Nigeria’s Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has said the country is targeting to restore peace and safety across the nation within two months.
Lawan made the disclosure in Abuja Monday in a chat with Senate House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa.
“I’ve come to meet with Mr. President, to discuss the issue of security of our nation, and in fact, there is nothing more important today or more topical, than the security of Nigeria,” Lawan told the journalists.
“There is nothing more important today or more topical than the security of Nigeria,” he noted.
Nigeria is currently having its worst peace-time turbulence, marked by kidnapping, murders, clashes among different tribes, and other violent crimes.
Lawan said the government has set a target of restoring peace and security in the shortest possible time.
Specifically, he said the federal government was determined to secure all parts of the country and ensure peace returns before the rainy season sets in so that farmers and others can go about their normal lives in a secure environment.
The National Assembly would complement the government’s efforts to raise the capacity of the Armed Forces by helping with the appropriation for the required equipment.
“We had a very extensive discussion on the security of all parts of Nigeria and how we should go about improving the situation, we all have roles to play. Nobody would like to see the kind of things that we experience in various parts of the country in the form of insecurity.
“As political leaders, we have responsibilities to our people and we cannot shy away from that, we have to get our people secured, we have to secure the environment for them to earn their means of livelihood, we’ll like to see our farmers go back to farms before the rainy season starts.
“This means we have to secure the rural parts of Nigeria as well as the urban centres because we need businesses to flourish.
“So I believe that between now and probably the next two months, there will be a lot of activities to ensure that we recover and secure the environments for our people to lead a very normal life.
“We also believe that the government is headed in the right direction. You’ll recall that the National Economic Council approved of taking some funds from the Excess Crude Accounts with a view to giving more resources to our Armed Forces.
“This is a commendable effort and we are ready to help with appropriation to ensure that we acquire those security weapons for the armed forces of this country to end this insecurity in the northeast, in the northwest, in the southeast/South-south and southwest as well.
“We believe that this is also going to help empower and build the capacity of other security agencies like the police because the police need to be there.”
In addition, the two leaders also discussed issues concerning the Niger Delta Development Commission with the President, Lawan said.
“We also had discussions on the need to ensure that government functions very well. So, we have few issues. These are housekeeping issues of getting the NDDC governing board’s nominations.
“I agree with Mr President that we have to complete the forensic audit to ensure that everything is done properly and the report is submitted to him. It is significant that whoever is found culpable should be treated as such.
“That will serve as a lesson and as a deterrent to others, because NDDC should have transformed the Niger Delta into a better environment than what it has been since the NDDC was created by a law of the National Assembly in 2000 or so.
“We are talking about almost two decades. That should have been a sufficient time, given the resources that were deployed into the entity. So, we need to sanitise the NDDC and get the resources fully deployed in developing the Niger Delta,” Lawan explained.
