Our dear country is being painted red with the blood of innocents, Dogara laments

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has said that it remains the job of those in governance to hold the nation together and ensure that no one or group is allowed to foist a reign of tragedy and group polarisation on Nigerians.

He lamented the wanton killings in some parts of the country, and that “our dear country is now being painted red with the blood of the innocents on account of unremitting bedlam callously promoted by cold hearted merchants of death”.

He stated this in his welcome speech on the occasion of resumption of the House from Christmas/New Year recess on Tuesday, in reaction to the wanton killings in Benue, Taraba and other states by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

The Speaker had also in his speech regretted the hardship Nigerians had to go through during the festive period owing to the scarcity of fuel in the country. He vowed that the lawmakers must unravel the cause for the scarcity, which according to him was a betrayal of trust from the executive arm of government. He added that the reason for the alleged re-introduction of fuel subsidy must also be uncovered by the lawmakers.

He told his colleagues, “We embarked on the recess at a period of great hardship faced by our constituents. The unending and shameful story of fuel shortage reached an unbearable level as to make traveling and other economic activities almost impossible. We expected that with the legislative cooperation given to the Executive arm, to effect an increase in the fuel price from N87 per litre to N145, and based on their assurances, incidents of fuel scarcity would be a thing of the past. We were also assured that fuel subsidy had come to an end. From recent developments on this subject, except the Executive adduces compelling reasons why the reverse is the case, we will be justified in feeling betrayed.

“As a parliament, we must unravel the causes of this scarcity and the alleged re-introduction of fuel subsidy. I charge our relevant Committees to get to the root of these issues through the instrumentality of oversight to enable the House take an informed position on this totally undeserving precarious situation that our already overburdened citizens are subjected to. This has to be done with minimal delay.

Speaking on recent killings that pervaded the nation he said, “We are all painfully aware of the wave of murders of innocent Nigerians that has been sweeping through the nation. From the senseless killings in Rivers State, to the killing rampages in Benue, Taraba, Kaduna, Zamfara, Adamawa, Edo and other States; our dear country is now being painted red with the blood of the innocents on account of unremitting bedlam callously promoted by cold hearted merchants of death.

“At these moments of intense outpouring of grief across the nation, it is important that we shun buck passing and accept responsibility for these wanton killings without which we will never find a solution to this evil. We cannot afford to fold our hands and pretend that all is well with our country. We cannot throw up our hands in defeat. We have a responsibility to all Nigerians regardless of creed or ethnicity in line with the constitutionally stated primary purpose of the government we serve in, which is securing the welfare including the lives and property of our people.

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“Our job as leaders is to hold our people together and ensure that no one or group is allowed to foist the reign of tragedy and group polarisation on our dear nation. Those who pride themselves in violence must be reminded of the self defeating nature of violence: the fact that violence only begets violence and that true victory has never been won by violence.”

Narrating how the House has passed many resolutions on the issue of herdsmen, cattle grazing and cattle rustling as well as resolutions on kidnapping, Boko Haram terrorism and sundry security matters, said those resolutions were wakeup calls to the executive on its constitutional obligations in governance.

“The accentuation of violent crimes is a chronic symptom of defects in our security architecture which we must fix. I therefore call on Mr. President to apply maximum sanctions on public officers who are derelict in the performance of their duties.

“In the same vein, our security related committees must aggressively conduct oversight of the various MDA’s and institutions handling security matters, to detect lapses in the operations of these security agencies and pro-actively ensure compliance with approved funds and procurement of appropriate equipment,” Dogara added.

On the immediate jobs before the House in the 2018 legislative year, the Speaker told his colleagues that “the 2018 Appropriation Bill is before us for legislative action. We have promised to do our utmost to pass it expeditiously. We should keep our word. However, this can only be possible if the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) cooperate effectively with relevant committees of the House by providing the required information as may be requested of them.”

 

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