Sunday Aborisade
13 May 2021
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SENATORS Biodun Olujimi (PDP, Ekiti) and Yusuf Yusuf (APC, Taraba), on Wednesday, disagreed over calls for the impeachment of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), over his inability to deal with Nigeria’s worsening insecurity.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party senators had last week asked Buhari to rise up to the occasion or risk legislative action.
However, their counterparts in the ruling All Progressives Congress dismissed such calls, insisting that the president was doing his best to tackle the situation.
Olujimi, (PDP, Ekiti South) urged her colleagues not to hesitate to opt for Buhari’s impeachment whenever the need arose.
She said, “Impeachment is not yet on the table. When it is on the table, we would all look at it squarely in the face because if we have a serious problem like what we have in Nigeria, we need to also think seriously about the solution.”
She lamented that the Buhari regime was not doing enough to tackle the scourge.
In response, Yusuf, (APC, Taraba Central) disagreed. He said, “If you impeach the President, who takes over? Is it not the Vice President? Is it not the same government? Or you remove the president and his vice, and the Senate President takes over, is it not the same government?
“We must think out of the box and part of that is to see it as our own responsibility to solve insecurity in this country.
“Intelligence is very important. Yes, there are some elements of frustration here and there, yes, I agree. This is governance. If you are frustrated, that does not mean that you should condemn, kill and damage, no.
“In my own opinion, President Muhammadu Buhari is doing the best that he could. We must also synergize with him. We must give him the kind of assistance that will help solve our problem.
“The responsibility to provide security lies not only on President Muhammadu Buhari, but also on all state governors, who also control the local governments.”
But Olujimi said, “I think we are all tired of the lingering insecurity in the country. For instance, we have a 12-year -old insurgency with us, the Boko Haram in the North-East, then we got this nasty experience of insecurity.
“What will it cost us to declare insecurity a national emergency so that everybody will take it very seriously?
“I see that the will to do it is not there and the leadership is not rising to the occasion. When a country is fighting insecurity, it needs a committed leader to be in the saddle.
“I believe and hope that the President will rise to the occasion and give us a time frame whereby the current state of insecurity will be tackled once and for all.
“To think that robbers could strike at the villa which is the epitome of security for all of us is unthinkable. They even gained access to the apartment of the Chief of Staff to Mr. President, then we are in serious trouble.
“The time for the government to do something serious is now. We must not allow people to resort to self-help because it could take us to a different direction.
“The President should sit up because of insecurity. This is Ramadan yet nobody is traveling because they are not sure of what they will meet at home. I hope somebody is listening.”
