The motion moved by Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Inter-parliamentary Affairs Worldwide and a former gubernatorial candidate in Ondo State, on the floor of the house on May 6th 2025, which calls for the convening of a national conference on security to be held in Abuja with attendees to be drawn from all nooks and crannies of Nigeria, came to Nigerians as a shock and surprise. This call was the least that Nigerians would expect from members of their National Assembly, who have the APC Chieftains and members in majority, and who have the big enchilada on their side. The posture of the members of the Senate hitherto had been that of having the monopoly of wisdom with disregard for the will of the people in solving the ills of the society. The Senator who moved the motion was only trying to bail out the leadership of his party the All Progressive Congress party (APC) and its members who constitute the majority in the House of Assembly from the failure to live up to the expectations of Nigerians, especially with regards to the most important function of government as provided for in Section 14, subsection 2b of the 1999 constitution as amended, which is the security of lives and property of the citizens. This same Senator in the usual braggadocios manner of the leadership of the All Progressive Congress party (APC) and its attendant swagger declared to Nigerians on Arise TV in 2024 that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had been very strategic in dealing with the insecurity problem in the country by the introduction of relevant technology including Artificial Intelligence app to tackle the problem of insecurity in Nigeria, promising that by 2025 all the criminal elements would feel the heat and insecurity would become history, especially the Boko Haram and ISWAP insurgents, as well as the bandits.
The bold-faced action which symbolized biting the bullets by Senator Jimoh Ibrahim is tantamount to drooping and recoiling in silent shame. Invoking a conference which is expected to bring Nigerians to converge in Abuja will amount to the usual jamboree and a waste of resources. The action is also an indictment on the National Assembly, who has abdicated its constitutional responsibility of oversighting the activities of the security agencies on whom the highest chunk of the country’s budgetary allocation goes to every year. The pertinent question to ask the distinguished Senator and his colleagues about insecurity that has refused to be abated and seem intractable include what else do they want to hear from Nigerians that have not been said and have not been heard before? Is it the case of the sponsors of terrorism and banditry, some of whom, at least about 400 of them that the administration of the former President Muhammadu Buhari said they have identified but not arrested and prosecuted till date, that they are expecting Nigerians to tell them again? Cognizant also that the former President Muhammadu Buhari and his administration were of the All Progressive Congress party (APC) of which the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a continuation. Are these Senators expecting Nigerians to come and reecho what the top brass within the rank and file of Nigerian security agencies have identified as the root causes and the fuel for the escalation of terrorism and banditry in Nigeria, which include bad governance with its cascading effects in unprecedented hunger, unemployment and poverty?
The Chief of General Staff, General Christopher Musa, did appear several times on the major national televisions including Arise TV and Channels TV, crying out that winning the war against insurgency and banditry is only about 20-30% kinetic, while the over 70% that is non-kinetic revolves around good governance, which is the responsibility of the government to give to Nigerians the dividend of democracy. All that the Senate is trying to do is to finagle its way back to the people who are like the rejected cornerstone of the house and whose voice had been discountenanced in the running of government that supposedly is democratic. In other words, their action is like employing the strategy of alternation which in political parlance is turning to damage control when the firewall fails.
It is important to let the members of the Senate realize that they have relegated those who sent them to represent them to the background for too long. Important references that allude to the assertion include the most recent, which was how they shamelessly endorsed the illegality of the suspension of the democratically elected Governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, the dismantling of all democratic structures in Rivers State including members of the State House of Assembly, and the imposition of a Sole Administrator that is not known to law, on the people of Rivers State, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Is this now the case of the chicken that has come home to roost? This action of the distinguished Senators led by their arrowhead, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, is what can be described as the case of trying to see if you can finagle to inveigle ego out of his beagle. This situation also demands an answer from the Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The question is what role did the Nigerian Senate play in the action of the Minster of Livestock Development, Alhaji Idi Mukhtar, when he imposed on the Plateau, the establishment of Roga shortly after an act of genocide was committed against the people of Plateau. His action was to say the least appalling and reprehensible. Don’t forget that he spontaneously came to a conclusion that Roga was the solution to the lingering problem of killings of the innocent people of Plateau and as his action suggested, the Fulani herdsmen were those who perpetuated the act of genocide on the people on Plateau and deserve to be brought to book. However, if the solution to the incessant killings and acts of criminality carried out on Nigerians lies in occupying the lands of the people on whom the dastardly acts are being visited, then the idea of the proposed national security conference is unnecessary.
The Nigerian Senate cannot eat its cake and have it, only a revolution of opinions and sincere and honest interventions which include apportioning blames to those who deserve them and having a rethink and a change of mind that gives rise to the political will to end the insecurity in Nigeria, is the way to go and anything short of this is a ruse and deception from the pit of hell. To those who care to hear, it is insanity to be shameful of what is gainful. Descending from the exalted position of a hero to the ground zero provides to the Senate the opportunity to see the damage done to the country especially in the area of security at close range and how staggering it is. In conclusion, those who are in support of the proposed national security conference, say YEA, and those who are not in support, say NAY. The Nays have it. God bless Nigeria.
By Samuel Tunji Adeyanju
GMN Chief Executive Officer, USA
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