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Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Tuesday lamented the continued captivity of schoolchildren abducted in Ondo State, warning that worsening insecurity across the country is driving away investors, threatening food security and denying millions of children access to education.
Speaking in his welcome address as the Senate resumed plenary after its third-anniversary recess, Akpabio said insecurity remained one of the greatest challenges confronting the nation.
He noted that “democracy never sleeps”, adding that lawmakers remained engaged with their constituents and responded when the nation required their intervention, including the Senate’s brief return on June 24 to pass the Constitution Alteration Bill on state police.
Akpabio said: “Yet while democracy advanced, the challenges confronting our nation did not go into recess. Insecurity continues to cast long shadows across our country. Many families remain prisoners of fear.”
Describing the plight of abducted schoolchildren in Ondo State as particularly painful, he said: “Most painful among these tragedies is the continued captivity of the schoolchildren abducted in Ondo State and the many other Nigerians still in the hands of terrorists.”
“To their families, we send more than sympathy; we send solidarity. We cannot pretend to know the weight of your sleepless nights. Yet we want you to know that we remember you. We carry your pain into our deliberations. Your suffering is our nation’s suffering.
“For as long as one Nigerian remains in captivity, all Nigerians share in that captivity.”
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The Senate President expressed confidence in the Armed Forces, the Police and intelligence agencies, urging them to sustain operations until “every captive returns home and every criminal is brought to justice.”
He warned that insecurity had become a major obstacle to economic growth and national development, saying, “We shall continue to support every lawful effort that strengthens our national security architecture because peace is the first infrastructure of development.
“Roads cannot flourish where fear governs the highways. Investors cannot build where kidnappers build camps. Farmers cannot feed a nation while fleeing their farms. Children cannot prepare for tomorrow when they are afraid to attend school today. Therefore, every appropriation for security and every law that protects lives is an investment in Nigeria’s future.”
According to him, Nigerians also expected “oversight that is fearless without being hostile, constructive without being complacent and firm without partisanship.”
Quoting the Roman statesman Cicero, he said: “The welfare of the people is the highest law,” adding that Nigeria’s Constitution similarly makes “the security and welfare of the people” the primary purpose of government.
“Let that constitutional command guide every committee meeting, oversight visit, motion, amendment, debate and vote in this Chamber,” he charged.
Akpabio urged lawmakers to embrace “the politics of nation-building” and ensure that the current legislative session would be remembered as “a season of higher purpose.”
