Henry Nwawuba is a member of the House of Representatives, representing Mbaitoli/Ikeduru Federal Constituency of Imo State. He is currently serving his second term in the National Assembly, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Niger Delta. In this interview with ARISE TV on Friday, he speaks on the insecurity challenges in the country and other sundry issues

Many are excited that President Muhammadu Buhari has agreed to appear before the House of Reps and can you take us through what really transpired on that day when that decision to invite the president was taken?

I think as lawmakers and being the people or the arm of government that is the last man, especially when you talk about interfacing with the electorate or the people, the House of Representatives will always remain dynamic; we are always going to be reacting to situations on ground in Nigeria. If you remember, as part of our legislative agenda, the ninth House of Representatives has security on its top front burner, it’s one of the sectors that we actually intend to put more effort and attention into. This is because security seems to be deteriorating in Nigeria in the last four years and even beyond.

So what happened essentially was that we are questioning, we are reviewing, we are looking at the security situation in Nigeria. It is not just in the national assembly, a lot of Nigerians are raising serious concerns. If you have been following what has been trending in the media for about a week now, it has always been about what can we do? Recall when we had the End SARS protest in the country, everybody was questioning and demanding and saying we need the president to hear from the president; we need the chief security officer of this country to speak to the issues, to reassure Nigerians and to just tell us what is really going on.

And that is what played out, the House of Representatives is demanding… we were essentially going through the plenary and doing our work, and we said look, we cannot keep going like this, every day, we hear of explosions. We have lost more lives through boko haram even than we lost in the civil war.

So we essentially went through the motions and we are happy that we have gotten to where we are today as a result of the brouhaha… we are going to be interfacing with Mr President and we will get an opportunity to ask him the questions that are burning in our minds and I believe it is the right step in the right direction and I know that we will be asking and speaking the minds of Nigerians.

There was also a request for the declaration of a state of emergency, is there an update on that and what are your thoughts on that request?

There is no update on the declaration of a state of emergency. I am not a security expert and I think that they are looking at all the issues, we need to situate the security conversation that we had on the floor on that day with what is actually happening in Nigeria. Security is a major issue all across the country; every part of Nigeria is facing its own unique security challenges. We, as the representatives of the people and lawmakers, we also have a dotted line to the security agencies, to the executive, to ask and to make sure that protection of lives and properties as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution, is actually achieved.

When it comes to legislative activities on the floor, we have divergent views, there are those who will speak for a situation or an issue and there will always be those that will speak against it. But ultimately, the resolution of the House is what is carried forward and in this issue, the House has resolved to invite the president, we have received signals that he will be honouring the invitation on Thursday.

So what I think should be the topmost in our minds at the moment as representatives of the people, is to immediately commence the aggregation of questions, of thoughts, of comments, suggestions, ideas, advices, or whatever it is that we want to pass across to Mr President as we seek to find solutions to the security challenges in Nigeria.

Is the session with the president going to be a closed door one or an open session at the plenary and will the issue of the service chiefs also come up?

Personally, I will like it to be an open session with the cameras and all of that. But I also know that when it comes to security matters, it is not uncommon sometimes to go into executive sessions, we have not been advised for now. But either way, what is important is that the House is charged, the House is part of the country, we suffer the same things Nigerians suffer, we are Nigerians too and we are part of the people. So we will be engaging with Mr. President and we will be asking him a hard question and the right questions.

As regards the question concerning the service chiefs, everybody knows that it is insanity to continue to deploy the same techniques, the same style, the same thing repeatedly over and over again and you expect a different result, that will not happen. So it is the desire of every Nigerian that we bring in fresh ideas at the level of the service chiefs or the architecture of security in this country, for whatever reason, that has not happened. We will be interrogating that situation with Mr. President, we want to know what is going on.

As a member of the opposition, if you are given an opportunity, what specific question will you be asking the president?

When it comes to security issues, I am really not comfortable making partisan affairs. I think members of the PDP are affected in just the same manner as members of every other political party. I think this is one issue we have to by-partisan, I think this is one issue that touches everybody in different ways. But personally, I will be asking the president why he has retained the same security chiefs in the last five years and I would want to know what his plans are in rejigging the architecture so that we can see some movements when it comes to the fight against insurgency in particular.

It was in the news a few days ago that the police took the AGF and 103 others to court, including chairpersons of judicial panels of inquiry and Attorney Generals of the states where judicial panels of inquiry have been set up. And then you have the IGP saying he is not aware of this. What does this tell about the role of the police?

Again, it is one of the issues that we have in this country. What the House has been doing as part of its legislative agenda is been focusing on police reforms that would address some of these issues. Sometimes, when you want to see the changes on ground, you actually start from the engine room, you start innovating along the lines of policy and hopefully, the implementation will see some of these issues.

Inter-agency clashes within the security forces is a very bad situation, because this is a time for clear head, clear strategy, clear plan, but sometimes, we have seen that we play the ostrich. Sometimes, you see people putting their heads away in shame while the entire corrupt system or imbalances and every other thing exposed and I think it is quite unfortunate. But as legislators, we are not tired, my colleagues are not tired, the ninth Assembly is not tired. Right now, we are a way working with a group of technical resource persons in Lagos on the Petroleum Industry Bill, which you know is something we have committed that we are going to deliver to Nigerians because we hope that that will translate to some positives on ground in terms of the financial position of this country and that will also have an impact on security situation in Nigeria. It is an ongoing story and we are here to do the job. (Daily Independent)

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