Popular human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has condemned the National Assembly for going on vacation while the country is facing one of its biggest security challenges in a long time.
Falana expressed dismay that the lawmakers were not taking the security crisis as seriously as they should while speaking on Channels Television on Thursday.
The National Assembly on Wednesday decided to take almost eight weeks’ vacation and will resume on September 20, 2022.
This is coming three days after personnel of the Presidential Guards Brigade were attacked in Bwari, Abuja with six of them reportedly killed by bandits.
Last week, terrorists in a video that went viral online, threatened to abduct the President Muhammadu Buhari, and the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai.
Speaking on the security situation, Falana said: ” They [lawmakers] are going on vacation for six [eight] weeks. You can’t talk of a vacation when your house is on fire.”
He said the six-week ultimatum given to the president to end the insecurity in the land was not realistic, saying, “they should have given the president a 7-day ultimatum.”
“This is because within six weeks, there may not be a National Assembly for them to return to. Schools have been closed down. Yesterday, we had a call to the bar ceremony, the venue has to change and parents were asked not to turn up because of the seriousness of the situation.
“I had expected the National Assembly members to take this matter very seriously,” he added.
Not an ordinary protest
Members of the minority caucus in the Senate walked out of the plenary on Wednesday after calling for the impeachment of President Buhari for not being able to handle the security challenges in the country.
Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, asked the President not to see the protest by the minority caucus as an attempt for the opposition to embarrass him.
He insisted that the attacks on the president’s advance convoy and personnel of his guards’ bridge were serious issues that required all the attention of the government.
“I was travelling to Abuja last week and friends, colleagues and family members were asking ‘what are you going to do in Abuja?’ ‘Please, be careful in Abuja.’
“You only say that in a war situation.And if care is not taken, if we continue with the lackadaisical attitude of the political class, we are going to be in trouble.
“You can’t talk of elections next year if the situation is not arrested and urgently too.”
The human rights activist said the situation calls for an emergency session of the National Assembly to deliberate on it and find a solution.
