The leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has endorsed the impeachment moves by the opposition lawmakers in the National Assembly against President Muhammad Buhari over the lingering and frightening insecurity in the country, advising Nigerians not to whip religious, political or tribal sentiment of the move
Speaking with the Tribune Online in Abuja over the move, the National Chairman of the Party, Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam said the Party wholeheartedly supported the bold step of the federal lawmakers ” because nobody owns Nigeria”.
According to him, ” we are all co-owners. It does not belong to President Buhari. It was just a privileged man elected to be the president. He was not the only one who happened to be the president of Nigeria. We have seen Obasanjo’s tenure not too long ago. We have seen the decisiveness, the kind of muscling Obasanjo dealt with these kinds of agents of destabilization. Whether you like him or not, he has displayed the capacity and ability to govern.
“He removed governors who believed they were emperors and reduced them to submission. And that is what power is all about. As things are today nobody seems to be in control, the bandits are gradually taking firm control of the country, nowhere is safe again
“Now even the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja and its environs are no longer safe anymore. The challenge has been brought to the FCT. Then who is safe? You can see government agencies beefing up barricades around them, conceding defeat.
“They are conceding defeat. If an institution responsible for the protection of lives and property and having the arms and ammunition is now barricading themselves then, there is a serious problem which must be addressed squarely.
“I was passing through the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, they now blocked it, you have to go one way. They are conceding defeat. They should be brave. They are trained to be brave. They were given arms to be brave. But you see them conceding blocking the whole road. They can put sufficient well-trained manpower along that headquarters standing there rotating to check any threats to the outfit.
“Rather they blocked the highway. Go to the Defence Headquarters in Area 10, it is the same thing. Same for SSS. Now citizens are at the mercy of crime and criminality. This is where we are as a nation. Impeaching Buhari is not because anybody has any personal issue with him. I supported Buhari, I voted Buhari. But he has not lived up to the expectations of Nigerians
“Those who choose to whip sentiments are at the liberty to whip sentiments. But I don’t have any other country than Nigeria. I cannot be loyal to any other country
” I could also remember when President Buhari was campaigning, he said all the investigations, white papers done and dusted, he would go after them. We are still waiting to see which of the white papers he has implemented
“So it is shocking and unbelievable that this is the same man that was whipping up sentiments and propaganda. Alhaji Lai Mohammed himself and everybody in the All Progressives Congress (APC) said that in six months they would wipe out Boko Haram. I don’t know who is wiping out who.
“Then you have the aides of the President because they are highly insensitive and highly untrained to say those talking about facts are anarchists, describing citizens that were raising critical observations in the overall interest of the country as anarchists. We have never heard of this before.
“Leadership is about condoning criticisms. It is about accepting criticisms. As I am sitting in this chair, I take the heat. If anything goes wrong in the SDP I take the heat. I take responsibility whether I know it or not. But I have a duty to act. If there is anybody who would destabilize the SDP I will take a decisive position on that. I will not wait till things get bad”.
He urged the federal lawmakers who are currently on annual recess to summon courage on resumption to save the nation from being taken over by bandits at dawn by commencing the impeachment process against President Bihari in the National interest, saying with a serious leader in the helm of affair the nation would regain its lost glory
According to him, ” once you have a serious president and a serious governor. if you give them two months dedicated to curbing crime and criminality, they will do it. The Department of State Services, DSS are doing well in terms of generating intelligence. The Kuje incident generated sufficient intelligence for the Military and the Police to prevent it from happening from what was reported.
” If intelligence is being generated at the disposal of the President and Service Chiefs, and nothing is being done, who do you blame? Was it that these people were invisible? The answer is no. Do they live within us? The answer is yes”