Former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, yesterday, asked other political parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to join President Muhammadu Buhari in waging war against insecurity.
Saraki, who spoke with newsmen in Abeokuta after meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, said the fight against insecurity should not be left for the Federal Government alone, saying that other parties must be involved.
“I think what is important for us now as I keep on repeating, is that these issues are issues that should involve everybody. I think that when we talk about kidnapping, when we talk about sense of belonging, these are issues that cut across party lines and what is required now is for government to provide leadership in bringing all stakeholders together.
“Let us discuss and see how we can address some of these issues. We are very hopeful for the future of this country, we are very hopeful that everybody will have a sense of belonging. I think it is important that we all must be able to be on the table and discuss.
“We can tap into a lot of resources, even on the issue of security, there are lots of people with a lot of experience that we can make use of,” he said.
Saraki added, “My advice to government this time is that this problem is a huge problem that cannot be left to just the government and the ruling party, I think this is the time the opposition, the ruling party, our international friends, the private bodies and all of us must come together on the round table because the challenges before us are enormous and we need to address them.”
Saraki said the quest for 2023 should not becloud the issues of insecurity at the moment as all hands must be on deck to salvage the situation.
“As we talk about 2023, we still have two years before that and it is our responsibility for all of us to see that during those two years, we all work to address that, but the initiative must come from the government. I think once government does that, then my own advice is that everybody that has something to contribute should be able to come together and see how people will have a sense of belonging. Part of that sense of belonging is to be on the table to be able to discuss way forward for this country”, he said.
However, he said he was hopeful that the PDP would soon resolve its crisis, as lots of progress was being made.
“There are people who were not ready to sit on the same table to discuss; we have been able to achieve that. We have given more time for ourselves in trying to do that and we are hopeful that in this month of March, we will begin to see a lot of progress, that will unite the party and with that unity, we will be also be able to bring in more membership to our party.”
On meeting with Obasanjo, Saraki said he and his team told the former president what they were trying to do in repositioning the party.
“We told him how important that is, the project Nigeria and he told us his commitment to Nigeria, that he will never shirk away from that responsibility to have a better Nigeria,” he said.
