By Gift Chapi Odekina
The Chief of Naval Staff Rear Admiral Zubairu Gambo on Monday called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency build security walls around it’s boarders with neighbor countries.
He made the disclosure during a public hearing held by the House of Representatives while considering three bills:
A Bill for an Act to establish the national commission against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons (HB 10), a Bill for an Act to make provision for the integration of private close circuit Television (CCTV) and for Related Matters, 2019 (HB. 421) and a Bill for an Act to repeal the explosives Act, and for related matters (HB 369 & HB 822), a Bill for an Act to designate the month of November as the National appreciation for security agencies month and for related matters (HB 1222).
The Chief of Naval Staff who was represented by Commodore Jemila Abubakar Sadik, said that the issue of insecurity and proliferation of small arms and light weapon is caused by neighbor countries.
According to her, assistance made by developed countries to Africa countries to fight terrorism has caused more problems for Nigeria and has in return done Nigeria more harm than good.
According to him building a huge wall across Nigeria boarders is the only solution to tackling insecurity.
“Until we build wall across boarders with neighboring countries, we will know no peace, I headed a team who fought insecurity in those region and I can make bold to say if we don’t build these walls Nigeria will know no peace”, she said.
Speaking on the Nigeria Navy’s input on the bills under consideration, Sadiq said that the Navy was in support of the bills but that the commission should be headed by ministry of internal affairs instead of foreign affairs as contained the proposed bill.
He further stated that Armforces and immigration should be included in the listed agencies on the bills.
Earlier declearing the Hearing open, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila said that the welfare and wellbeing of the Nigerian people was the primary responsibility of the government, and it is an obligation that the government is determined to fulfil by whatever means is necessary.
“Fulfilling our obligations in this regard requires, above all else, that we protect our people from the dangers of insecurity. In service of this tremendous responsibility, we have gathered here this morning to review four crucial Bills referred to the Committee for legislative action.
“Two of these are Executive Bills, referred to the House of Representatives by the President, His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR. However, in separate ways, all of them seek the same goal of making our country a safer place and ensuring that our people live without fear of molestation and victimization.
Therefore, these Bills are a priority for the House of Representatives. We will consider them thoroughly and with due haste. And we will engage with stakeholders and citizens alike to make sure that these bills in their final form serve their purpose.
“Shortly before the House recessed for our annual vacation, a Bill to give full effect to the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Their Ammunition and Other Related Materials passed second reading in the House of Representatives.
“That Bill, amongst other things, seeks to establish a National Commission Against the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons. With this new Bill from the Executive, we now have two Bills in the House seeking to achieve similar objectives.
These Bills should not be considered independently of each other. To the extent that their goals are the same, the two responsible committees on National Security and Intelligence and Treaties, Protocols, and Agreements will work together to achieve the objectives of these Bills.
” As I have always said, nation-building is a joint task. We serve the best interests of our country when we work together in a collaborative effort to build a society that allows all our people to live their best lives.
“It is important to emphasise that this is a public hearing and everyone is a stakeholder. Beyond that, the security agencies are welcome to make submissions but everyone is welcome to make submission as well. I say so because I want to underscore the fact that security is about everyone and we are all stakeholders.
“Even the man on the street that is selling groundnut is a stakeholder when it comes to security matters. So we may all have one thing or the other to input into this public hearing. Nobody here, not the House, not the Security agencies was a fountain of knowledge.
Knowledge would be drawn from everywhere, in fact sometimes from the most unlikely source or most unlikely person might have one thing or the other to add to the issue”, he added.
