The presidency has called the threat by opposition senators to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari “ridiculous” if he does not control the worsening security situation across the country.
Senators from opposition political parties walked out of the Senate floor on Wednesday after Senate President Ahmad Lawan refused to discuss a motion to order Buhari to improve the security situation within six weeks or be impeached.
Assassinations and kidnappings have become the norm in many parts of Nigeria under Buhari’s leadership.
After their strike, the aggrieved lawmakers told reporters that they had agreed with their colleagues from the ruling APC party in a closed session that the president would receive the six-week ultimatum.
In his response in a statement on Wednesday night, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu described the opposition lawmakers’ actions as “childish” and the impeachment motion as “ridiculous.”
Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu. [Photo credit: The Bridge News]”Despite the childish and performative antics of those senators who staged a march, Senate President Ahmad Lawan’s refusal on Wednesday to consider the ridiculous motion to impeach our president was quite appropriate and correct,” Shehu wrote.
“Instead of mocking voters by trying to mimic what they see in America, the opposition would do well to use their time to address pressing issues facing Nigerians, such as the current global cost of living crisis.
“Their continued failure to do so goes some way to explaining why they remain in opposition.
“On the contrary, President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is committed to finding lasting solutions to emerging security threats, including those left by the PDP in the south-south, the northeast and throughout the federation. In the last 24 hours, two more Chibok girls have been released, in addition to the three they brought home last week.”
Shehu described the lawmakers’ action as “headline-grabbing tricks” for which the opposition is now well known.
“We respectfully remind you that it is those very constituents you were elected to serve, and are paid to do so with public money.
PDP senators seeking the impeachment of President Buhari
“We would appreciate your cooperation in our efforts to solve the problems Nigerians face on a daily basis. No one is asking them to waste their time trying to impeach a democratically elected president at the end of his second term, and certainly not his constituents.
“They should ask themselves: do they want to be in government or do they want to be in the headlines? If they want to be in government, they should start acting like one and stop undermining Nigerian voters,” she wrote.
lai mohamed
In his reaction, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, he took a more conciliatory tone, saying that no ultimatum was necessary as everything is being done to solve the security problem in the country.
The minister, who was responding to questions from House correspondents after Wednesday’s virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, nonetheless praised senators for their patriotism and concerns, saying they are taking measures to address them.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed [PHOTO CREDIT: FMIC Website]”… we thank you for your patriotism and your concern, but we are working day and night, 24 hours a day, to ensure that the situation is under control,” Mohammed said.
“I want to assure you that the president is aware of all this and, in fact, I think there will be another meeting of the security council tomorrow. So, it’s not an issue that the President is taking lightly, and as always, I will say that some of the actions that we are going to take are not actions that can be openly discussed here, but we are as concerned as you are, we are. We are not going to abandon our responsibility.”
The minister also described as ridiculous and mere propaganda the alleged threat of the terrorists to kidnap the president.
“As for those who have made threats to the president, I think it is more propaganda than anything else. It’s hilarious,” he said.
asylum seekers
Mohammed also said that the council approved a memorandum from the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, for a standard operating procedure to maintain the civilian and humanitarian character of asylum seekers in Cameroon.
According to him, “You all know that due to the insurgency in Cameroon, Nigeria has witnessed an influx of Cameroonian asylum seekers and there are basic standard procedures in place for you to be granted asylum seeker status.
“This is what the council considered and approved today. And basically it is that anyone from Cameroon who seeks asylum in Nigeria must first convince the authorities that he has renounced armed struggle, before he can be considered an asylum seeker.
“There are also cases of some of them who have come, even though they claim to have handed over their weapons, sometimes go back, to join the separatist movement in Cameroon. Thus, today the procedure that will evaluate the basic criteria for granting asylum was explained and approved.”
He said that with security challenges in some parts of the country, the government was taking a step to ensure that insurgents or terrorists did not take advantage of the asylum to infiltrate Nigeria.
“The question of the standard operating procedure for asylum seekers from Cameroon is not an issue that started today. The issue of the separatist movement in Cameroon is many years old and every day, due to the proximity of Cameroon to Nigeria, we have witnessed an influx of refugees seeking asylum and as per international standards there are certain procedures that you must follow for asylum seekers. of asylum.
“So all we have done today is set up standard procedure to ensure that those claiming to be asylum seekers are not actually insurgents who have come to destabilize Nigeria or people who are going to come and launch attacks on their own country from the comfort of Niger,” he said.