The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday called on the Presidency to furnish it with the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference for consideration to enable it proffer solutions to the rising agitations in different parts of the country.
The Senate also mandated the nation’s security agencies to arrest and prosecute any person or group making inflammatory or divisive statements or acting in ways that are capable of jeopardizing the corporate existence of Nigeria as one indivisible entity.
The resolutions followed a motion titled “The Need For National Unity and Peaceful Co-existence In Nigeria” and sponsored by 105 senators in the upper chamber.
Having taken the motion, the Senate as part of its resolution, agreed that the implementation of the recommendations of the National Conference report might provide the solution to the several problems facing the country and should therefore be looked into by the National Assembly..
Senator Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central) in his contribution said most of the challenges leading to agitations in the different geopolitical zones had been addressed by the National Conference under Justice Idris Kutigi and Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi.
“I agree that there are problems and there are challenges and those challenges should be addressed. And that was why in 2014 the then President, Goodluck Jonathan decided to convoke what was called a National Conference where all the ethnic nationalities, states and geopolitical zones were represented,” Aliero said.
“I will recommend that the Senate should ask for these recommendations, to be tabled before the National Assembly because a lot of recommendations on all the agitations in all the geopolitical zones were addressed. I don’t know why we are not asking for those recommendations to be brought to us. They should be implemented where necessary,” he added.
Presiding over the day’s deliberations, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu called for restraint and tolerance from all Nigerians to ensure a sustainable and egalitarian society.
“We are better off united, we are better off a just and equitable society. It is not time to look at ourselves as either black or white. Our beauty lies in our diversity,” he said.
“We must show leadership as leaders. It is not time to leave the leadership of this country to ad hoc tendencies. In doing so, we must address the fears and complaints of our citizens. I believe this is what we have started today,” he added.
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