President Muhammadu Buhari has agreed to meet federal lawmakers to answer nagging questions on the country’s worsening and rankling security situation.
A confirmation of his plan to meet the lawmakers was revealed in a tweet by his Personal Assistant on Social Media, Ms. Lauretta Onochie; and House Leader, Hon. Ado Doguwa, in a television interview.
The confirmation comes as the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) threw its weight behind its member, Hon. Kingsley Chinda, who asked Nigerians to get their representatives to begin the process of impeaching Buhari.
Doguwa berated Chinda for the call and suggested the House would take measures to deal with the Rivers representative.
But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) asserts that the call by its caucus in the House of Representatives asking Nigerians to direct their representatives, across party lines, to commence impeachment process against President Muhammadu Buhari is constitutional and democratic.
The party states that the call is a direct reflection of the mood and desires of the Nigerian people, given President Buhari, manifest failure in all spheres of governance and particularly in failing to provide an effective leadership that can guarantee the security of our nation and rescue our economy, which has collapsed in his hands.
As a party, the PDP says it had always called on our federal legislators in the House of Representatives and the Senate, irrespective of political affiliations, to stand on the side of the people by deploying the legislative instruments provided in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to rescue the ship of state.
It adds, “The Buhari administration had already accepted failure as reflected in the declaration by one of its officials, that the nation is now at the mercy of bandits and terrorists, a development that signals that is has outlived its usefulness.
“President Buhari is elected by the people; his stay in office is also dependent on the people as vested on them by the Constitution, through their elected representatives in the National Assembly.
“The PDP therefore urges Nigerians to eschew all primordial sentiments and stand for the nation at this critical time.”
However, the ruling APC, in a statement by its spokesman, says it “has no intention of joining issues with a crass statement credited to Kingsley Chinda, a purported factional “leader” of the PDP Caucus in the House of Representatives in which he has resorted to denigrate the office and person of the President by name-calling and insults.”
It adds: “Chinda’s insensitive and callous intention is to play politics with the grief of citizens in the aftermath of the recent, gruesome and condemnable killings of some defenceless farmers in Zabarmari, Borno state by Boko Haram. The APC will not join Chinda and his PDP backers on this evil and ignoble road.
“We have since learnt that Chinda does not even have the support of any of the PDP House factions he claims to head. He is a lone, rejected voice. The House of Representatives has already dismissed Chinda’s rant as illogical, self-serving and a ploy to derail the proposed visit of the President to the House.
“The leadership of the National Assembly, the President and Armed Forces which the president heads as Commander in chief are on the same page in tackling emerging security situations in the country and ensure the safety of all Nigerians.”
Chinda, in a statement last weekend, accused the the President of “gross incompetence and persistent and continuous breach of Section 14(2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution.”
On behalf of the PDP caucus, he asked members of the Federal Executive Council to invoke the provisions of Section 144 (1) of the Constitution by declaring that Buhari was incapable of discharging the functions of the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Nigerians are daily and defencelessly killed by terrorists and bandits, while the economy is being freely bled by public officers,” Chinda said.
Reacting to the killing of 43 rice farmers in Zambarmari area of Borno State, he described it as “do-nothing posturing and the effeminate reactions of the Presidency and the military that follow the dastardly attacks.”
Chinda said, “The PDP caucus in the House of Representatives has observed with deep pain the dastardly attacks on poor farmers, which have continued unabated across the vast swathes of northern Nigeria, which act came to a sad climax over the weekend in Zabarmari, near Maiduguri, North-East Nigeria.”
He cited Buni Yadi, Gamboru, Baga, Gwoza, Shiroro, Konduga, Kawuri, Southern Kaduna and parts of Benue, among other places in Nigeria where lives were being snatched by insurgents, bandits and kidnappers, who have no respect for the sanctity of life.
He added, “While President Buhari idles in the typical fashion of Emperor Nero as our country burns, questions must be asked about his capacity to lead at a time that our country desires robust and responsible leadership that can pull it from the brink and rescue it from the debilitations of insurgents, terrorists, bandits and kidnappers.
“We call on Nigerians across tribes, religions and political parties to wake up their National Assembly members and compel them to commence impeachment process against President Buhari to save Nigeria.”