Anxiety, As Buhari To Address Joint Session Of NASS Thursday

There are palpable levels of anxiety as President Muhammadu Buhari has agreed to address a joint session of the National Assembly on Thursday,10th December, 2020.

BIGPENNGR.COM reports that already the main opposition party PDP and the ruling party, APC are already trading accusation of several vexed issues in the country.

Some of the issues already before the national assembly including the recent killings of some defenceless farmers in Zabarmari, Borno state by Boko Haram, are expected to form President Buhari’s address.

Few days ago a member of the PDP caucus in the House of Representative, Hon. Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) have asked Nigerians compel their representatives in the National Assembly to immediately commence impeachment proceedings against President Buhari hinging their reason for breach of Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution which provides that ”the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.”

“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Caucus in the House of Representatives have observed with deep pain the dastardly attacks on poor farmers which have continued unabated across the vast swathes of northern Nigeria, which act came to a sad climax over the weekend in Zabarmari, near Maiduguri, north east Nigeria.

“The attacks continue to take a consistent pattern – a pattern that results in mass deaths and emboldens the insurgents to embark on more spectacular attacks that provide them national and global attention. While the emboldening of terrorists remain sources of worry, the greater worries for us is the do-nothing posturing and the effeminate reactions of the presidency and the military that follow the dastardly attacks.”

“The reactions of the presidency and the military highlight a certain crassness and lame duck attitude that has for the past five years come to define the Buhari presidency,” Chinda  said in a statement.

But APC in is reaction has insisted the NASS leadership is with Buhari in action taken so far in tackling insecurity.

“Chinda’s insensitive and callous intention is to play politics with the grief of citizens in the aftermath of the recent, gruesome and condemnable killings of some defenceless farmers in Zabarmari, Borno state by Boko Haram. The APC will not join Chinda and his PDP backers on this evil and ignoble road.

“We have since learnt that Chinda does not even have the support of any of the PDP House factions he claims to head. He is a lone, rejected voice. The House of Representatives has already dismissed Chinda’s rant as illogical, self-serving and a ploy to derail the proposed visit of the President to the House”, the ruling party said.

Buhari have been dragged severally by the lawmakers to address them but he never showed up except during budget presentations.

The president is being tackled by NASS over the overstayed Services Chiefs and other matters bordering on terrorism, insurgency, banditry and of late the #EndSARS protest.

The leadership of the National Assembly has severally called on the president to relieve the Service Chiefs of their present roles following the escalation of security challenges across states in the Northern part of the country.

The NASS, particularly the senate have also expressed dismay over Buhari refusal to reconstitute the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) since the earlier botched appointment that screened and confirmed by the senate.

An aide to President Buhari on social media, Lauretta Onochie, confirmed that the President would appear before the NASS session on Monday via her verified Twitter account.

“President @MBuhariwill address a joint session of the National Assembly @nassnigeria on Thursday 10th December 2020”, Lauretta stated.

The House of Representatives had invited President Muhammadu Buhari over the recent killing of 43 farmers in the Zabarmari community in Borno State.

The lawmakers took the decision on Tuesday while adopting a motion of urgent national importance by Satomi Ahmed.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila was said to have also announced on Wednesday that the President agreed to honour the invitation.

“We have agreed on a date and he will meet with the House to address the situation. We have a fixed date but we will communicate with you.

“He is a perfect democrat; he will come to the House to address members in the nearest future”, Gbajabiamila stated after meeting President Buhari at the Presidential Villa.

When asked how the President is feeling about the security challenges, Gbajabiamila said, “I think he is more concerned than me and you. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.

“Well, We will leave everything until when he comes to the House. Let me not pre-empt him.

“All I can tell you for now is that he is fully committed to the security of lives and property of Nigerians.”