THE Presidency has reacted to moves by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators to commence impeachment proceedings against President Muhammadu Buhari.
The ICIR had reported that PDP senators walked out of the Chamber during plenary on Wednesday after the Senate President Ahmad Lawan blocked moves to impeach Buhari over the security situation in the country.
The Minority Leader of the Senate Phillip Aduda had raised a point of order to commence impeachment proceedings against the President.
But Lawan overruled the PDP senator.
Reacting to the development, presidential media aides, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, both condemned the action of the opposition senators.
“I think it was just bravado, and sadly, security is not something you subject to bravado. You don’t begin to issue flippant ultimatums in something that is a matter of life and death,” Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, said on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, said in a statement that Buhari’s administration was committed to finding lasting solutions to the emerging security threats in the country.
Parts of the statement read, “The performative and babyish antics of those senators staging a walk out notwithstanding, Senate President Ahmad Lawan’s refusal on Wednesday to entertain the ridiculous motion to impeach our President was quite appropriate and correct.
“Rather than making a mockery out of voters by trying to imitate what they see in America, the opposition would be well advised that their time would be better spent tackling the pressing issues Nigerians face, such as the current global cost of living crisis.
“Their continued failure to do so goes some way to explaining why they remain in opposition.
“In contrast, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is committed to finding lasting solutions to the emerging security threats, including those left behind by the PDP in the South-South, the North-East and throughout the federation.”
Shehu noted that in the last 24 hours, two more Chibok girls were freed, in addition to the three brought home last week.
“These kinds of headline grabbing stunts for which the opposition is now well known serve no one, least of all their constituents. We would respectfully remind them that it is those same constituents that they were elected to serve, and are paid to do so with public money.
“We would welcome their collaboration in our efforts to solve the problems Nigerians face on a daily basis. No one is asking them to waste their time attempting to impeach a democratically elected President at the end of his second term – certainly not their constituents,” the statement added.
According to Shehu: “They should ask themselves: do they want to be in government or do they want to be in the headlines? If they want to be in government they should start acting like it and stop undermining Nigerian voters.”
