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Insecurity: Lawan, Gbajabiamila meet Buhari on way forward

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SUNDAY ODE, Abuja
Senate President Ahmed Lawan and the Speaker of House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila met with President Muhammadu Buhari Monday at the Presidential Villa to discuss the way forward on the intractable security situation in the country.

The visit to President Buhari by the National Assembly leadership came only a few days after the worrisome state of insecurity in the country generated heated debate on the floors of the two chambers of the federal legislature.
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate had called for the removal of the service chiefs and the total overhaul of the nation’s security architecture.
The meeting between the National Assembly leadership and President Buhari took place behind closed-doors.
Speaking to newsmen after the meeting, Lawan noted that the way forward over the current security challenges in the country topped their discussions.
He said: “We met with Mr. President over the security issues in the country and other matters of governance. The recent security challenges this country is facing requires that we work very closely.
“We had the debates in the two chambers of the National Assembly last week and resolutions were taken and we have come to discuss with Mr. President on the way forward, what we feel about some of these security challenges and also to ask him what he thinks we should do.
“Even though in the Senate we have our adhoc  committee who are to work and  fashion out the specific measures we believe should be taken, but in the interim, there is need for us as a government to ensure that we provide a way out to tackle the security challenges.
“In the intermediate and the long term, we should be able to come up with some strategies, the road map to ensure that we secure the lives and properties of Nigeria.”
Asked if they discussed the issue of service chiefs’ removal, the Senate President said that beyond the demand for the removal of service chiefs, provision of the right equipment and improving the welfare of the troops were paramount.
Speaking in the same vein, Gbajabiamola noted: “Opinions are divided; the generality of the opinion is that the service chiefs should go, that was evident in our debates in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, but sometimes you don’t want a knee-jack reaction.
“Many of us identify that something drastic has to be done. There’s also the school of thought that says since we are talking about banditry, kidnapping and murders, what have the armed forces got to do with that anywhere in the world?
“So the question then arises that if he changes the service chiefs, does that address the issues of kidnapping and banditry? The army, navy and air force are outfits set up to tackle external aggression. It is the police that is set up
for internal security, such as we are all witnessing.
“That’s talking about service chiefs, has the Inspector-General of Police met up with his responsibilities? The question is if we now narrow it that to the Inspector General to Police, many will argue that he has done a very good job and many will argue with you that he’s harmstrung, straight-jacketed, there’s very little he can do in the face of no equipment, no funding and we explained to Mr President that we have to increase funding, we have to recruit more.”
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