Senator representing Bayelsa Central Senatorial District, Senator Benson Konbowel has described the insecurity in Nigeria as a situation that has refused to change.
The lawmaker was speaking while answering questions from Journalists in Abuja on the US President Donald Trump proposed Military intervention on the killings in Nigeria by Boko Haram.
He expressed that, over the years successive governments have made promises and the promises have never given Nigerians the expected results.
“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 areas, in all the states and in all the communities, but you can see with the help of recent improvement in technology, whenever anything happens.
“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 will now raised the question.
“Is an issue that should have been attended to,diplomatically and government is all about collaborations, both internally and externally.
And so the reason why we have other countries and embassies is to, you know, create friendships, an avenues to address issues both economically and as it may affect your country. That is the way it is, and that is my feeling that Trump’s call is a call that we Nigerians would have looked into whether we are making progress over the years of the insurgency that have been with us or not, if we are not making progress as It is being reported by almost all the investigating.
“you know, systems, then we need to look inwards and outwards to ensure that we do the proper collaborations. Why, you know, we, as Nigerians look at Africa, or Africa looks at us as the largest black country that has the population as the well without, economically and otherwise, to even create a defense for other countries. And we have been doing that over the years.
“Our military has been engaging, you know, in other. Countries crisis to ensure that things are normalized . Everybody have to live in peace. But why can’t we, if we are overwhelmed, also make similar calls, if we have, we are going to other countries to ensure peace reigns. And if we are overwhelmed, we have been subdued, as it were, we have to also extend our hands to ensure that we create absolute peace for ourselves and develop our nation.
On his defection from PDP to APC, ‘Well, by the grace of God, I want to give thanks to God for my new moment in my political drive. I’ve been in the PDP since 1998 I’ve been a foundation member in my state, and so coming up to defect was not just an easy decision to make.
“Over the years, there has been reasons for me to defect like others have gone, some have even defected twice and thrice, and you can remember, in Nigeria, so, some have defected from one party. Some have even elected from the party as House of Assembly Member. And 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. is not something that, yes, anybody will say now you are a national officer based on the office you are holding, but you still have people who are holding the stakes higher than you, and 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 supposed to have preferred or put forward to each other, and they will decide 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 the PDP cannot, hold their convention.
INEC. Should not recognize damagom as their national chairman, and all of that. So it is becoming too worrisome and ugly.
“And so, if you have 17 persons, or you have 20 persons, and you allow five, a whole number of five, to leave you in a presidential race, I said, that is a very big risk, but they decided to take the risk, and this is where we find ourselves, and they have not resolved that issue till this moment, so I had no other option than to leave.
