Ndume, Junaid Mohammed rubbish senators, as CAN warns Buhari

Former Senate Leader and member representing Borno South in the upper chamber, Mohammed Ali Ndume and a former member of the House of Representatives, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, have lampooned senators for claiming that Nigeria was gradually becoming a failed state.

President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Dr. Supo Ayokunle, however thinks otherwise.

While the CAN scribe agrees with the position of lawmakers, Ndume and Mohammed on the other hand said they (lawmakers) are part of the problem. The three spoke in separate interviews with our correspondent.

Some senators, had while contributing to a point of order on Thursday, warned that Nigeria was gradually tilting towards a failed state.

But Ndume in his remarks, said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) handed over a failed state to the APC-led government. He also contended that lawmakers who claim that the country is tilting towards a failed state, were part of the failure.

Ndume who is a close ally of President Buhari, said it was wrong for lawmakers to use the plenary as a launch pad to attack the Federal Government, which he said the parliament is part of.

He said: “Those saying that the country has failed are part of the problem. If you say that Nigeria has failed or is failing, you are part of it. Remember that there are three arms of government and the parliament is an arm of the government.

“The people in PDP saying that the country is failing, we need to remind them that they contributed to the problem. The country was already a failed state in 2015 before they handed over. How do they expect the APC to revive what they destroyed in 16 years in three years? It is not possible.”

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Speaking through his media aide, Mr. Bayo Oladimeji, the CAN President said: “All these unending killings in the middle belt of the country must stop. You can’t just describe the killings. All the states the President, once he leaves, the killings start. His visits to states didn’t stop the killings. I don’t even know what our security agencies are doing and I don’t know what has happened to intelligence gathering.

“Are these herdsmen smarter than our security agencies? If the heads of security agencies can’t live up to the expectations of Nigerians, let them go. Some people are parading themselves as heads of our security agencies and the killings are still going on. Kidnappers and ritualists are having their way and nobody is stopping them.

“If senators are saying that the country is like a failed state, I think they have a reason. The President must rise up to the occasion, otherwise, a lot of people may begin to take laws into their hands and that will not help the nation.”

Mohammed, on his part, said: “I think the National Assembly has lost the right to speak on an issue like this. The National Assembly has been in charge in conjunction with the executive arm of government for three years now. If it is just occurring to them that what they have been doing was going to lead to a failed state, then they don’t know what they are talking about.

“They (lawmakers) have failed to represent the people. They have only succeeded in representing themselves and their interest. If Nigeria is becoming a failed state, members of the National Assembly are directly responsible. Most lawmakers are bunch of thieves. They pocket N14 million every month in the name of serving in the National Assembly.

“They must be real scams. This is the first time since 1999 that we have some nonsense they call legislative projects. There is no parliament anywhere in the world lawmakers embark on constituency projects. These people are rogues”, he said.

 

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