[UPDATE] Insecurity: Buhari more worried than anyone else ― Lawan, Gbajabiamila

Following the National Assembly resolution calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the service chiefs due to the deterioration in the nation’s security, Senate President Ahmed Lawan and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Monday, had about one-hour meeting the with the president after which they revealed that Buhari was worried about the situation than anybody else in the country.

Emerging from the meeting, which took place at the presidential villa, Abuja, the senate president conceded that the situation has reached “a tipping point,” saying that all hands must be on deck to address the menace.

Lawan, who said they were with the president to discuss the insecurity in the country, revealed that the resolution seeking the sack of the service chiefs featured in the discussion.

He was, however, not forthcoming when asked about the president’s disposition to it.

The senate president 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 ad-hoc committee who are to work and fashion out the specific measures we believe should be taken, but 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.”

Responding to the question on service chiefs, he said: “We discussed everything that matters as far as the issue of security of this country is concerned. We believe that it is imperative that we are able to provide that necessary equipment and welfare for the armed forces of this country and the police, to ensure that they are able to operate and perform efficiently and effectively.”

When pressed to give the president’s response, the senate president stated: “Mr President was forthcoming. Of course, as the leader of this country, he is more worried than anybody else about the situation.

“So, we are on the same page that we should be able to do whatever it takes to ensure that the security agencies are able to perform better than they are doing now.”

Asked whether he believes the sack of the service chiefs will solve the problem, Lawan responded: “You see, in matters of security of course, as leaders we are supposed to lead, but when it concerns security, every single citizen matters in this.

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“So, it is for all of us, citizens and leaders to ensure that we are playing our part as it is necessary. But I believe that now the time has come, we have reached a tipping point that everybody in Nigeria is concerned about the security situation and, therefore, we are all prepared and that is why we have come to meet with Mr President as leaders of National Assembly on behalf of our colleagues, to discuss the way forward.

“And of course I believe that citizens participation is critical and crucial.”

In his comments, Gbajabiamila agreed that the president was indeed very concerned about the insecurity in the country.

He remarked: “Is the President as concerned as we are? Answer. Probably more. Is the President looking to do something about it? Answer: yes.

“The question of security is uppermost in his mind and he opened up to us and you must understand that some communications are privileged, but suffice to say that the President is concerned and he intends to do something about our challenges.

“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, bus 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 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 harm-strung, 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.

“We are talking, even just right now we have gone on to set up a committee that will periodically review the issue of security, maybe once a month or once in six weeks, which will involve the two arms of government and the party.

“Major progress was made in this discussion, which is a meeting that lasted over an hour and I believe Nigerians will begin to see traction, they’ll begin to see changes. You can be sure that concrete steps were taken in that direction.”