The Nigerian government has warned the main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to stop playing cheap politics with issues of national security that the country is facing.
Speaking at a Press Conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said that the PDP played cheap politics while playing the ostrich.
He said; “We advise those bent on playing cheap politics with the challenges to have a rethink. This is no time for politics.”
According to Alhaji Mohammed, the opposition party went ahead to make wild accusations against the President and his government. For example, the PDP said the government has refused to engage, and that were running a ‘government of exclusion’.
The Minister said that the PDP addressed a press conference in Abuja on Monday, to offer suggestions to the Nigerian Government on some topical issues, especially national security, but said the party fell short of what they wanted to offer.
“The main opposition party said; ”it was dropping the toga of politics in the national interest. The recommendations by the PDP have exposed the opposition party’s gimmickry, and the fact that it was merely playing politics with serious national issues, especially security.”
Insincerity
The Minister however, accused the opposition of insincerity and low standard research and ideas in executing its plan.
“If it had done its home work properly, the PDP would have known that most of those same recommendations they suggested were already contained in the outcome of the Nigerian Government’s Town Hall Meeting on National Security, which was held in Kaduna on April 8th2021,” he stated.
The PDP had accused the Nigerian Government of not engaging and of running a government of exclusion. The Minister however, refuted such claims and instead, puts it on the records that theNigerian Government has consistently engaged Nigerians on topical national issues, including security, the fight against corruption, terrorism, infrastructure and farmer-herder conflict among others through Town Hall meetings across the country.
The Minister said the outcome of government’s town hall meeting in Kaduna was more encompassing and more far-reaching than the political gimmickry which the PDP embarked upon on Monday.
Alhaji Mohammed said the PDP also alleged that kidnappers and bandits were not being brought to justice.
“This is apparently aimed at the Nigerian Government. It is shocking that a party that ruled this nation for 16 years does not know that kidnapping and banditry are not federal offences,” he said.
“The Government has successfully prosecuted thousands of Boko Haram members in Kainji, as part of a continuing exercise. We are now seeking the cooperation of the judiciary to continue with the trial of arrested terrorists,” he said.
The Minister said the PDP ideas were directly picked from some of the recommendations from the recent Kaduna Town Hall meeting on Insecurity.
RESOLUTION OF KADUNA TOWN HALL MEETING ON INSECURITY
With the theme: “Setting Benchmarks for enhanced Security and National Unity in Nigeria”, the Town Hall Meeting reached the following resolutions:
i. That the governance of human society should be based on Law rather than the whims and caprices of human beings and must be obeyed by all as all persons are equal before the law including the law
givers.
ii. That there is urgent need for political restructuring and not separation.
iii. That the Judiciary be decentralized and reformed through Constitutional Amendment to remove the unitary control of the Superior Courts.
iv. That governments at all levels should ensure free, qualitative and compulsory Primary Education for all children of school age.
vii. That the Military, Police and other Security Agencies should be expanded in number, retrained, provided with modern equipment and technology to cope with emerging security challenge.
viii. That both religious and traditional leaders should encourage and promote inter-marriages for unity as contained in the 1999 Constitution as amended, Article 15, 3(c) which prescribes
inter-marriage among persons from different places of origin, or of different religious, ethnic or linguistic association or ties.
vii. That the establishment of State Police should be supported by
the National and State Houses of Assembly to enable State Governments
have firm control in addressing security issues.
viii. That Traditional Rulers should be given their age-long role of
maintaining peace and security within their domain.
ix. The Local Government Autonomy be actualized to enable them have control of their areas including the ungoverned spaces in tackling security challenges.
x. And finally that the Farmers/Herders clashes be addressed by establishment of ranches, grazing reserves with modern amenities to check the trans-humans of the herders.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
