Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, in this interview speaks on matters affecting the 10th National Assembly and other pressing national issues. Sunday Aborisade brings excerpts.
Amid rising insecurity nationwide, why did the Senate refuse to investigate the defence and security spending?
The issue of insecurity is one about which no serious public official can pretend any longer. It is a major issue. People may argue about whether the situation is getting worse or better. For me, the more important question is not simply to categorise it one way or the other. Sometimes, things get worse before they get better. Let me explain it in the context of what happened on the floor of the Senate last week. The motion in question sought to establish a national committee to probe all financial releases made to the military in the prosecution of the war on banditry, kidnapping and terror.
We did not think that was the right approach, and we will not pretend otherwise. In the first instance, our military institutions are giving their best under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Let us remind ourselves that this is not conventional warfare. This same military faced Boko Haram terrorists in battle and dislodged them. There was a time when these terrorists had their flags flying over communities they had captured. Some local governments in this country had become no-go areas under their control. When they sought to advance further, our military confronted them, defeated them in battle and reclaimed those territories. At that point, rather than continue engaging our forces in open combat, the terrorists dissolved into cells and adopted guerrilla tactics.
