The Senate yesterday assured the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor, the service chiefs, Acting Inspector-General of Police (IG), Mr. Alkali Usman, and heads of intelligence agencies, of its readiness to ensure that they have all they need to tackle the worsening insecurity in the country.
President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, gave the assurance while welcoming the security chiefs to a closed-door meeting with senators over security challenges facing the nation.
The meeting, which was in response to last week’s summoning of the CDS and service chiefs by the Senate lasted for about four hours.
Earlier, Lawan had told the security chiefs that they were doing their best in providing security for Nigeria and Nigerians in an extremely difficult situation.
He said: “The 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 the 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 as hindering the ability to surmount resurgence of insurgency and banditry.
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, to brief the lawmakers on what they think will help them and other security agencies to perform better.
Lawan, however, commended the security agencies for fighting the security challenges nationwide, saying that some personnel in the process lost their lives.
He 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 discussing 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 to continue with national case to provide national security that we need to protect the lives and property of citizens to stabilise our environment for the economy to receive better investments for this country; to be a hub for investments that will provide employment opportunities to our teeming youths.”
The Senate spokesperson, Senator Ajibola Basiru, told reporters after the executive session, that the service chiefs briefed the senators on the state of security in the country.
According to him, the security chiefs gave an analysis of their various corporation and activities, the topography across the six geopolitical 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 curb insecurity.
He said the lawmakers also thanked the service chiefs for their forthrightness, and pledged commitment to ensure all necessary legislative and appropriation support to all the relevant agencies.
He said: “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, but we also 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 discussion concerning the 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.
He said: “First of all, we didn’t talk about money or figure; we spoke on general challenges and requirements for us to have efficient and effective security. The details on the supplementary budget can be worked on by the ministry of finance and the relevant committees of the National Assembly. Everybody knows security is a serious matter and just like the Senate president said last week, we are committed to ensuring appropriate funds for that. We can’t delve into figures now until the relevant arm of government does the needful, so we are ready to receive the 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 a need for improvement and we are committed to that.”
Besides Irabor, others at the meeting were Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru (Chief of Army Staff); Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu (Chief of Naval Staff); and Vice Marshal Isiaka Alao (Chief of Air Staff).
The rest were the Acting IG, Usman Baba, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major-General Babagana Munguno (rtd); 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.