The senator representing Bayelsa Central, Senator Benson Friday Konbowei has said that Nigeria’s security challenges, particularly Boko Haram and banditry, and the perceived inadequacy of the national security forces, probably requires an external intervention, such as US President Trump’s call.
US President Donald Trump had ordered the military to prepare for action in Nigeria to tackle Islamist militant groups, accusing the Nigerian government of failing to protect Christians.
While speaking with Journalists in his office, the lawmaker who recently dumped PDP for the ruling APC, also said that he based his decision to leave PDP on what he called “ the protracted leadership crisis, saying that the division that has resulted from the competition for power within the PDP, especially at the national level informed his decision.
Recall that senator Benson had been a member of PDP since 1998, from which he was elected into the 10th Senate.
Benson said that PDP, built on lofty promises for Nigerians, had fallen into the wrong hands, adding that it currently lacked principled leadership.
PDP’s internal conflict deepened after a Federal High Court in Abuja halted its planned national convention, initially scheduled for Nov. 15 and 16 in Ibadan.
Another Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Peter Lifu, on Tuesday, also restrained the PDP from holding the convention.
It also barred INEC from supervising, monitoring, or recognising the outcome of the convention; the party went ahead in defiance of the court order.
“Over the years, there has been reasons for me to defect like others have gone, some have even defected twice and thrice, I stayed for 12 years and rose up to become a speaker, and also was there as secretary to state government, and now I am here as a senator from that party. It is very painful that my party could not resolve the issues that they have at the center.
“If those people who are holding the stakes are not able to accept defeat at some point within the party and also to accommodate one another’s interest, to tolerate views that they are opposed to theirs, have decided to go the other way, as it were, to destroy the party or taking the party to an unresolvable moment, What do you expect from people who actually want their areas to develop? I want my people to develop. I don’t want a situation where I will be running from pillar to post, from one law court to the other.
“This morning, they will give one judgment. Next tomorrow, they give another one. In the midnight as you wake up, there is another judgment. Just as I entered the chamber this morning, I have seen another judgment again that INEC should not recognize Damagun as their national chairman, and all of that.
“So it is becoming too worrisome and ugly. You don’t go into a battle with a divided house. There will be serious casualties. This is where we find ourselves, and they have not resolved that issue till this moment, so I had no other option than to take my leave.
Commenting on Donald Trump’s proposed intervention, as Trump designated Nigeria as “Country of Particular Concerns” and threatened military action over alleged Christian genocide, Benson said, “successive governments have made promises, and the promises have never given us Nigerians what we expected. And as it were, every now and then, people are crying, people are being killed, people are buried here and there. And you may not be in all the local government, in all the states and in all the communities, but with the recent improvement of technology, nothing is hidden anymore.
“And so bringing in an external voice into it is long overdue. That is what Nigeria would have done, and not to even wait until somebody or a president from another country raises question. It is an issue that should have been attended to, frontally and diplomatically”
“African Countries look at us as the largest black country that has the population as the well as mineral resources, and otherwise, that even create a defense for other countries. And we have been doing that over the years. Our military has been engaging in other country’s crisis to ensure that things are normalized or
brought to a situation where everybody live in peace. So why can’t we, if we are overwhelmed, also make similar calls,
“We have ECOMOG that ensures peace reigns in Africa, if we are overwhelmed, or subdued, as it were, we have to also extend our hands to ensure that we create absolute peace for ourselves and develop our nation.
