The Federal Legislature, made up of the Senate and House of Representatives has declared a total war against the growing insecurity in Nigeria and vowed to give the presidency full backing by setting target date for ending it.
The legislature warned that any leader in the security circle who failed to deliver the required results after the set target will be shown the way out.
Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, who spoke to newsmen today, June 21, shortly after a private audience with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, said that the national assembly will give express approval to request from the President of any amount of funds required to recruit more security personnel and acquire more equipment to fight the battle, but that performance of the personnel will be monitored.
Senator Ahmed Lawan said that during the discussion he had with the President, they were worried about the raging insecurity in the the country, adding “what we discussed was that we should do whatever it takes to improve the security situation in the country. “And we believe that the senate and, indeed the National Assembly is positively disposed to receiving even supplementary budget purposely to address the fundamental needs of the security agencies of our country. so that we will be able to empower them, enable them to fight the Boko Haram in the North East, banditry and other security challenges across the country.
“Secondly, in the senate, we believe we need to provide more resources for recruitment by the security agencies: the Army, the Navy, Air Force, Police, immigration and the paramilitary generally. We need to have more manpower or personnel and this is not something you get on platter of gold. Whoever wants to make an omelette will break an egg.
“Section 14 subsection 2b of the constitution of the Federal Republic Nigeria is very categorical and crystal clear, that the purpose of government shall be to provide for security and welfare of the people. “Therefore, we have no luxury of any option other than to address the security challenges more than any other thing.
“We provided for N500 billion intervention for COVID 19 for the revised budget, and various agencies: the CBN, the NNPC and the IOCs provided for palliatives and some kind of interventions for the COVID 19 challenge.
“I think we must tell ourselves the truth, that the security situation in the country, especially in the northern part of the country, require that we give much more resources to the security agencies. And those who are heading these agencies, especially the service chiefs, must sit up. In fact, we must have milestones and timelines on how we are going to deal with this.
“We can’t just go on without any time frame for dealing with these issues.
“If after we provide some support and someone is found short of expectations, he should be shown the way out if he refuses to go.
“Because the lives of Nigerians are so precious and therefore must be more important than any other considerations or sentiments.
“I believe that today, the most essential thing in government is to address the security challenges.”
