EMERGENCY RULE: Lawmakers React?

The lawmakers reacted differently to the declaration.

Some lawmakers on Wednesday gave their reactions to President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration of a State of Emergency in three states.

Below are their reactions.

Badamosi Ayuba Damabatta/Makoda (Kano) ANPP

The fact is that this declaration has been done before in some local governments and nothing has changed. By this new declaration, it is just like giving license to the soldiers to go and humiliate the citizens and to carry out human rights abuses.

Honestly, I don’t support it. By giving security responsibilities of governors to the military, the governors will be made to become answerable to unelected officials.

This only confirms what people have been saying that the federal government is not serious about the amnesty. Today, one hand is for amnesty, and the other hand is for state of emergency.

Solution: I advocate dialogue between Boko Haram and the government.

Mohammed Tahir Monguno (Borno state) ANPP

It will obviously affect our people. We are not averse to it but our concern was the likely dissolution of the democratic structures. Now, we are advising that the troops should conduct themselves professionally within the rules of engagement in their assignment.

Ibrahim Bawa Kamba…Kebbi(Arewa/Dandi(PDP)

I’m not contented with the whole arrangement because of the way he declared it and did not follow due process. He was expected to notify the House. He did it before and nothing happened. I recommend a new committee to be set which will be exclusively composed of religious leaders in the affected areas.

Bitrus Kaze, Jos South/East Fed Const. Plateau State

“I join many Nigerians in commending Mr. President for eventually mustering the guts to declare emergency rule in certain States where our national territorial integrity is already being compromised by rampaging Islamic terrorists”

“The primary purpose of government anywhere in the world is the security and welfare of its citizens.

While commending Mr. President’s for again exhibiting constitutional diligence by sparing all democratic structures in the affected States, the recurrent and rather frequent declaration of emergency rule in Nigeria by the Federal Government since our return to constitutional democracy in 1999 is however self-indicting”

“Under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, the State security apparatus including the military, the Police, the State Security Services, the Civil Defence Corps and even the Road Traffic Wardens are entirely federal establishments.­ If any tier of government should be blamed more for failing to adequately tackle prolonged security challenges nationwide, it is the federal government”

“We on the Plateau understand better that the constitutional appellation of the State Governor as the as Chief Security Officer is simply bogus.

President Goodluck Jonathan must go the whole hog and disband the Kabiru Turaki-led Committee on Boko Haram Amnesty, it is no longer tenable. Having declared of emergency rule, the prospects for achieving peace by granting amnesty to remorseless and ever rampaging terrorists has been invariably jettisoned”

“A band of terrorists who have categorically declined amnesty plans directed at them and who instead are beginning to overrun some parts of the country ought not to and must not be entertained in any form dialogued if the purpose of the emergency rule must be achieved. It’s time for government to call spade by its name and save millions of taxpayers’ money from being wasted in fruitless endearvour”

Abdul Ningi, Bauchi (PDP)

There is no complete solution. There is no one solution. It is a conglomerate of solutions. The Federal government has shown faith with Nigerians with the decision. Nigerians asked for amnesty, we asThe lawmakers reacted differently to the declaration.

Some lawmakers on Wednesday gave their reactions to President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration of a State of Emergency in three states.

Below are their reactions.

Badamosi Ayuba Damabatta/Makoda (Kano) ANPP

The fact is that this declaration has been done before in some local governments and nothing has changed. By this new declaration, it is just like giving license to the soldiers to go and humiliate the citizens and to carry out human rights abuses.

Honestly, I don’t support it. By giving security responsibilities of governors to the military, the governors will be made to become answerable to unelected officials.

This only confirms what people have been saying that the federal government is not serious about the amnesty. Today, one hand is for amnesty, and the other hand is for state of emergency.

Solution: I advocate dialogue between Boko Haram and the government.

Mohammed Tahir Monguno (Borno state) ANPP

It will obviously affect our people. We are not averse to it but our concern was the likely dissolution of the democratic structures. Now, we are advising that the troops should conduct themselves professionally within the rules of engagement in their assignment.

Ibrahim Bawa Kamba…Kebbi(Arewa/Dandi(PDP)

I’m not contented with the whole arrangement because of the way he declared it and did not follow due process. He was expected to notify the House. He did it before and nothing happened. I recommend a new committee to be set which will be exclusively composed of religious leaders in the affected areas.

Bitrus Kaze, Jos South/East Fed Const. Plateau State

“I join many Nigerians in commending Mr. President for eventually mustering the guts to declare emergency rule in certain States where our national territorial integrity is already being compromised by rampaging Islamic terrorists”

“The primary purpose of government anywhere in the world is the security and welfare of its citizens.

