....At these moments of intense outpouring of grief across the nation, it is important that we shun buck passing and accept responsibility for these wanton killings without which we will never find a solution to this evil. We cannot afford to fold our hands and pretend that all is well with our country. We cannot throw up our hands in defeat. We have a responsibility to all Nigerians regardless of creed or ethnicity in line with the constitutionally stated primary purpose of the government we serve in, which is securing the welfare including the lives and property of our people. This we must do by ensuring that every law abiding Nigerian is protected where ever he choses to live in the country and every one who is up in arms against our citizens is quickly brought to justice where ever they are in the country. That there are no sanctuaries anywhere in the country for killers and other hardened criminals who feed on the blood of our people.
Our job as leaders is to hold our people together and ensure that no one or group is allowed to foist the reign of tragedy and group polarisation on our dear nation. Those who pride themselves in violence must be reminded of the self defeating nature of violence: the fact that violence only begets violence and that true victory has never been won by violence. It was Mahatma Gandhi who delivered a timeless rebuke to the fools who worship brute force by reminding them that, “victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat for it is momentary”. We have to preach this message to our people who must not only accept the inevitability of conflict as well as the necessity for tolerance but must learn not to pursue conflict violently but democratically, in ways that result in compromise and consensus as the culture of democracy demands.
This House has passed many Resolutions on the issue of herdsmen, cattle grazing and cattle rustling. These Resolutions include but not limited to: HR 127/2015, HR. 291/2015, HR.36/2016, HR. 77/2016, HR. 123/2016, HR. 144/2016, HR. 187/2016, HR. 164/2016, HR. 85/2017, HR. 199/2017, HR. 08/2017, HR.09/2017, HR.118/2016. There have also been several resolutions on kidnapping, Boko Haram Terrorism and sundry security matters. These resolutions are more of a wakeup call to the Executive on its Constitutional obligations in governance. The accentuation of violent crimes is a chronic symptom of defects in our security architecture which we must fix. I therefore call on Mr President to apply maximum sanctions on public officers who are derelict in the performance of their duties.
Hon. Dogara
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