Decision of Senate to impeach President Buhari has gotten the endorsement of the House of Representatives. The move against President Muhammadu Buhari by the Senate over his failure to address the continued insecurity challenges in the country with kidnapping, massive killing and wanton destruction of property across the country, gained momentum as Peoples Democratic Party House of Representatives members threw their weight behind the Senate move. According to the House of Representatives members, at the expiration of the six week ultimatum given to President Buhari to nip in the bud, the problem of insecurity in Nigeria and without change, they would be forced to issue an Impeachment notice on the President, just as they vowed that they would immediately commence the gathering of signatures from members to remove Buhari from office. Speaking in Abuja at a joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives PDP Caucus, the Minority leader of the Lower Chamber, Honourable Ndudi Elumelu, warned the Presidency that when the process of the Impeachment of the President Buhari commences, it would then realise that we as lawmakers are not confused and also that we are not minority of minorities, adding that it would also know that it is not a laughable matter.
The meeting which took place at hearing room 1, White House, Senate Wing was chaired by the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Philip Tanimu Aduda had in attendance PDP lawmakers from both the lower and Upper chambers of the National Assembly. Elumelu who took a swipe at the Buhari led Government., said that Nigeria at the moment is at stand, with everything crippled, adding that people can no longer travel because of kidnapping, people can no longer fly because of lack of Aviation fuel, private schools are closed down, farmers can no longer go to the farms for insecurity, among other very difficult issues in the country. Elumelu said, “They have given 6 to 8 weeks for Mr. President to address the insecurity that is, of course, affecting this nation, and I want to also join on behalf of my colleagues to also say that upon the expiration, we will proffer ways of ensuring that we will gather all the signatures. “And let me make it clear. Those who are thinking that it is only the issue of PDP or the minority caucus, no. Many of our colleagues under the bipartisanship are affected. Many of them are affected. So, they may not be speaking but we may be speaking for them. And when them time comes. I heard somebody this morning saying it is a laughable attempt to want do that. Perhaps, when the action starts, the person will find out that it’s not a laughable action. It’s real and we will not stand to allow this nation collapse. We think that it is high time, the insecurity of this nation is addressed. And of course, we also have the issue of oil theft which has risen, now making it difficult for us to earn income from oil revenue. And these and many others are the reasons we are joining our colleagues in the Senate to ask Mr. President to address the insecurity of this nation within 6 and 8 weeks. Otherwise, we will find the constitutional means to ensure that we serve him an impeachment notice.”
Speaking on the state of the nation, the House Minority Leader said, “The nation has been awash with what happened yesterday in the Senate where our colleagues had to walk out in protest as to the state of the nation as regards to the issue of insecurity in the nation. Concurrently, even though we did not do it exactly the way they did it, we also drew the House attention as to what is happening in Nigeria, most importantly in FCT. In FCT, just few weeks back, Kuje Prison was invaded. Few days back, the law school on Bwari road, some very, very important Nigerians who at their youth in the armed forces were butchered by the insurgents. As if that was not enough, the minister of education gave an instruction that all our children should leave, vacate their various schools. Yesterday, the FCT minister directed that all private schools should be closed. And I gave a warning on the floor of the House, advising my colleagues that Abuja is no longer safe and that is the truth. If Abuja is safe, why should the minister of education under APC led government instruct that every child in every college or school should vacate and parents should come and collect their children. Why should the FCT minister himself direct that private school should close? This in effect gives a signal that Abuja is not safe. And of course, we critically looked at the reason our colleagues are calling for an impeachment notice to be put forward to Mr. President for his APC led government inability to protect lives and property; our founding fathers created this nation for the purpose of ensuring that nobody will suffer in this country.. But today that is not the story.
“The story is a story of people being afraid to go out to even do their legitimate businesses. Today, it is difficult to even fly. No aviation fuel. The aviation fuel is no longer available and yet you cannot also ply the roads because the kidnappers, bandits are on the roads. It is very, very difficult. And of course, on the issue of insecurity, let me bring to the notice of Nigerians and the whole world that both chambers have tried several times either by resolutions or security summit to draw the attention of Mr. President as to why there is need for us to address the insecurity in this nation. But that has not been taken very seriously. And of course, so many out cries by our people. Our farmers can no longer go to the various farms and I believe that we are worst hit in terms of food production. And this is because our farmers can no longer go to the various farms and it is bad. And if you look at what happened also between Kaduna and Abuja where the bandits bombed the train; and yesterday, one of them rescued was asked, would you ever use the train and he said never. In effect, Nigeria is in a stand still. So, having looked at all these scenerios and the reason behind why our colleagues walked out in the Senate, we are of the opinion that we will also join them in the same.
“Again, it’s now N710 to a dollar as at yesterday and if we are not careful, if may rise to N1000 and beyond. And of course, we have made every effort annually to make budgetary provision for the security agencies to be able to address some of these issues. Through supplementary budget, we have done that. Through all special interventions, we have always obliged them. So, I think that they owe it as a duty to Nigerians to explain to Nigerians what is going on and why some of these things are happening. And today, our reserve is almost gone. We do not have any reserve any more. The reserve is gone and these were the things that took PDP led government time to build. Today, they tell you that the second Niger bridge is being built, that is not true. It’s under sovereign wealth fund. It is not being funded by appropriations. And that was kick-started by PDP in PDP led government. I just felt that I should put this forward for the Nigerian people and the world to know what is going on.” Earlier in his remarks, the Minority Leader, Senator Aduda said, “Indeed, all of you are aware of what happened yesterday and we felt that there was the need to be on the same page with the members of the members of the House of Representatives. Our actions were spontaneous from the issues that were raised on the floor of the Senate. I am sure that members of the Press must have interacted with our various colleagues to know that this issue is not just about the PDP caucus but it is a bipartisan issue. We all agreed that the security architecture is failing and there is need to salvage it immediately and we also agreed that we must issue; for some who do not know, the issue is to issue an impeachment notice to the President because the primary responsibility of government is the protection of lives of the citizens.
“Once that is not done, then, there is a problem. And so, the issues were discussed in the closed session including the other members of other parties put together and we all agreed that this bipartisan. We have not called the caucus in the House of Representatives so that we can discuss with them so that they can hear from us and understand what we did yesterday.” Senators had on Wednesday begun Impeachment move on President Muhammadu Buhari, giving him six week ultimatum to nip in the bud, the continued insecurity challenges in the country with kidnapping, massive killing and wanton destruction of property across the country or face Impeachment from office. The Senators are of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP. Trouble reared its head on Wednesday when the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Philip Aduda, who had earlier come up through a motion of impeachment of President Buhari following his failure in solving the security problems in the country was stopped by the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan. Aduda had raised a point of order for the Senate to deliberate on issues raised at the closed door session which lasted for two solid hours.
