The Senate may recall its members, who
are currently on annual vacation, to consider President Goodluck
Jonathan’s request for $1bn external loan to fight the miltant Boko
Haram sect.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Information and Public Affairs, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, stated this on Friday.
Jonathan
had on July 16, 2014 sent a letter to the National Assembly, asking the
lawmakers to urgently approve the external loan for the Federal
Government to confront the Boko Haram insurgency.
The lawmakers, however, did not consider the President’s request before they went on their annual vacation last week.
Their
vacation will end in September. However, there has been an upsurge in
attacks by insurgents since the lawmakers started their holiday.
The sect struck in Kaduna on Wednesday killing 101 people. Also a bomb blast in Kano on Thursday killed five people.
A
former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) and a prominent
Islamic cleric, Tahiru Bauchi, narrowly escaped death during the twin
attack in Kaduna.
Abaribe said
recalling the Senators from their annual vacation would not be a new
thing as it was done during the Senator Ken Nnamani leadership to
address a national emergency situation.
Abaribe
also recalled that a former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo,
requested the Senate to reconvene to approve the imposition of emergency
rule in Ekiti State.
He said, “The
Senate will have no choice if it was asked by the presidency to cut
short its current annual recess in order to address an emergency
national issue.
“It has happened before; so if it is happening again, it will not be strange”
Also,
the House of Representatives did not completely rule out the
possibility of reconvening to consider Jonathan’s request, but it noted
that the President had yet to forward the details of the loan to the
House.
House Deputy Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, told SUNDAY PUNCH
that when such details were made available, it would be at the
discretion of the President of the Senate, David Mark, and the Speaker
of the House, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, to consider the possibility of
recalling the lawmakers.
He stated
that since the loan dealt with security matters, the details would
simply be referred to the “Committee on Security”? whenever they were
made available.
“Recalling the members of the National Assembly is at the discretion of the Senate President and Mr. Speaker.
“However, we do not have the details of the loan yet; they were not available when we went on vacation”, Ogor added.
He
stressed the importance of stepping up the war against insurgency,
saying that no amount of money was too much to spend “so long as we will
win the war and restore peace to the affected areas of the country.
However,
an All Progressives Congress Senator from the North-western part of the
country, who preferred anonymity, doubted the possibility of such a
recall.
The Senator noted that since
virtually all his colleagues were currently on holiday in foreign
countries with members of their family, recalling them would be very
expensive.
He said it would cost the
Federal Government an average of N2.5m each to recall each of the
senators from their various trips abroad.
The
senator said, “The Federal government is requesting for S1bn loan and
spending another huge sums to get the Senate’s approval is not
advisable.
“The senators may not
succumb to such a recall until the presidency has guaranteed payment of
the inconvenience allowance. They will collect transport fares from the
various countries where they are currently on holiday.”
