leader.
The latest development is coming less than a month after the troubled lawmakers summoned Buhari o return home over the same issue. The president who is currently enjoying a private trip to the United Kingdom, is yet to honour the lawmakers’ summon.
At their Thursday plenary, they lamented the incessant killings being recorded in parts of the country as a result of attacks by bandits among others, with the latest of such attacks taking place on Wednesday night, where schoolgirls were abducted from their school in Zamfara.
Deputy Speaker of the House, Yusuf Lasun, said lack of adequate government policies and actions have been part of the major causes of the security challenges, and queried, ‘’is there any government in the last eight years that have shown us why people are being killed? No government. The major problem is the kind of policy we give out, either at state or local government level. It took Bill Gates to come and tell us in Nigeria that we’ve neglected health and education.’’
Mohammed Monguno from Borno State, a major flashpoint of the Boko Haram insurgency, is suggesting that the insecurity in the country could be related to the high rate of unemployment, arguing, ‘’if we are going to feed the 200 million Nigerians, it is only thoughtful that we can create jobs for the youth so that they can have a means of livelihood. If care is not taken, if the situation is not curbed, we will not be able to sleep. There are places in my community that you cannot travel to with a jeep or flashy car.’’
While they subsequently resolved to summon the president to address them on efforts being made to tackle the insecurity in the country, the House had unanimously on April 11, 2019, adopted a motion with the mandate to issue a query to President Buhari, asking him to explain the spate of insecurity under his administration within 48 hours.
The boiling federal legislators resolved to ‘’request that the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces address the House and the entire nation within 48 hours’’.
In the mean time, PDP says it is completely unacceptable for President Buhari to practically abandon his responsibilities, as the Commander-In-Chief, at least for now, to pursue unexplained private matters in foreign lands, while bandits, marauders and insurgents seize our nation; maim, kidnap and kill our citizens with reckless abandon.
According to the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, ‘’President Buhari’s inattention has emboldened insurgents and bandits to continue to over-run communities, unleash mayhem and bloodletting on citizens in Borno, Zamfara, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe Taraba, Kaduna, Benue, Kogi and other states of the federation, including his home state, Katsina.
‘’While President Buhari wanders abroad, bandits are having a field day, pillaging communities in Katsina state; killing several persons and abducting the District Head of his hometown, Daura, Musa Umar; the father in-law of Mr. President’s security aide.
‘’Within this period, marauders invaded communities in Adamawa and killed no fewer that 26 innocent Nigerians; many more have been killed in Borno, Taraba, Benue and Zamfara states, where bandits also reportedly attacked Government Girls Secondary School Moriki, and kidnapped some school girls.
‘’While the Buhari administration remains virtually nonchalant, kidnappers have taken over many of our major highways, with hundreds of compatriots held in captivity in forests along Kaduna-Abuja, Taraba-Katsina-Ala and other highways in the country.’’
As the security situation in Nigeria worsens, the opposition says there are allegations in the public space that certain individuals around President Buhari’s administration are benefitting from the insecurity.
According to the PDP, ‘’this is in addition to allegations that some of the bandits arrested, in states such as Katsina, are not Nigerians but aliens allegedly imported by the APC from Niger Republic to assist it in unleashing violence and rigging the 2019 general elections. We are urging the police to investigate this alleged links.
‘’The fact remains that President Buhari has completely failed our nation. In fact, his dereliction to duty is a clear signal that he has been practically overwhelmed, deflated and has nothing to offer. The situation in Nigeria today signposts the terrible condition our nation will face if the Presidential mandate is not retrieved at the tribunal to enable competent and uncompromised hands to run the affairs of our country.
‘’We are therefore, calling on President Buhari to return home immediately and use the remaining part of his tenure to seek help instead of wandering abroad under the guise of private visits.’’
