A member of the House of Representatives, Shina Peller, has described the decision to invite President Muhammadu Buhari by some legislators over the spate of insecurity in northern Nigeria as unnecessary.
Peller represents Iseyin, Itesiwaju, Kajola and Iwajowa federal constituency.
Peller made the remark at a lecture and symposium organised on Saturday at the main hall of Iseyin District Grammar School, IDGS, by The Chronicler Newspaper, a community tabloid at Iseyin, Iseyin local government of Oyo State.
The gathering of stakeholders in the town was targeted at addressing the effects of the destruction suffered by the community after hoodlums that attacked the community police station and other public and private facilities in the town after the October 2020’s #EndSARS protest.
The legislator said the level of insecurity in the nation, particularly in the North-West, called for a united front and consensus resolutions to foster lasting peace and not what he called a resort to power play between the legislative and the executive arms of the government.
He opined that instead of arguing over the need for the president to appear in person to address a joint sitting of the Senate and the House of Representative members, concerted efforts should have been concentrated on legislative procedure to effect possible changes in the prosecution of the war against terror.
“Instead of resorting to distraction on arguing over why the president should come or not come, why did we not concentrate on the possible legislative solutions on making effective changes in the procedure of prosecuting the war against Boko Haram?
“The popular demands range from the call for the change of the Service Chiefs to deployment of mercenary fighters to prosecute the war. I believe the legislature still has the power to pick on the best alternatives as the representatives of the people. Rigmarolling on whether the president should appear before the joint session was a distraction from the reality on ground.”
In his advice to the elders and youths of Iseyin community, Peller said the time had come for the people to realise that public facilities were meant to be protected and maintained by the people, adding that burning the police station to spite the police was an indirect attack on facilities owned by the community.
On the outcome of the #EndSARS protest, Peller hinted that demand for police reform could not have been achieved immediately as insisted upon by the protesters, as he said it would involve a lot of processes that contained budgeting and appropriation.
The legislator representing Iseyin and Itesiwaju State constituency at Oyo State House of Assembly, Dele Adeola said the solution to youths’ restlessness and criminality was hinged on quality education and skill acquisition at the rural communities.
He maintained that establishment of a faculty of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, would go a long way to change the orientation of many youths that believed in surviving through commercial motorcycle riding or young ladies going to Lagos to do menial jobs.
The National President, Iseyin Development Union, I.D.U, Alhaji Bayo Raji said efforts were going on to get the police authority to return to their post in the community.
Raji said most of the facilities of the security agencies in the community that were destroyed by hoodlums had been restored while a section of the burnt police station had been rebuilt.
The guest lecturer of the day, Professor Ayobami Ojebode of the Communication and Language Department, University of Ibadan, said in his lecture titled “Aftermath of Vandalization: Language As A Weapon of Peace and Restoration” that every society in the world that could be said to be peaceful and economically developed would take language of peace as sacrosanct.
Ojebode added that linguistic violence preceded physical violence in any warring society and urged Nigerians and especially the people of Iseyin that with the current situation in the country, every gathering of people should take the discussion of peace as important.
The event was attended by various stakeholders as represented by the members of the traditional council, security agencies, market women, religious bodies, artisan groups and students’ representatives.
