Many Nigerian Senators Believe Buhari Doesn’t Want To Do Anything About Insecurity, Says Edo Federal Lawmaker
The Senator representing Edo South Senatorial District, Matthew Urhoghide has lamented President Muhammadu Buhari government’s failure to tackle insecurity despite all the support provided for him by the National Assembly.
Urhoghide, while speaking with journalists in Benin City, the Edo State capital, described Buhari as inept and incompetent.
He said, “Let me say that every Nigerian is highly disturbed about the security situation in the country and the events of the past few weeks have shown that the Federal Government is not ready to tackle insecurity in the country.
“The National Assembly, as an arm of government, has done a lot to encourage the government to improve security in Nigeria by appropriating the funds required to buy all types of equipment and recruitment of manpower, so that all the security forces can be mobilised to fight insecurity.
“There is nothing the National Assembly has not done in terms of organising security summits, coming up with resolutions which, of course, have been passed on to the federal government for implementation in order to end the menace of insecurity. But these are suggestions and our resolutions and decisions do not carry any element of compulsion, that is why this situation is beyond the opposition.
“The President has shown a lot of incompetence and a lot of us believe that he does not want to do anything or else there is no reason why we should be in this dire situation, where everybody in Nigeria today is not sure of being alive the next minute.
“If somebody wants to commit suicide in Nigeria, the simplest way to do it is to travel from Abuja to Kaduna by road, because the person stands a 50 percent chance of not returning and the federal government knows this.”
The senator also described the shortage of security personnel in the country as a challenge, saying, “There is a serious shortage of manpower in the military and paramilitary.”
“We have the statistics to show that all the security forces put together (the Army, Air Force, Navy, including Customs) are not up to 1.2 million in a country of 200 million people.
“The Senate, some time ago, mandated those in charge of the police to at least recruit 10,000 every year and went ahead to do the appropriation for them to be able to implement policy reforms, so that the police can be in tandem with international best practices when it comes to policing. I want to tell you that since the last four years that that decision was taken, the Nigeria police has not recruited that number.”