By Deji Elumoye, Udora Orizu and Juliet Akoje in Abuja
The Senate has promised the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Service Chiefs, Acting Inspector General of Police (IG) and Heads of intelligence agencies in the country, of its readiness to do everything within its power to ensure that they have all they need to tackle the worsening insecurity situation in the country.
President of the Senate, Dr Ahmed Lawan, made the pledge Thursday while welcoming the Security Chiefs for a closed-door meeting with the Senators over security challenges facing the nation.
The meeting, which was in response to last week’s summon of the CDS and service chiefs by the Senate over rising security challenges facing the nation, was held behind closed doors for about four hours, with Lawan presiding over the session.
Before going into the close-door session, Lawan told the top military brass that they were doing their best in providing security for Nigeria and Nigerians in an extremely difficult situation.
He added: “The very reason this parliament is ever ready to make the necessary interventions required. The Senate and by extension, the National Assembly, is ready to give expeditious consideration to whatever supplementary budget is presented by the executive in this regards because the environment must be stabilised for Nigeria to be a hub of foreign and local investments”.
He identified poor funding of the military for the inability to surmount resurgence of insurgency and banditry across the country.
He told the Service Chiefs that they haven’t achieved the optimum, which can be attributed to inadequate resources, hence the essence of the meeting, so they can brief the lawmakers on what they think will help them and other security agencies to perform better.
The Senate President however commended the security agencies for fighting the myriad of security challenges across the country, noting that some personnel in the process lost their lives.
Lawan said, ”We appreciate what you are doing because we know that you are.doing your best with what you have at hand. I want to assure you and everyone that the challenges we face are taken seriously and extremely by the Parliament. Hardly a day passes without this Senate discusses one security incident or the other. And it has been so for many years, not only this session.
”We pray that at the end of this interaction, we will see better ways and means of providing the necessary provision of resources to enable our armed forces continue with national case to provide national security that we need to protect the lives and property of citizens to stabilise our environment for economy to receive better investments for this country; to be a hub for investments that will provide employment opportunities to our teeming youths.”
Briefing reporters after the executive session, the Senate Spokesperson, Senator Ajibola Basiru, said the service chiefs briefed the Senators extensively on the state of security in the country.
According to him, the security chiefs gave an analysis of their various cooporation and activities, the topography across the six geo political zones, the complexities and challenges that are being faced and the ways they believe that the parliament can work together with the executive and heads of security agencies to ensure that the menace of insecurity is curbed so that citizens can have long lasting peace.
He said the lawmakers also expressed their gratitude for their forthrightness, and pledged commitment to ensure all necessary legislative and appropriation support will be given to all the relevant agencies.
His words: “After listening to the briefings, I personally became upbeat that a lot of work had gone into addressing the problem of insecurity and from the various perspectives that were brought into the discussion which is very frank, clear and without any form of duplicity, it became very clear that Nigerian security agencies are not only looking at the internal dimension of the challenge we have, we look at all ramifications both in terms of the political context, economic context and international context to the development.
“There were even perspectives as to what happened recently in Chad was also considered. So it is a very thorough discussion and I also believe that the forthrightness of the leadership of the security agencies showed the seriousness that they attached to that exercise.
“So, I believe that going forward, the confidence has been built between the security chiefs on one hand and the Nigerian parliament on the other hand and that would be a good signal of what we expect in the future”.
When asked about the level of discussion concerning supplementary budget and how much the parliament is likely to approve, Basiru said no figure was mentioned adding that the legislature is awaiting a supplementary budget request.
His words: “First of all we didn’t talk about money or figure, we spoke on general challenges and requirements for us to have an efficient and effective security. The details on supplementary budget can be worked on by the ministry of finance and the relevant committees of the National Assembly. Everybody knows security is serious matter and just like the senate President said last week, we are committed to ensuring appropriate funds for that. We can’t into figures now until relevant arm of government do the needful, so we are ready to receive supplementary budget request.
”On synergy among the various agencies, we don’t have any doubt about that, there’s synergy among them. For Security you feel the impact when there are breaches, nobody will give you credit when there are breaches. We have a tremendous report to show that a lot has gone into stemming the tide of insecurity in Nigeria, and it’s due to that synergy and efforts. There’s need for improvement and we are committed to that.”
Those who attended the meeting include General Lucky Irabor (Chief of Defence Staff), Lt. General Ibrahim Attahiru (Chief of Army Staff), Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Agambi (Chief of Naval Staff) and Vice Marshal Isiaka O. Alao (Chief of Air Staff).
Other security chiefs at the meeting are the Acting IG, Usman Baba, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Munguno; Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi (rtd); Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai Abubakar and the Director-General of Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Magaji Bichi.
