20th January, 2012
Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, House of Representatives member, Hakeem Abiodun Munir, representing Oshodi/Isolo Constituency II, speaks with Political Platform on national issues.
What is the National Assembly doing about the increasing spate of bombings in the country?
The National Assembly will take a decisive stance. The security chiefs are not doing their best. No other person is expected to do their job. The buck stops on their tables. Mr. President and the security chiefs are not doing enough to tame the tide of this bombings. It is becoming a culture. How can somebody say, “I will come and bomb this place today” and he goes and does it? And nobody is doing anything about it. It looks as if we are in a failed state. It is as if the Federal Government does not have the capacity.
The responsibility of any government is to protect lives and properties of the citizenry. And we are not seeing it in this instance.
Is government not losing grip of the system?
It’s as if we are losing grip of the situation. It’s as if we are losing grip of these challenges. It’s like the challenges are overwhelming us, it’s like we cannot surmount the challenges and it is disheartening. If we live in a normal society, it is either somebody is throwing in the towel or we are seeing them arresting somebody. This window dressing of taking somebody to court and saying they have arrested somebody is nonsense. If you arrest a spokesman, he should have the information. Then, go and tell the whole world where they are and where they are going to bomb next.
But this kind of arrest being made is different from arresting perpetrators of this heinous crime and that is what we are saying that the leadership of Nigeria, the executive must take up its responsibilities. The primary aim of a government is to protect lives. That is why we have subjected our sovereignty to one man that we have voted for.
What do you think is the solution?
We are saying we must take decisive actions against these acts. If there is need for us to convene a sovereign national conference to look at our challenges, let’s do so. We are saying that there is the need for the President to wake up from slumber. The issues of deregulation and fuel subsidy are secondary issues when it comes to the issue of security. It is only when you have a safe society that you can say that you ought to deregulate or remove fuel subsidy. These are not primary issues. The challenges of security are rising and there is the need to address them.
As a result of the rising spate of insecurity in the North, there are now insinuation that Nigeria may disintegrate. What do you think?
If the security operatives cannot tell us that they can stem this tide, if I want to go to Maiduguri today or if I want to go to Damaturu tomorrow that my life is safe, I will rather not go there. There are thousands of National Youth Service Corps members who have refused to go to such places because they are not prepared to go and die there. There are people who will tell you that they will rather not go to Bauchi, even if you will give them jobs worth millions of naira. They won’t go there. So what are we talking about? That is why the President has to sit up and face these challenges. The top priority in our mind now is the issue of security. Every Nigerian must be protected because it is all our right.
Now that the budget is before the National Assembly, what is the House going to do about oil subsidy that has just been removed?
Mr. President is the Chief Executive of the nation. He should come and tell us why we as the National Assembly or why I am a member of the AC N which has taken a stance against subsidy must support it? How do you want to convince me? Nobody is saying removal or no removal is the issue. If you remove, what is the benefit for the people? Are we going to impoverish our people just because some people don’t have any again? They have been removing this subsidy and we have not see anything. The only time they removed subsidy and we saw a bit of its effects was in the days of the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF. Every other one, like the removal done in the days of former President Olusegun Obasanjo when they would remove N1.00, N2.00, N20, N10, what did we gain?
The roads are not there, healthcare is not there, there is no security and you are removing subsidy again. It is from frying pan to fire. We are not part of it and I can tell you that the leadership of the National Assembly, especially House of Representatives is not compromising on this issue of subsidy because for now, that is the only thing that is giving Nigerians relief.
We gave them a condition. If you want to remove subsidy, first go and put infrastructure in place, let us see what you are going to use the money for. Don’t just tell us you are going to remove subsidy when we don’t even know what we want to use the money for.