Gbajabiamila: ‘Now is the time to ask difficult questions’
Anger flowed on the floor of House of Representatives on Tuesday as lawmakers summoned President Muhammadu Buhari to come and explain the security situation in the country following a debated motion of urgent public importance on the shocking killing of 43 rice farmers in Borno by Boko Haram insurgents.
The motion, which among other prayers, sought to investigate the killings, was moved by a member representing Jere Federal Constituency, Rep. Satomi Ahmad, and nine other lawmakers from Borno.
Endorsing the motion, the lawmakers also urged the President to overhaul the security architecture of the country.
The member representing Damboa/Chibok/Gwoza Federal Constituency, Rep. Ahmad Jaha, amended the motion to read: “Invite Mr President to come to the House and explain the security situation in the country.” The motion was endorsed and passed in a unanimous vote by the House.
Presiding over the session, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila on Tuesday said Nigeria is “not close to winning the war against terrorism,” noting that the dastardly killing of the 43 Borno farmers and the growing influence of the sect in the beleaguered Northeast showed that the country still has a long way to go to end the decades-old war.
Gbajabiamila who called on the Nigerian government to do a re-assesment of its war against terror, lamented the killing of helpless locals daily as widespread insecurity exacerbates.
“On Saturday, the 28th of November 2020 forty-three of our fellow citizens in the town of Zabarmari were cruelly murdered and decapitated by insurgents of the Boko Haram terrorist organisation.
“Forty-three people who set out to their farms to harvest their meagre yields became in one afternoon, the newest victims of the evil that has brought untold grief to too many, for far too long.
“For more than a decade, we have confronted the evil that is Boko Haram. We have not won and do not appear close to winning the war against terrorism in Nigeria,” Gbajabiamila said.
He added that “We must ask ourselves what it is we are doing wrong? What have we failed to do? How is it that despite the billions in resources expended and the countless lives lost.
“Now is the time to ask difficult questions. We ask these questions in the sincere hope that through our collective and concerted search for answers, we might arrive at a solution that spares us further bloodshed.”
“In the interim, we will consider interventions that compensate the people of #Zabarmari for the loss of their harvest so that they are not so deprived that they return quickly to the killing feeds where already, they have lost so much.”
“May God bless the memory of the departed. May he grant succour to the ones they’ve left behind. God bless you all, and God bless our Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.
The New Diplomat had reported that the Nigerian Senate on Tuesday also advised President Buhari to immediately sack the military chiefs, noting that the nation now needs fresh hands and ideas to lead the battle against terrorism and other security matters that have recently brought Nigeria to its knee.
