Majority Leader of the Senate, Ali Ndume, yesterday cautioned those playing politics with the recent decision of the Upper Legislative Chamber to send delegations to troubled areas in the North-east zone, to stop their negative campaigns or incur the wrath of the people of the area.
Ndume, representing Borno South District said the visit of the Senators led by Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki to Maiduguri and the second delegation which visited Adamawa led by Senator Ike Ekweremadu, deputy Senate President, was not a decision of one man or a small group, but that of the entire Senate following an elaborate debate during plenary.
He added that it was unfortunate that some newspapers who obviously are holding brief for some interests bent on setting the Senate against the Presidency decided to make malicious claims about a trip that was aimed at achieving national unity and solving a major national crisis..
“For all intent and purposes, let it be made clear that we from Borno State feel very sad that while we complain that the issue of Boko Haram and the carnage they are inflicting on our people is not getting the kind of attention it deserves from key individuals and non governmental bodies, somebody still felt that we did not deserve the first visit by a delegation of the Senate in six years when the Boko Haram problem started.
“Our people are very happy about the visit. We believe we deserve that those who make laws for us in Nigeria should come to our area and see how we are living, the damage that we have suffered, what type of help we need and how we can retain focus on our plight”, he said.
The Senate Leader noted that the Senate delegation to Maiduguri went on a fact-finding on-the-spot assessment tour to fully understand the depth of the security situation in the North-east and determine in what way the Senate can intervene. He said the visit was in support of the efforts of the Buhari administration to quickly end the Boko Haram crisis and get the people to return to their normal life.
“If our going to Maiduguri is now being interpreted as 2019 politics, then we want the writer to go to the IDPs camps in the North-east and explain to the people why he wants to stop those who can help us from coming to our aid.
“The Governor was moved to tears while addressing our delegation about how the people feel neglected and how they felt that if the situation in the zone now were to occur in another area, the elite from all over the country would have been on pilgrimage there to identify with the victims. The Governor felt the visit by the Senators was very inspiring and comforting. That is the same visit this columnist who chose to settle personal scores is trying to rubbish,” he said.
Ndume further urged media owners to refrain from allowing their medium to be misused by those who want to canvass unpatriotic and vain viewpoints which only accentuate the fault lines in the nation. He reminded newspaper columnists to remember that they are trustees for the public by virtue of their access to newspaper pages and that they should not abuse the public trust.
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