THE Senate, yesterday, canvassed tougher and full scale measures to end the Boko Haram insurgency. It said that the sect has declared war on Nigeria.
The senators, who resumed from their two-month vacation, expressed dissatisfaction with how the war was being prosecuted and mandated the Senate leadership to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan and service chiefs to hammer out better strategies to checkmate the insurgents.
Senator Mark, in his welcome speech said actions of the Boko Haram sect are a complete declaration of war geared towards undermining the nation’s sovereignty.
Meantime, the Senate has referred President Jonathan’s $1 billion loan request to fight insurgency to its committees on Foreign, Finance, and Local Debt to report back within one week.
Senator Mark in his speech also said the Senate was waiting for Mr. President’s action on the report of the just concluded National Conference which was convoked to discuss and suggest ways of resolving perceived structural defects in the polity.
The Senate President further tasked the President to ensure the 2015 Appropriation Bill gets to the legislative chamber before the end of the month to enable the lawmakers pass it into law before January 2015.
He noted that the escalation of violence and the heinous crimes being carried out on daily basis by the insurgents including the declaration of a caliphate had reached alarming proportions.
Meeting president, service chiefs
Dissatisfied with the strategy being adopted in prosecuting the war against the terrorists, the Senate in a resolution sequel to the motion sponsored by Senate Leader, Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, and 107 other senators, had after critically examining the ongoing onslaught against the people of the North-East by Boko Haram, mandated the Senate President to meet with President Jonathan to discus better tactics on how to tackle the insurgency.
In the motion tagged: Threat to National Sovereignty and Territorial integrity of Nigeria by insurgents, the senators expressed worry that the security situation in the North East states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa had continued to deteriorate despite the imposition of state of emergency in the said states.
The Senate had equally observed that in the last two months while the National Assembly was on its annual recess, the nation witnessed unabated loss of lives and damage to property in what it noted was increasingly challenging the security agencies in the affected states.
The Senate expressed concern that the insurgents purportedly carved out some local government areas in Borno and Adamawa states and declared same as Caliphate under their control just as it expressed concern that the level of regrouping of the insurgence was becoming alarming.
The Senate President, while reacting to the concern of senators said: “We have to find a solution to it, back the military, mobilize as much as we can, bring back all our war resources together so that we can prosecute this war. There is no way in which we are just going to say that this is exclusively to one section of this country. No, and I don’t think that is the thinking in any quarter.
“Unfortunately, we are not satisfied with the way the war has been prosecuted so far. We want a better strategy, we want a very concise, very precise statement that can give directions on how we are going to prosecute this war and end it as quickly as possible.
“It is not the question of election. Election is not even on the table now. So I agree that what is happening now is a challenge even to our legitimacy in this chamber because if they have gone far by saying that they have declared a caliphate, then any senator or member who is from there is no more entitled to be in this chamber.
“And these people can forcefully begin to take some people out of this chamber, and then the legitimacy of our own existence here is seriously challenged. There are so many issues that will arise as a result of what Boko Haram is doing. It started like a joke but it has gone far beyond that now.
“All of us here cannot go and wear uniform and take rifle and fight. It is the Armed Forces that are going to do the fighting for us but all of us here have roles to play in executing this war. Let me say without any doubt at all, that the nation is at war, that is the issue. So it is not about whether it is Boko Haram or not Boko Haram. There is no difference between the situation in the North East now and if any other country had declared war on Nigeria.
“My suggestion here is: How do we prosecute this war because there is a real war for us, whether it is on one section of the country or it’s covering the whole country. So, once a nation is at war, the entire nation will have to move all its resources and war efforts, whether it is refugee, whether it is medical or anything at all.
“So, indeed, there is no doubt in my mind that what the Boko Haram is doing now is that they have declared war on Nigerians. It is true we didn’t recall the Senate but you are aware that we directed the Senate Committee on Defence to meet with Service Chiefs when we were on recess so that we can get a proper briefing.
“We have a dilemma on our hands here because there is a limit to what we can say here in plenary and what we can discuss in a closed-door session. So, we have to be a bit careful.”