While commending Mr. President’s for again exhibiting constitutional diligence by sparing all democratic structures in the affected States, the recurrent and rather frequent declaration of emergency rule in Nigeria by the Federal Government since our return to constitutional democracy in 1999 is however self-indicting”

“Under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, the State security apparatus including the military, the Police, the State Security Services, the Civil Defence Corps and even the Road Traffic Wardens are entirely federal establishments.­ If any tier of government should be blamed more for failing to adequately tackle prolonged security challenges nationwide, it is the federal government”

“We on the Plateau understand better that the constitutional appellation of the State Governor as the as Chief Security Officer is simply bogus.

President Goodluck Jonathan must go the whole hog and disband the Kabiru Turaki-led Committee on Boko Haram Amnesty, it is no longer tenable. Having declared of emergency rule, the prospects for achieving peace by granting amnesty to remorseless and ever rampaging terrorists has been invariably jettisoned”

“A band of terrorists who have categorically declined amnesty plans directed at them and who instead are beginning to overrun some parts of the country ought not to and must not be entertained in any form dialogued if the purpose of the emergency rule must be achieved. It’s time for government to call spade by its name and save millions of taxpayers’money from being wasted in fruitless endearvour”

Abdul Ningi, Bauchi (PDP)

There is no complete solution. There is no one solution. It is a conglomerate of solutions. The Federal government has shown faith with Nigerians with the decision. Nigerians asked for amnesty, we asked for emergency.

He has shown faith with the way the emergency was declared with regards to the constitution by no demanding that the political structures be sacked. I was there recently and I can report to you that the governor said that some part of the part had been taken over by these people. They are no longer under the government control.

And they have given ultimatum to take some Borno in the next weeks and other nearby states in the next two months. When these people give ultimatum like this, people should take them seriously.

Ali Ndume (Borno state senator)

We don’t know the content yet. We know that democratic structures would be maintained. We know that extraordinary measures have to be taken to bring an end to the current situation. I would want to wait until we see the details of the emergency rule before we pass comment.

Right now we know that emergency rule has been declared and it is true that extraordinary measures have to be taken. But since the democratic structure is maintained we hope that cases that we have of abuse of human rights and all that would now not be what people would complain about.

We hope that this is not going to be like adding salt to injury. We hope that it is part of the extraordinary measures that government has to take in order to bring an end to this problem.

Well it is not issue of saying support or not support. Actually, what I know by the emergency rule is that the government has extraordinary measures and that is by taking over the charge of security in the States and LGs involved. Constitutionally, the chief security officer of a State and the local government are the governor and chairman respectively.

But now, the commander-in-chief has taken over direct charge through either his representative or whatever to ensure security in those places. In other words it is like the armed forces taking over from the civil police that are charged with the responsibility.

So, we are hoping that this thing is built positively and we hope that whatever the government is doing, bearing in mind that the government of democracy is government of the people and for the people, the people involved and the States involved or the civilians involved are not exposed to further hardship than the one they are going through.

Victor Lar, Plateau state

The truth is that the President has not done anything that is not sanctioned by the Constitution. In other words, I’m saying that it is constitutionally provided for him to declare that based on information available to him. But with the benefit of the hindsight particularly with regards to the experiences from Plateau State, the declaration of State of emergency has not been effective. In the sense that even during the so called declaration, we kept experiencing insurrections and the essence of that declaration is for the President to have the platform to channel resources and deploy security apparatus in a manner that would put the situation under control.

I would not want to be pessimistic, but we hope that some of those pitfalls like non-payment of salary of workers of local governments that we experienced in Plateau State would not be replicated in the three States. Like the non-funding and assistance of States government with the funds for funding security operations would not be repeated in those other States.

Hopefully, we expect that the declaration would bring lasting peace to the affected States. But operational exigencies may crop up which I believe the security personnel on ground should be able to rise up to the occasion.

Aru Arunsi…Abia( Ohafia Arokchukwu)

There’s no way I can be opposed to it. It’s a welcome development. Afterall, he did things differently by protecting the constitution as regards the declaration. Unlike those before him, who declared total emergency because his military background. We will surely uphold the letter anytime it comes to the floor.

Uche Ekwunife(Anambra state)

It is long overdue. A state of emergency has been declared but the elected governors and the entire democratic structures are still there. It is not affecting the governance structure in the three states and I believe it is a temporary measure and once sanity is restored the soldiers will pull out from the area.

Source: Premium Times