The Senate on Thursday cautioned the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, not to go ahead with his government’s proposed policy of providing Identification Cards for northerners residing in the state.
The new policy is said to be a strategy to prevent Boko Haram insurgents from infiltrating the ranks of northerners in the state.
Speaking in a motion against the policy, Deputy Senate Leader, Abdul Ningi, said it contravened some sections of the 1999 Constitution.
Ningi, in his motion entitled: “ The Issuance of Identification Card to Northerners residing in Imo State – Urgent call for policy reversal,” noted with serious concern, the recent government’s policy statement by the Imo State Government, directing all northerners residing or staying in the state to be issued with an identification card.He argued that the policy contravened the provisions of Section 41(1) and 42(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, which guarantee amongst others, free movement of Nigerians from any part of the country to the other and the right of residence without any inhibition or condition whatsoever.
He stated that the policy, if not reversed was tantamount to gross abuse of the citizens rights and if not checked, could throw the entire country into chaos and threaten the survival of the nation’s democracy.
Supporting the motion, Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma Egba, described the policy as “wrong-headed, unconstitutional and discriminatory.”
“Nigeria is passing through the most difficult period of our history, even worse than the civil war going by the kind of anxiety enveloping the country presently as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency, but that should not be used as a licence by any governor or anybody to go out of our constitutional provisions in coming up with a policy to tackle the problem.
“This policy is discriminatory and unconstitutional and must be rejected from the onset by all concerned Nigerians. I condemn it in its entirety and urge all stakeholders coming up with any policy to address the security challenges facing the nation, to tackle them within the confines of our constitution.”
Senator Ahmed Lawan, who threatened northern retaliation of the policy if not reversed, likened the proposed policy to the Apartheid regime in South Africa, where the blacks were expected to carry cards in form of pass, to access white dominated areas.
“The policy is abominable, unacceptable and certainly driven to cause disunity in the country. We northerners will not accept this. If you do this to us in Imo, we shall definitely retaliate,” he threatened.
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided quickly intervened, saying his colleagues “debated the motion as patriotic Nigerians and not as Senators from the southern or northern part of the country.”
In her remark, Senator Chris Anyanwu (PDP Imo East), lambasted the governor, describing him as “a man full of himself and working on his own and above the law without carrying anybody in the state along.”“Today, the governor of Imo State has drawn an unusual attention to himself because he failed to respect the constitutional provision of free movement, free association, free worship which are well cherished by our people,” she said.
“Our people are the best travelled and most liberal minded in the world. We are highly accommodating, we are a people that are very friendly to the extent that we have a settlement for the Hausa people in Owerri, who had been living there for generations.
“I have some Hausa children, most of whom are speaking better Igbo on my scholarship scheme while I have been sending some of their parents on hajj.
“However, someone, somewhere, who doesn’t respect the constitution of Nigeria, who doesn’t respect the law, who doesn’t believe in due process, and who doesn’t understand our people suddenly wakes up one morning and introduced a policy that tends to create enmity between us and our beloved neighbours.
“We cannot plead on his behalf because we did not believe in his policy and he is a governor that doesn’t listen to the advice of his people.
In his own remarks before putting the two prayers of the motion to vote, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekeremadu who presided over the session thanked the Senators for their contribution.
He, however, lamented that ethnicity still remains one of the problems affecting the Nationhood drive of Nigeria over the years.Ekweremadu joined the other senators to condemn the policy, saying that the fact that some Northerners have been indulging in terrorism, does not mean all Northerners are same.
He said:” Regrettably in this country we have a strong sense of ethnicity profiling. We must find a way that only the guilt suffered for whatever offence committed and not innocent ones of his or her ethnic stock, doing that I strongly believed, will better make Nigerians live peacefully with one another and more united”.
The Senate called on President Jonathan to direct security agencies not to partner with Imo state government in the implementation of the policy.
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