Impeachment threat against Buhari bipartisan ? Senator Bassey

Lawmaker representing the Cross River South Senatorial District, Senator Gershom Bassey has said that the impeachment threat against President Muhammadu Buhari is bipartisan. 

Speaking on why lawmakers asked President Buhari to resolve the insecurity issue in the country within six weeks or face impeachment, Bassey told Punch;

The point of our actions is to ensure safety and security in our country. That is the whole point of our actions. The point of our action is not impeachment. It is to ensure safety and security in Nigeria. And that is why we have given a six-week threshold within which we want the executive, particularly Mr. President, to do something about security in our country.

Now, our hope, our best hope, is that the President will respond to what we are saying and to what we’re doing. And at the end of six weeks, everything would have been sorted out, the security situation, to a large extent, resolved. And that is the point of our action. So it is part one that should be the focus, not so much part two.

Part two happens when we fail to achieve part one. In other words, if there is insecurity, continued insecurity, without the type of response that we expect within six weeks, then we move to part two. So it appears that the focus has been on parts one and two, the impeachment notice. Yes, that one is real. We are serious about that. But we will only get there if part one, which is the action against the situation in our country, For instance, why are there people still in captivity from the Kaduna train attack?

Why has nobody been arrested, or has nobody been held accountable for what happened in Kuje prison?

These are actions that can immediately be taken by the executive by Mr. President to show that he’s in tandem with us. There are a number of actions that need to be taken to show that yes, we are doing something about this situation. And we are going to resolve this situation. And that is what we are talking about.

Also revealing that the impeachment threat was bipartisan, he added; 

It’s not just the opposition, and I think a number of our leaders have made that point.  That point was made again today (last Thursday). It’s about the Senate. Not just because we are the ones speaking. We (the opposition) are the ones at the forefront. But it’s not just about us. It is about the entire National Assembly.

Our hope is that we won’t get to that. That is our hope; our hope is that the executive will act and will take steps just as I have said. People are dying every day. People are insecure; I don’t know how you feel. But a lot of people feel insecure wherever they are in Nigeria. That is the essence of the action. It is to reduce and, to a large extent, if possible, even go towards eliminating insecurity. That is the whole point of the actual. So yes, I know that it’s nice to talk about the impeachment. And so yes, we are serious about that. But our hope is that we do not get to that, that the President and this government finally respond to all notices, and to all the cooperation and all the support that we at the National Assembly have given to this government, and that they finally do the needful and restore security to our nation. That is the essence of the action.

On if he feels the President will resolve the insecurity issue in six weeks, the lawyer added; 

Do you feel secure in Nigeria? So how can it be political? We’re not talking politics here. We’re talking security. Security is not politics. And security should not be politicised. Like I’ve said to you, this is a bipartisan effort to ensure that the executive is up and doing. Six weeks is the last stroll. We’ve been giving these recommendations, we’ve been giving motions, and we’ve been giving budgetary support since 2018. We began talking about the insecurity issues in Nigeria in 2017.

And so it’s not as if it’s just happened in the last six weeks. It’s been happening. We’ve been talking about it; we’ve been passing resolutions; we’ve been moving motions; we’ve been urging the executive; we have given all that they’ve asked; they’ve said, “Oh, we don’t have money; we’ve given the money.” They brought a supplementary budget, we’ve passed the supplementary budget, and we’ve given cooperation that we can every single piece of advice, you name it, and we’ve done it. So six weeks is just the last stroll.