Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, the founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) has said President Muhammadu Buhari was ill-advised and ought to have appeared before the National Assembly to explain his government’s efforts in addressing the deteriorating security situation in the country.
Worried by the worsening insecurity in the country, the House of Representatives had penultimate week invited the president to appear before it to talk on how his administration is working to address the ugly trend.
The president had earlier fixed last week Thursday to appear at the chamber, but the visit was cancelled following advice from the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN that the lawmakers lacked the constitutional power to invite the President to the house.
The governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) also told President Buhari not to appear before the lawmakers” who were out and determined to embarrass the president.”
But the frontline lawyer who noted that the invitation by the lawmaker was not out of place considering the series of killings and other heinous crimes against hapless citizens, said that the president was wrongly advised in shunning the country’s lawmakers which are the representatives of the people.
Babalola spoke at the weekend in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital after being honoured by the Akure branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) as the grand patron and the naming of the permanent structure of the branch after him.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria who deplored the waves of killings and kidnappings in the country said the government must be alive to its responsibility of protecting lives and property so as to allow the development of the country,
According to him, “The reason why we are together in the society is that we want our property and lives to be secured. Today, we have a crisis over security and there is virtually no day you read the papers that you won’t see people being reported killed or kidnapped, it has become the other of the day as if human beings are not important anymore.
“If the parliament invites the president, I believe he ought to have appeared by way of courtesies to the lawmakers. The National Assembly is the legislative body of this country; they make the law and they expect the President to carry out the law. I believe if I were in his position, I would have gone. Fortunately, he wanted to go, he told the whole world that he was going to appear but he was ill-advised not to go.”
Credit: tribuneonlineng.com
