The Senator representing Abia South Senatorial District, Enyinnaya Abaribe has lamented the incessant killing and activities of terrorists across the country.
Speaking during the plenary on Wednesday, November 26, the lawmaker said that the government of the day has failed in its responsibility to protect the lives and property of citizens.
According to Abaribe, they have been cautioned against speaking ill of the present administration while Nigerians continue to live in fear and at the mercy of the rampaging insurgents.
Abaribe said, “The writer George Orwell made a very profound statement, which I will quote. He says that in times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
“We are being told every day to be patriotic. We are being told here that we shouldn’t say anything against [the government]. We have been told that, oh, you should not talk about the past. You should focus on the present,” Abaribe stated.
He also said that rather than focus on its responsibilities, the present National Assembly has failed to ask the right questions concerning the insecurity bedevilling the nation.
“Yet, on this floor, rather than focus on what we’re supposed to talk about, we go back to saying that during 2015, the Chibok girls happened and people were not rescued at that time. During Chibok, 17 local governments in Katsina—were not having a palace with bandits,” the lawmaker said.
Also citing the recent attacks by terrorists in Kebbi, Niger and Kwara States, Abaribe said until fat, no one has been held accountable for the laxity exhibited by security agencies and their operatives deployed to man the affected locations.
“People in Kebbi were not leaving all the rural areas and coming only to urban areas to stay. People in Niger were not being kidnapped. So why do we need—at any time we need to talk about the present issues of today—we go back to start looking for excuses for our failures of today? I only want to say: Let us do the right thing.
“When we are not blaming this government for what they’re finding themselves in, but it is a government in power, and that government should be doing the right things. What’s all these things?
“We take only one example: The governor of Kebbi said that somebody ordered troops out, and people were kidnapped. Till today, nobody in Nigeria knows what happened, and no question has been asked. I’m sitting down here as a parliament, and we turn and talk. Yet somebody is responsible.
“If I am the Commander-in-Chief, I will call the army commandant at this place and the head of the army and say: If you don’t get me the head of this person who withdrew the troops to put all these children in jeopardy, then you make an example of him. That is how a country is run. A country is not run on pacification. A country is run by confronting issues. I rest my case,” Abaribe added.
