Politics
National Assembly extends holiday amid rising security concerns
Focus on insecurity instead of 2027 politics, NPSA tells political class
The Senate and House of Representatives have postponed the resumption of plenary to May 6.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA) has tasked the Nigerian political class to concentrate on tackling the insecurity in the country rather than focusing on the 2027 election.
The two chambers embarked on Easter and Eid-el-Fitr holidays on March 27 and were expected to resume plenary on Tuesday, April 29.
But a statement issued by the Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, yesterday, said the resumption had been extended by one week.
“I am directed to inform distinguished senators, honourable members and the general public that the two Houses of the National Assembly have extended the date for the resumption of plenary sessions from Tuesday, April 29, 2025, to Tuesday, May 6, 2025,” he said.
Ogunlana said the extension was to allow senators and House of Representatives members to participate in the forthcoming Workers’ Day celebrations in their constituencies.
The extension comes at a time the country is experiencing multiple challenges, including worsening security conditions and socio-political unrest across several states.
ACCORDING to the eminent group of scholars, the practice of exclusive politics, which has continued to alienate most of the population, is fuelling insecurity in the country.
NPSA President, Prof Hassan Saliu, in a statement on behalf of the association entitled: ‘The Alarming State of Insecurity in Nigeria’, noted that Nigerians living in Benue, Borno, Plateau and other states in recent weeks were living in fear.
Saliu, who pointed out that before now, the general feeling, especially among government officials, was that the country was on the path to subduing insecurity, expressed disappointment that things were getting worse.
While admitting that factors such as ungoverned spaces to religious fundamentalism, poverty, external conspiracy, unhealthy politicking and problems arising from inter-group relations heightened insecurity in the country, he declared that the main cause of insecurity was the exclusionary politics that ignored the masses.
According to him, rather than concentrate energy and attention on tackling the increasing wave of insecurity, the political class is fixated on the politics of 2027.
Saliu added that if the Federal Government had been serious about combating insecurity, its efforts in the last two decades would have yielded positive results.
Reeling out the implications of the continued state of insecurity, Saliu stressed that no foreign investor would put their money where insecurity is becoming a way of life.
Martin Amaewhule, Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Tori News reports Amaewhule defected along with 15 other members of the House on Friday.
Amaewhule said the defection is due to clear division in the PDP.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu declared a state of emergency in the state earlier this year in March, suspending the Governor, Sim Fubara and his Deputy alongside members of the State Assembly.
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Bode George, has intensified his call for the establishment of state police to contain the wave of insecurity in Nigeria.
George made this call on Friday when he appeared during an interview on Arise Television monitored by Ekwutosblog.
He was reacting to the worsening insecurity situation in the country where innocent Nigerians, including women and schoolchildren are kidnapped and others killed in the process.
“First of all, what is wrong with establishing state police? We have seen nobody is going to cancel the Federal Police, but policing is local.
“When you now turn the boys who live in the same area and legalize their existence to put smiles on the faces of the people, it will be better to manage because they will understand the language of the locals. They know the do’s and don’ts in their own area. So why are we wasting time?
“I am happy I read something last week after the Arewa Consultative meeting in the North. They met and took a decision that they have agreed to a state police.
“Then the Southwest met with their governors, and the governors’ statement made after that conference is that they also accept having state police.
“What are we wasting time for? Because the way it is, you don’t even know who is telling the truth or who is telling the lie,” he said.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, on Friday declared that he’s still a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Wike’s comment followed his expulsion from the party by the faction led by National Chairman, Kabiru Turaki.
Turaki had formally dispatched expulsion certificates to 11 prominent party chieftains, including Wike, former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, Umaru Bature, Kamarudeen Ajibade, SAN, Abdurahman Muhammad Senator Mao Ohuabunwa.
He said their expulsion was aimed at sanitising the party ahead of the 2027 elections.
Reacting to the development on Friday, Wike dismissed the claim while assuring that he would continue to work with other party members in making PDP a relevant opposition party.
The minister spoke while addressing journalists after inspecting the Interchange bridge and road linking Gwarinpa with Jahi and direct to Katampe, Gishiri and Maitama.
He said, “Those that are factionalized are bound to leave the party, I’m still in PDP and you can see that not everybody has left.
“We still have good numbers and we will continue to work together and that’s what I have said to the party. Put your house in order because at the end of the day, if you don’t put your house in order, it’s the party that is losing.
“So those who are worried, we can work together to see how the party can remain a relevant opposition.”
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