Insecurity: Senators stage walkout, sing ‘Buhari must go’

THE floor of the Senate on Wednesday witnessed commotion as senators of the opposition parties angrily stormed out of plenary, chanting ‘Buhari must go’ and the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, should follow. 

The lawmakers are protesting against the security situation in the country. 

Trouble started when the Senate Minority Leader, Philip Aduda, raised a point of order for the Senate to deliberate on issues raised at the closed-door session which lasted for two hours.

The Senate President, Lawan, had, after the closed-door session, announced that issues relating to the smooth running of Senate and unity in Nigeria were deliberated upon, but instructed the leader of the Senate to proceed with items listed on the order paper for the day. 

Miffed by the development, the Senate minority leader raised a point of order, calling for deliberation on issues discussed at the closed-door session, saying that it was based on insecurity and threats to national peace. 

“Mr President, I raised this point of order to bring to the front burner issues deliberated upon at the closed-door session. 

“Resolution made by all senators at the closed door session which lasted for two hours was to further deliberate on it in plenary and arrive at a resolution to give President Muhammadu Buhari ultimatum to stop the worsening security situation or face impeachment,” he said. 

Lawan quickly interrupted him by saying that his point of order fell flat on his face since he did not discuss it with him. 

He, thereafter, instructed the leader of the Senate to proceed with items on the order paper. 

Angered by the development, all senators across the opposition parties, led by Aduda, stormed out of the chamber chanting, ‘All we are saying, Buhari must go,’ ‘Nigeria must survive,’ ‘Ahmad Lawan should follow ….’ 

The protesting senators, including Adamu Bulkachuwa of Bauchi Central (All Progressives Congress), later gathered at the Senate press centre to disclose what transpired at the closed-door session. 

Speaking on behalf of the senators, Aduda said their anger was fueled by the refusal of the Senate President to follow resolutions taken by senators across party lines at the closed-door session. 

“We are here to tell Nigerians that, as senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we are disappointed with the way the worsening security situation across the country is being handled. 

“We held a closed-door session for two hours, where it was resolved that the issue would be deliberated upon at plenary with an agreed resolution to give President Buhari six weeks to address it or face impeachment by both chambers of the National Assembly. 

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“Our walking out of the chamber is to express our disappointment in the way the matter was later handled by the Senate president. 

“President Buhari has been given all he wanted in terms of adequate funding of the security agencies but nothing to show for it. He needs to shape up or ship out,” he said. 

However, Lawan, in his closing remarks before the adjournment of the session, said all senators were worried and concerned about the security situation in the country. 

He said an emergency session may be held during the long recess if the need arises. 

The Senate later adjourned plenary for its annual recess to reconvene on September 20. 

Following the move, the House of Representatives has signaled its intention to consider the matter soon. The indication was given by the minority leader of the House, Honourable Ndudi Elumelu, while leading a delegation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) parliamentarians to woo former APC chieftain, Daniel Bwala, to the main opposition party. 

Speaking at the Guzape, Abuja office of Bwala, who recently resigned his membership of the ruling party in protest against its Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, Elumelu affirmed the lawmakers’ desire to impeach the president, due to the escalating insecurity in the country and other perceived failures. 

He said the House of Representatives would consider the idea soon and make its position known to the public. 

The minority leader, who was accompanied by other minority officers of the House, said the delegation was in the Borno State-born Bwala’s office to encourage him to join the rescue mission of the PDP. 

While noting that it was the first time that parliamentarians had gone to a private citizen to woo him into a political party, he said he had watched with admiration how Bwala stood against the attempt to exclude sections of the country by the ruling party. 

The lawmaker stated that the legal practitioner had taken the right step as according to him, “the APC is a bad medicine.” 

Elumelu observed that while resigning from the APC, Bwala did not indicate which political party he would join and, therefore, urged him to come to the PDP.

In his response, the former APC chieftain said he was mindful of the problems of the country as he expressed appreciation that the parliamentarians had come to him on account of what he had contributed to nation building as a private citizen. 

He requested for time to reflect on the demand to join the opposition but stated: “Your request is not what I can say no to.” 

Bwala said while he was in the ruling party, he regarded the PDP as a well organised political party, promising that they would hear from him soon about the request. 

Protesting senators lack capacity to impeach president —Yakassai, Okorie 

Reacting to the impeachment threat, the duo of elder statesman, Mallam Tanko Yakassai and chieftain of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwa Okorie, said the lawmakers lacked the capacity. Mallam Yakassai said the minority senators were merely courting media attention. 

He said: “Are you sure they have two-third majority? They just want to hit the headlines. 

“To impeach a president, there are quite a lot of things that must be done. I am not sure APGA and PDP have the number. They should consider the processes before embarking on it. They just want to hit the headlines. Very few of them care to look at the possibility of what they are saying.” 

He, however, called for efforts to de-escalate the heightening insecurity in the country. 

Chief Okorie, in his reaction, said, “My take is that we are in an election period and they need to make political statement. Other than that, I don’t see the capacity of these people to really im- peach Buhari. 

“Having said that, we must all agree that insecurity in the country has become existential and Buhari hasn’t done enough. He knows what to do but isn’t doing it. The nation spent so much to procure Tucano jets, why are they not being used? 

“The new service chiefs haven’t done enough, even the National Security Adviser should have thrown in the towel. We also need to do something about the country’s security architecture, we need to decentralise policing. The terrorists are now so daring that they are threatening the seat of government.”

Impeachment threat unlikely to succeed —Ex-NBA VP, Ubani 

Former vice president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr Monday Ubani, said the call for Buhari’s impeachment by the minority senators will likely not succeed, though it has made a positive effect. 

Reacting to moves during the news hour on Arise Television on Wednesday evening, the former NBA chief noted that though the impeachment move by the senators has no doubt made a positive effect, it is not likely to succeed as the PDP sena- tors are in the minority in the Senate. 

He said: “I am very happy that the attention of the president is being drawn to the state of anarchy that is pervading in the country, where bandits and terrorists have already taken over the country with nowhere now safe. 

“It is a very dangerous signal and the president should sit up with the security chiefs in order to secure the country now that there are threats all over the country,” he added. 

What happened at NASS just bravado —Presidency 

The presidency on Wednesday called the bluff of senators from opposition parties. Reacting to the develop- ment on Channels Television’s Politics Today, presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, was of the opinion that the statesmen were merely playing to the gallery, adding that there is not much they will do after the drama which played out in the upper chamber. 

“I think it was just bravado and, sadly, security is not something you subject to bravado. 

“You don’t begin to issue flippant ultimatums in something that is a matter of life and death,” Adesina asserted. 

He further averred that “those who spoke today are the minority of minorities, they will have their say as is needful in a democracy but it will not go beyond that. The majority will have its way. 

“They know in their heart of hearts that they cannot achieve what they are saying, they are just wasting the country’s time, wasting the time of the upper chamber of the National Assembly, they know that they cannot achieve it,” Adesina said