President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday met with the President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Their discussions centered on the nation’s security situation as well as the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC board.
He reiterated that the responsibility to secure the environment for Nigerians to earn their means of livelihood lies with the three tiers of government including the traditional rulers.
Lawan noted that the desire of everyone including the government was to see farmers return to farms before the rain starts.
Lawan assured that the nation will witness some activities aimed at improving security within two months.
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“I’ve come to meet with Mr. President, to discuss the issue of security of our nation, and in fact, there is nothing more important today or more topical, than the security of Nigeria.”
“We had a very extensive discussion on the security of all parts of Nigeria and how we should go about improving the situation, we all have roles to play. Nobody would like to see the kind of things that we experience in various parts of the country in the form of insecurity.”
“We also believe that the government is headed in the right direction. You’ll recall that the National Economic Council approved the withdrawal of some funds from the Excess Crude Accounts with a view to giving more resources to our armed forces.”Lawal said.
“This is a commendable effort and we are ready to help with appropriation to ensure that we acquire those security weapons for the armed forces of this country to end this insecurity in the northeast, in the northwest, in the southeast/south-south, and southwest as well.”
On the need to de-escalate the charged socio-political atmosphere in the country, the Senate President charged the political class not to be part of the force setting the various ethnic and religious groups against each other through inciting comments.
“Recently, there has been a lot of arguments on what should happen and what should not, especially with regards to what political leaders would say or not supposed to say.”
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On the status of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, the Senate President said the National Assembly is in alignment with President Buhari’s resolve to sanitize the operations of the commission.
“We also have discussions on the need to ensure that government functions very well. We have few issues, these are housekeeping issues of getting the NDDC governing board nominations and I agree with Mr. President that we have to end the forensic audit to ensure that everything is done properly and the report is submitted to him.”
“It is very significant that whoever is found culpable should be treated as such, to serve as a deterrent to others because NDDC should have transformed the Niger Delta into a better environment than what it has been,”Lawal stressed.
(Editor: Abaje Usekwe)
