Teddy Oscar, Abuja
As members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect seem to be having a field day with their activities, the House of Representatives on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to enlist the help of regional, sub-regional, continental, as well as other international organisations to which Nigeria is signatory in its bid to end the activities of insurgency in the country.
The was sequel to a motion on matters of urgent national importance moved by Hon. Peter Gumtha on the need to rescue the remaining of the over 200 school girls, who were taken away from a state-run secondary school in Chibok, Bornu State to an unknown destination on the night of 14th /15th of April, 2014.
“The actual number of girls taken from the was 273 out of which 43 escaped to regain their freedom. 230 girls are still in captivity over two weeks after the incident. The parents of these girls are yet to get receive any reliable information from the security agencies on the where about of their children,” Gumtha, who led debate on the motion, told the House.
Speaking on the matter, members were unanimous in condemning the development, describing it as most embarrassing and demeaning for a nation of Nigeria’s standing on the continent.
Speaking on the matter, Hon. Isa Lawal said: “it is unfortunate that over 200 girls would be taken for over ten days and nobody knows where they are or what has happened to them.”
Hon. Farouk Lawan rendered a submission that sought to prick emotion in the green chamber when he asked his colleagues to take out time to reflect on the situation, which could have affected anyone of them had the table been turned.
“Let’s take just 30 seconds of our time to imagine if one of these girls was your daughter. Just imagine. We are all parents here and we have daughters. Imagine that your daughter was kidnapped for more than two weeks, would you be here today discoursing issues on this floor”, he queried.
On his part, Hon. Muhammed Bashir warned that the situation could degenerate and spread to other parts of the country, if nothing is done to arrest it.
“Failure of leadership to engage in dialogue with the insurgence as I sometime ago suggested in a motion, which was not not allowed to go through on this floor is going to make the problem spread beyond the North to other parts of the country.
“Right now, very little appears to have been done to rescue these innocent children. We should take example from the missing plane in Malaysia where the whole world is involved in its search. The numbers are not much more than the number of girls taken away by the terrorists,” he submitted.
The minority whip, Hon. Samson Osagie, expressed sadness on the inability of the nation’s security outfits to deal with an issue he considers a matter of national concern irrespective of whatever divide anybody may belong within the polity.
“I’m sad because this country is at its lowest ebb of existence since its creation. For me, it’s a failure of the political class no matter which divide one belongs. Security is not an ethnic, religious or political matter. Its national concern, and the obvious reason for this problem is breakdown of governance and leadership,” he opined.
Hon. Nnenna Elendu Ukeje said there is need for the nation to do what she called, border-town administration.
“As a woman, I don’t even want to imagine what these girls are going through. We need to do a border-town administration, and how do we use our position as the Chairperson of the United Nations Security Council to bend international jurisprudence that will allow our troops go into places like Cameroon and Chad to fish out these people that are making life difficult for us in Nigeria,” she said.
Hon. Ogbuefi Ozombgachi also advocated for international synergy with a view to curbing terrorism in Nigeria.
Hon. Robinson Uwak on his part, advocated for a total overhaul of the nation’s military by way of retraining and equipping all the outfits with a view to returning the nation to its lost glory. He said gone were the days when the Nigerian military stood out at various assignment both within and outside the continent.
