President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, on Monday, said “We have had a series of engagements before but the escalation now has made it mandatory that we have to have a definite position as a government because we just cannot play politics with security issues.”
Speaking the near-collapse of security apparatus in the country, he admitted that “Apparently, the system is not working effectively and efficiently and we have to do something.”
Lawan who made the remark at a news conference held in Abuja while briefing journalists on what Nigerians should expect from the Senate as it resumes on Tuesday after a six-week recess sought restructuring of the security architecture in the fight against insecurity in the country.
The Senate President said that the security architecture should be restructured as the present system did not appear to give Nigeria the type of outcome that was needed.
“Whether it is the federal, state or local government; even the traditional rulers or others, the most important thing is to secure the lives and property of Nigerians and we will do that.
“The legislature and executive must be forthright in the fight against insecurity in the country as there are so many happenings destabilising communities across the country.
“We have to be forthright; we have to say it as it is, and we have to do it as it is required to check insecurity. “Presently, the story is not good in many areas; you have a lot happening that is destabilising our communities and killing our people.
“And we believe that we owe Nigerians the responsibility to intervene, to work with the executive arm of government, actually to work together with other tiers of government, to ensure that we change the way we approach security issues in this country.
The President of the Senate further said that the senate would engage the security agencies toward finding solutions as to why security was deteriorating in many parts of the country.
“Lives are at stake. Therefore, the Senate will take a position on how security in the country should be,” he said. Lawan further said that the senate would also be occupied with the implementation of the 2020 budget.
“We have passed the budget in good time. Now the 2020 budget implementation has started in January and would end in December 2020. “We are going to continuously engage the Ministries, Departments and Agencies in oversight functions.
“In fact, we want to introduce the presentation of oversight reports in plenary so that not only committee members know what is happening in the ministry or sector that they supervise, but every member of the senate should be able to know.”
