Ekweremadu: A Government Fails Woefully When it Can’t Protect Lives
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Loading ...The Deputy President of the senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has expressed concern over the incessant killings of innocent Nigerians by armed bandits across the country, and regretted that thousands of lives had been lost in the past ten years.
Ekweremadu spoke at Senate plenary on Tuesday while summing the debate on a motion on the urgent need to investigate the killings that took place in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
He said: “This motion is about a very serious matter. We are talking about the lives of people. If we look at Chapter 4 of our Constitution dealing fundamental human rights, the first right there is the right to life because you have to be alive to enjoy the other liberties and rights.
“We must not as a country joke with the lives of our citizens and that is why if you go to Chapter 2 of our Constitution dealing with fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy, after Section 13 that says that all organs of government must aspire to uphold these, Section 14, straightaway, tells us that the prerequisite business or principal objective of government is the security of lives and property and the welfare of the people.
“That tells us that government is established to keep and protect people’s lives and provide for their welfare. Any government at any level that abdicates this responsibility in respect of life has failed woefully. I believe that we must take this matter very serious a country.
“Over the last ten years, I am sure that about 50,000 people must have been killed in Nigeria by armed bandits, by Boko Haram, by herdsmen/farmers clash, by kidnappers and armed robbers.
“I am aware that there are countries, especially in the Caribbean, which equal or surpass that number. That means that if Nigeria were less populated, we may have been extinguished from the face of the earth. We cannot take advantage of the fact that we have large numbers and take for granted that people are dying.
“We must be a responsible government to ensure that we give ultimate priority to the protection of lives and property of our people and any Nigerian that dies must be a matter of concern to everybody. Life in Nigeria now doesn’t seem to have that kind of premium that the constitution hsas ascribed to it.
“I do hope that going forward, we will be able to live up to our responsibility as a government in making sure that every Nigerian would go home and sleep believing that government will protect and provide for him or her.
“That is why the coercive powers of government is always in the hands of government; that is why we have the army, navy, airforce, and some other security agencies. The essence is to make sure that those objectives are given priority, especially when it comes to life and I do hope that we must rise up to this.
“We have done our duty as a Senate; we believe that other arms of government must also do their duty to enable Nigerians know that we still have a government in this country; that we have government in the respective States and in the various Local Government Areas”.
Also summing up the debate on motion for an urgent need to establish more rehabilatiion centres for drug addicts in the country, sponsored by Senator Jeremiah Useni (PDP, Plateau Central), Ekweremadu called for an elaborate enlightment programme to bring to light the dangers inherent in drug abuse.
He equally urged strict monitoring of rehabilitation centres for drug addicts as well as cutting the link between the drug sellers and users as a means of reversing the upsurge in the incidence of drug abuse in the country and its attendant harmful effects.
“People need to know the effects of these drugs, both on the person, who is using it and on the general society because it is not just the user alone who is affected. The general society is also endangered. Anybody who is on drugs doesn’t understand what he is doing and so can commit all sorts of crimes including murder, armed robbery, rape, among others”, he added.
