The House of Representatives, yesterday, re-invited President Muhammadu Buhari to appear on the floor of the chamber to address the lawmakers on what his administration was doing about the high spate of insecurity across Nigeria.
This is the second invitation by the lawmakers to the President within three weeks.
The House had on April 11, 2019, unanimously adopted a motion with the mandate to issue a query to the President, asking him to explain the reason for the spate of insecurity under his administration and what he was doing to tame the situation within 48 hours.
The lawmakers resolved to “request that the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces address the House and the entire nation within 48 hours”.
At the plenary, last Tuesday, another motion was adopted on the security crises in parts of Katsina State, making the chamber to re-invite the President.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, asked President Muhammadu Buhari to return home and fix the security challenges facing the country.
Disclosing this in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, yesterday, the party said that Buhari’s trip to the UK is ‘completely unacceptable’, noting that he practically abandon his responsibilities as the Commander-In-Chief of the country.
The PDP equally accused Buhari of abandoning his job and letting bandits, marauders and insurgents seize the nation; maim, kidnap and kill Nigerian citizens with reckless abandon.
The statement reads thus, “President Buhari’s inattention has emboldened insurgents and bandits to continue to over-run communities, unleash mayhem and bloodletting on citizens in Borno, Zamfara, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Taraba, Kaduna, Benue, Kogi and other states of the federation, including Mr. President’s home state, Katsina.
“While President Buhari wanders abroad, bandits are having a field day, pillaging communities in Katsina State; killing several persons and abducting the District Head of his hometown, Daura, Musa Umar; the father in-law of Mr. President’s security aide.
“Within this period, marauders invaded communities in Adamawa and killed no fewer than 26 innocent Nigerians; many more have been killed in Borno, Taraba, Benue and Zamfara states, where bandits also reportedly attacked Government Girls Secondary School, Moriki, and kidnapped some school girls.
“While the Buhari administration remains virtually nonchalant, kidnappers have taken over many of our major highways, with hundreds of compatriots held in captivity in forests along Kaduna-Abuja, Taraba-Katsina-Ala and other highways in the country.
“It is clear that President Buhari has not demonstrated required capacity to control the security situation and now resorts to cheap escapism, particularly in the face of allegations in the public space that certain individuals around his administration are benefitting from the situation.
“This is in addition to allegations that some of the bandits arrested, in states such as Katsina, are not Nigerians but aliens allegedly imported by the All Progressives Congress (APC) from Niger Republic to assist it in unleashing violence and rigging the 2019 general elections.
“The PDP urges the police to investigate this alleged links. The fact remains that President Buhari has completely failed our nation.
“In fact, his dereliction to duty is a clear signal that he has been practically overwhelmed, deflated and has nothing to offer.
“The situation in Nigeria today signposts the terrible condition our nation will face if the Presidential mandate is not retrieved at the tribunal to enable competent and uncompromised hands to run the affairs of our country.
“The PDP, therefore, calls on President Buhari to immediately return home and use the remaining part of his tenure to seek help instead of wandering abroad under the guise of private visits”, the PDP added.
In another development, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress and Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, yesterday held a marathon meeting with newly elected members behind closed doors.
Gbajabiamila, in the middle of the meeting, led the members-elect to address journalists, where the outgoing Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Mr. Omofiok Luke, who spoke on their behalf, said the incoming representatives had endorsed the Majority Leader for Speaker in the 9th National Assembly.
The members-elect were said to be 178, drawn from various political parties.
Luke said, “I am the Speaker of Akwa Ibom State and here with me are newly-elected members of the House of Representatives, and this is a conglomeration of people of different parties.
“I am of the PDP. We have members of the APC here. We have members of APGA, we have people from AA, we have people from ACP and we have people from ADC. It’s a multi-party arrangement.
“We decided to convene ourselves as newly-elected members of the House of Representatives to look at the emergence of the next leadership of the 9th Assembly and in doing so, we looked through the antecedents and credentials of those who are aspiring to lead the National Assembly.
“We acknowledge the fact that this country today, with the challenges that we have, that we need a bipartisan approach to solve the problem of Nigeria.
“And the person and the man that has shown that credibility, capacity; that has what it takes even as reflected in his manifesto, to carry the entire parties along in resolving and solving the issues of Nigeria;
the man who will not mortgage the independence of the legislature but at the same time would not engage the executive in unnecessary fisticuffs; a man who will build a good relationship between the executive and the legislature, between the legislature and the judiciary; a man who will care about the welfare of Nigerians; a man who will put the interest of Nigeria above his personal interest; and a man who will put the interest of Nigeria above the party.
“We have resolved today, to have come from our different states, from our different constituencies, and we have found as newly-elected members, having looked through the credentials and the CV; we have found Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila as a man who has the capacity to lead the 9th National Assembly as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“We know that he is not going to let Nigerians down and we know and believe that he is not going to let us down and we know and believe that he is not going to let God down.”
Soon after the address, the members-elect returned to their closed-door meeting at about 6pm.
Some of those in attendance were seen each with a pack of Tecno F1 phone, which some of them gave to their orderlies and aides to hold.