MOTION – Thursday, 2rd July, 2014 The Issuance of Identification Card to Northerners Residing in Imo State – Urgent call for Policy Reversal Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan (Yobe North): Mr President, I stand up to support this Motion and I will speak as a very patriotic Nigerian and I am also tempted just as the Leader was to say something that could sound a bit partisan but forgive me, please. Let us trace our steps and ask ourselves: how did we find ourselves where we are today? What happened? Who did or did not do his job well enough to make Nigeria better? If someone looks at this situation and says Northerners in Imo State would be given identification card, like the blacks were given identification card in South Africa in the apartheid regime of the whites, we will definitely say that what Imo State Government contemplates is abominable and it is not acceptable. I am saying this with all sense of responsibility. I am not saying this because I come from the North but I am saying this as a Nigerian. Government of Imo State and its contemplated policy is only ancillary and consequential to the inaction or improper action and lackadaisical behaviour of the PDP Administration in Nigeria. I forgot to bring the Pilot Newspapers, today’s edition, the front page captioned: Tinubu’s friend sponsors Boko Haram. Do you know who author that? Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro, the Minister for State Ministry of Defence? We come from places where people are killed daily; our sufferings are taken and used as political football today. What our people want in Nigeria today is the unity of purpose of our leadership across the political spectrum. We have lost hope, confidence and faith. Yesterday, I asked our brother, Prince Adedayo Adeyeye, soon to be a Minister by the grace of God from Ekiti State, I wanted him to explain the best possible way we could attain the essence of our motto; unity and faith, peace and progress. How can anybody contemplate given identification card to a citizen within his country? Do we call that unity? Certainly, it is disunity and what is happening in Imo State is only a symptom of the serious degeneration and this is the reality that is facing us. Mr. President, tell me if there is any Nigerian who will be asked to go and identify in his own country and yet have faith in that country. In fact, those of us who have not been asked to have identification card, feel that as Northerners we have a grave situation facing us. You do a business that everybody knows that it is genuine, has history and because you are a Northerner, someone in the South will say arrest him, he is Boko Haram and this is failure of Federal Government. The PDP has the Federal Government and we have other parties controlling the various States in the country, our sovereign requires that every hand must be on deck, that our problems are treated with all seriousness required. Therefore, I believe that this Motion is a worthwhile warning and we, Northerners will not accept this because we have our places too. If you insist on registering our people in Imo State, we will take the necessary action in our various States and let Nigeria burn. (Interruptions) The Deputy President: Senator Ahmed Lawan, you have to mind your language, please. Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan: Enough is enough we have taken so much indignity. The Deputy President: The Mover of this Motion started on the note that he was not moving the Motion as a Northerner or for any particular State, but as a patriotic Nigerian and that set the tone for this discussion. I believe that we do not derail his well-intended Motion by bringing any kind of sentiment. Please, let us address this Motion as Nigerians because if for instance, somebody is being asked to register in Sokoto State, I am sure the people of Sokoto will not like that. Let us not look at it where the victims are coming from, let us address it as Nigerians whether it is right or wrong in a country that is preaching unity.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 21:50:44 +0000
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