Against the backdrop heightened insecurity, especially the recent kidnap of over 300 hundred students in Katsina, senators, yesterday, threatened impeachment and suspension of Budget 2021 Bill to force President Muhammadu Buhari to act on the grave situation in the country.
Also, yesterday, the House of Representatives asked the authorities to urgently implement the Safe Schools Declaration to protect children and their teachers from attacks.
These came as Zamfara State closed boarding schools, northern elders, the Peoples Democratic Party, the Sultan of Sokoto, among others, raised the insecurity alarm to a higher pitch.
At the Senate, there was palpable anger as senators took turns to air their views on the deplorable security situation.
Debating on a motion sponsored by Senator Bello Mandiya (APC, Katsina South), which sought an investigation into the missing students, senators rejected, angrily, a call to invite service chiefs and Inspector General of Police for deliberation.
They submitted that the country had moved into a state of total collapse and urged the President to take full responsibility for massive security failure.
In his contribution, Senator Olubunmi Adetunbu (APC, Ekiti North) asked President Muhammadu Buhari to remember and fulfil the pledge he made in Chatham House, London in 2015, to tackle insecurity head-on across the country.
Buhari had on February 26, 2015, in a speech in Chatham House, said that if elected President, the world would have no cause to worry about Nigeria “as it has had to recently.” He promised that Nigeria would return to its stabilising role in West Africa and that no inch of Nigerian territory would ever be lost to the enemy because “we will pay special attention to the welfare of our soldiers in and out of service, we will give them adequate and modern arms and ammunition to work with.”
BUT reacting, yesterday, former Senate minority leader, Abiodun Olujimi, suggested that the National Assembly should halt work on the 2021 Budget Bill to compel President Muhammadu Buhari to listen to suggestions from Senate.
She said: “The presidency is not an award, it is a call to duty. And when you call a man to duty, he must be able to know when the buck stops on his table. Right now the buck stops on the President’s table as far as security in this country is concerned.”
She argued that the time had come for the Senate to take drastic action before the budget.
