Don’t be ashamed to ask UK, US for help, DSP tells Buhari

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu has urged President Muhmmadu Buhari to ask the United Kingdom, America and France for assistance on how to tackle Nigeria’s security challenges.

Ekweremadu stated this on Tuesday, April 17, 2018, while contributing to a motion raised by Nasarawa lawmaker, Senator Philip Aruwa Gyunka on attacks in his community by suspected herdsmen.

The Deputy Senate President who condemned the continued to attack on communities noted that it was time for Nigeria to seek help from other countries.

“I ask myself: assuming this is happening in America, in the United Kingdom or France, will it take all this time to be resolved?” Ekweremadu asked. “As we know not even in South Africa. But it appears that we are taking too many things for granted.

“The time has come for us to seek help from other countries as some of us have suggested here. We should not be ashamed to ask for help. and she was of the opinion that Britain would help us security wise. America is also offering to help. We should not be reluctant to come out openly as say we need help because what we have now is a global village.

“We cannot be asking people to come to Nigeria and invest their monies here. They will not! Rather, let us ask them to come and help us to solve our security problem. If we solve our security problem, they will come here, with nobody asking them to come. I think the first thing to do is to resolve the issue, and it is something we all need to do, and do it fast.

“We are representatives of the people. If they kill everybody, we will nobody to represent; we will have no job. We are not on appointments, we are representatives. If we have nobody to represent, nobody will have a job here. So, security is more important than any other thing that we do here.

“If it gets to a level where we have to shut down this National Assembly and sit down with the executive for as long as it lasts to resolve the problem, we may have to do that,” he added.

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Buhari not showing capacity

Senator Dino Melaye accused President Buhari of not giving the country's security challenge the desired attention.

“The President of the federal republic of Nigeria must show capability as the commander in Chief of the armed forces. If we need international support, we should say so on time. If we need international collaboration we should say so on time. We should not be concentrating on creating funds for the army without looking at the police. Intelligence gathering in this country is dead.

“I am not happy because the federal government is talking about the economy. If we revive the economy, for whom are we reviving the economy for? For people that are dying or for the dead. We must reprioritize, reorganize our priorities," Melaye said.

Sack of security chiefs

Senator Samuel Olamilekan called for the sack of the heads of security agencies in Nigeria.

“All the service chiefs in the country should be sacked and let people with fresh ideas in tackling this issue be appointed. The President needs fresh ideas on how to tackle this problem and if those there can’t provide these ideas, let them be sacked,” the lawmaker said angrily.