Insecurity threatens Nigeria’s foundations of nationhood – Gbajabiamila

…says African Parliaments working together through CoSAP

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep Femi Gbajabiamila has said the current security challenges in Nigeria are a threat to foundations of the country’s nationhood.

The Speaker, however, noted that the Nigerian Government has responded to the challenges by taking certain measures such as increasing funding for the police and the military, recruiting personnel for security agencies, among others.

According to a statement released by Lanre Lasisi, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Speaker on Thursday said, Gbajabiamila spoke when he delivered a paper titled ‘Democracy in Challenging Times: The Role of African Parliaments in Safeguarding and Delivering on Dividends of Democracy’ at the School of Oriental Studies, London on Wednesday as part of his ongoing official visit to the UK.

Speaking on the challenges facing Nigeria, he said: “The most pressing of these challenges today is the national security crisis that threatens the foundations of our nationhood and portends great danger for Africa and the world if it persists.”

The Speaker further said: “First, to address present challenges and to build resilient institutions that can withstand uncertainty in troubled times, more than anything else, our focus must remain on the young and vibrant youth of Nigeria and Africa who have so much to offer the world and have proven that they can thrive under challenging circumstances given half a chance.

“However we cannot do this for as long as our present national security challenges persist.  

“The government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has responded to the reality of our present challenges by increasing funding provisions for the police and armed forces, accelerating recruitment and training to put more boots on the ground and also acquiring weapons systems designed to give security agencies an advantage.”

He noted that upon resumption of the 9th House, “the scope of our challenges was evident, matched only by our confidence that we would do what was required to overcome those difficulties and deliver the dividends of democracy for our people.

“Now the topic of this paper speaks to ‘dividends of democracy,’ a term that has been loosely and broadly interpreted to mean different things to different people but what exactly does it mean or what is a universally acceptable definition of the phrase dividends of democracy.

“For me and the House, we understood that the best dividend of democracy is a just society, where individual rights are recognized and respected. Where citizens have the freedom to dream big dreams and the social resources and infrastructure to achieve those dreams.”

Motivated by these understandings, the Speaker stressed that for the first time in the history of Nigerian legislature, the 9th House began by developing a legislative agenda to articulate in detail, “our governing priorities.”

He said as the House was moving quickly to implement its agenda, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, forcing certain drastic measures, including a reworking of the Legislative Agenda.

“We proposed landmark legislation to reform our public health emergency response system and update public vaccination protocols. We received heavy criticism for these efforts, as a spirited disinformation campaign suggested malicious intent behind our actions.

“In addition to refocusing our local priorities, Covid-19 reminded us in parliament of the indispensability of international collaboration in seeking solutions to shared problems. 

“It is an unfortunate reality that despite the similarities of our governance challenges across the continent, there often aren’t enough coordinated efforts to share ideas, jointly consider solutions and adopt best practices to address our shared problems.”

Gbajabiamila said with the support of his other colleagues across the African continent was convened, the first Conference of Speakers of African Parliaments (CoSAP) as a platform for continental parliamentary cooperation and coordination that will allow us to try to change this dynamic.

He said the Nigerian House of Representatives would this year host the inaugural in-person meeting of CoSAP to establish framework of action to ensure achievement of objectives that motivated this unique partnership.