Abuja, Nigeria
Reuters
Nigeria’s parliament called on the presidency, armed forces and police to address the country’s mounting security crisis on Tuesday, with the lower house urging President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency.
The resolutions come as a wave of violence and lawlessness sweeps across Africa’s largest economy. Security forces, including the military deployed across most of Nigeria’s states, have shown little ability to stem the tide.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari speaks during a news conference after a meeting with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, in Pretoria, South Africa, on 3rd October, 2019. PICTURE: Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko/File photo.
“The president should immediately declare a state of emergency on security so as to fast track all measures to ensure the restoration of peace in the country,” said a resolution passed by the lower house.
In the north-west, gunmen have kidnapped more than 700 schoolchildren since December, as militants pillage communities in the region.
In the north-east, the armed forces are still struggling in a 12-year war with Boko Haram and Islamic State’s West Africa branch. On Sunday, more than 30 soldiers died in an attack, soldiers and a resident said.
“The nation is on fire,” said Smart Adeyemi, a senator in Buhari’s ruling party. “The President must rise to the occasion and bring in people to save this country or else we will be consumed. We cannot keep quiet any longer.”
The senate upper house called for “massive recruitment” for the military and police and procurement of new equipment for security forces.
Meanwhile, the senate also resolved for its leadership to meet Buhari to discuss the insecurity, and invite Nigeria’s army chief and other commanders and intelligence chiefs to speak on the matter.
The military did not immediately respond to calls and messages seeking comment. A presidency spokesman declined to comment.
Earlier on Tuesday, Rivers state, in Nigeria’s oil-producing heartland, said it will ban people crossing its borders at night due to insecurity.
Meanwhile, President Buhari said the US should consider moving its military headquarters overseeing Africa to the continent, from Germany, to better tackle growing armed violence in the region.
Buhari, in a virtual meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, said US Africa Command (AFRICOM), should be relocated to Africa itself.
“Considering the growing security challenges in West and Central Africa, Gulf of Guinea, Lake Chad region and the Sahel, weighing heavily on Africa, it underscores the need for the United States to consider re-locating AFRICOM headquarters…near the theatre of operation,” said Buhari, according a statement issued by the presidency.
He spoke a week after the death of the longtime president of Chad, Idriss Deby, in a battle against rebels.
Deby was an important Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants and under him Chadian soldiers formed a key component of a multinational force fighting Boko Haram and its offshoot, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
“The security challenges in Nigeria remain of great concern to us and impacted more negatively by existing complex negative pressures in the Sahel, Central and West Africa, as well as the Lake Chad Region,” said Buhari, a retired major general.
AFRICOM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
– With FELIX ONUAH in Abuja and ALEXIS AKWAGYIRAM in Lagos.
