By Ben Ogbemudia
A senior Lawyer and a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Hon. Samson Osagie on Monday called on President Mohammadu Buhari to go beyond rhetoric in addressing the Nation’s Security problems.

Dr. Osagie, a former Minority Whip in the House of Representatives also took on Chief Robert Clark over his recent comment on National Television calling on the military to take over from President Mohammadu Buhari saying such a comment is reasonable.

He, therefore, wondered why the security agencies have not invited Robert Clark to explain his motive for the call.

“Yes, as a parliamentarian and of course as a lawyer, statements of that nature expose the ignorance of some otherwise learned people or highly educated people within the society.

“In Nigeria, we must be careful not to have our frustration lead us digging our own grave.

“I was very surprised to hear Robert Clark, SAN asking President Buhari to hand over to the military without any basis for such a call. Regardless of the state of our rule of law in this country, it can not be heard that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria of that age will make such a call. It is very prosperous, and no logic or reason whatsoever can justify it.

Nigeria and Nigerians are going through hard times, we are all affected by the grave insecurity in our country, we are all affected by the huge economic challenges besetting our nation, we all blame the government in power, yes because they have to take responsibility but we must not add salt to injuries by asking for undemocratic take over of government by a Senior Advocate, how does he justify that?  In any case, such a call amount to treason.

“Honestly speaking, I think that Robert Clarke as a SAN and old man ought to have known better because the evidence of our history shows that the challenges we face today are attributable to long years of military interruption of our democratic governance and that have made our democratic journey to be very crooked in the last sixty-some years that we have been independent.

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Now, if we have had unbroken civilian administration since 1960 our experiences will have to allow us to correct some mistakes we should have made, some successes we would have consolidated upon also.

Take it or leave it nobody is coming to build Nigeria of our dreams, Nigerians have to do it themselves, so, if you call the military, they are not angels, they are not going do something extraordinary they have not done before, they will only add to the challenges on the ground, if you call for undemocratic take over of government, then you are jeopardizing the growth of democracy regardless of how weak our democratic culture may seem to be today it is still better than any military government.

“So, if we feel that the President is not doing enough then we have a collective duty to engage in constructive criticism of his administration and that I support because I feel the pains, my people feel the pains, things could have been better if a different approach was employed by this government but that is not to say that we should sacrifice our democratic rights to elect another President in the next couple of years that we think should be able to drive the developmental agenda that will favor and benefit the people of Nigeria.

“In the meantime , what we must continue to do which I support is to call on President Buhari because you cannot say because your prayers are not answered you wouldn’t pray to God again, he remains our President, what we should do is to constantly call on him and I hereby call on him that he needs to go beyond rhetoric in addressing the security problems.

“Nobody is safe in Nigeria, everywhere is now a haven of criminals who are almost overrunning the legally constituted security architecture, what has happened to us?

The few successes that have been made are not enough to give the citizens succor, the security Nigerians deserved, we must stop responding and be reactionary to every incidence of kidnapping, bombing.

We must be able to nip in the bud criminal activities before they happened, this reactionary method, reacting after every incident happens will help no one, this is what was happening during Jonathan who was good at issuing beautiful press releases after an incident happens.

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The President must do everything possible because this is the part of the reasons he won the election in 2015 because Nigerians had faith in him that being a retired military general he will be able to handle the security situation because no one will tell him what to do but quite frankly the insecurity in Nigeria today is mind burgling, the dimension insecurity has taken today is alarming, we must not allow it to continue to fester, we must continue to engage the government and demand accountability from them regardless the party affiliation, make suggestions and statements for the advancement and for the development of our country, but we no right as citizens regardless of how we feel to call for a military take over of government, we don’t have that right and anybody who does that commits an offense which is punishable under our laws and the constitution which is the grundnorm of our country and that is a treasonable felony.

I am wondering if our security agencies will have not to ask Robert Clark what are his motives  because you can suggest ways of improving our nation but you have no right to suggest illegal means of taking over of government, our freedom of speech does not allow us to commit reason under the constitution, your freedom can be circumscribed if you commit a crime, section 1(3) of the constitution made the constitution supreme over every other law.”