The City Reporters
President Goodluck Jonathan
Members of the House of Representatives were on Wednesday split over President Goodluck Jonathan’s request to extend emergency rule in the North East states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
During debates on the extension request, the Yobe Caucus in the House led opposition to President Jonathan’s request stating that the extension was a ploy to “scheme out” the North East region from the 2015 elections.
House Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal however deferred vote on the extension till Thursday, to allow for a close-door briefing from the country’s security chiefs on the current security situation in the insurgency-wracked North East states.
The meeting it was learnt will serve to appraise the performance of the emergency rule and its outcome is expected to influence the legislators decision to approve, or disapprove President Jonathan’s request.
The president requires both chambers of the National Assembly to support the extension before it can become legal.
The security chiefs are listed as: Chief of Defence Staff; Chief of Naval Staff; Chief of Air Staff; Inspector General of Police; National Security Adviser; Minister of Police Affairs; Minister of Defence and the Director General of the Department of State Service.
“It (emergency rule) has not yielded any progress but increased terrorism in the area (North East). For us in Yobe, we don’t want it, we don’t like it”, Hon. Goni Bukar Lawan (Yobe/APC) voiced the state’s opposition to the emergency rule extension.
Hon. Hassan Kaku El-Badawy (Yobe/APC) said the security situation in the North East has been turned into “a huge business enterprise” and political gimmick to scheme out the region from the 2015 elections.
“We will not accept it in that part of the country”, El-Badawy said.
Also speaking in the same vein, Minority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila (Lagos/ACN) and Hon. Emmanuel Jime (Benue/APC) insisted that there were legal and constitutional provisions empowering the President to deploy the military in crisis situations without declaring a state of emergency.
Jime: “The Anti Terrorism Act is adequate enough to allow the President Fight terrorism without coming to the National Assembly for approval for a state of emergency because it’s not necessary in this case”
Gbajabiamila cited Section 218 of the constitution that empowers the President to deploy and determine the operational use of the armed forces in ways necessary.
However speaking in support of the emergency rule extension, Muhammad Monguno (Bornu/APC) said while the Borno Caucus in the House of Representatives was not averse to extension of the emergency rule in Bornu, it was important for the Federal Government to adequately fund and motivate the military in operational areas.
For Hon. Titsi Ganama (Adamawa/PDP), “If the emergency rule is not extended, what signal would we be sending to the international communities who have come in to show solidarity with us in this trying time?” he queried.
Chairman, House Committee on Defence, Bashir Adamu (Jigawa/PDP), told the House that poor release of defence budgets has hampered security efforts.
He said, “Defence budget since 2011 has never gone up to 50 per cent implementation. A situation where less than N150 billion would be released out of over N300 billion of the budget would not help achieves anything for the nation.”
Jonathan had proclaimed a state of emergency in the three states on May 14, 2013, following sustained terror campaigns by the Boko Haram sect.
The emergency rule was extended for another six months, beginning from November 12, 2013 after same was approved by the National Assembly.
Going by monitored reports, over 2000 people have been killed in Boko Haram-related activities in 2014 alone. The sect’s attacks have intensified in 2014, peaking with April 14-15 attack on the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok.
