National Assembly extends holiday amid rising security concerns

Focus on insecurity instead of 2027 politics, NPSA tells political class
The Senate and House of Representatives have postponed the resumption of plenary to May 6.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA) has tasked the Nigerian political class to concentrate on tackling the insecurity in the country rather than focusing on the 2027 election.

The two chambers embarked on Easter and Eid-el-Fitr holidays on March 27 and were expected to resume plenary on Tuesday, April 29.

But a statement issued by the Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, yesterday, said the resumption had been extended by one week.

“I am directed to inform distinguished senators, honourable members and the general public that the two Houses of the National Assembly have extended the date for the resumption of plenary sessions from Tuesday, April 29, 2025, to Tuesday, May 6, 2025,” he said.

Ogunlana said the extension was to allow senators and House of Representatives members to participate in the forthcoming Workers’ Day celebrations in their constituencies.

The extension comes at a time the country is experiencing multiple challenges, including worsening security conditions and socio-political unrest across several states.

ACCORDING to the eminent group of scholars, the practice of exclusive politics, which has continued to alienate most of the population, is fuelling insecurity in the country.

NPSA President, Prof Hassan Saliu, in a statement on behalf of the association entitled: ‘The Alarming State of Insecurity in Nigeria’, noted that Nigerians living in Benue, Borno, Plateau and other states in recent weeks were living in fear.

Saliu, who pointed out that before now, the general feeling, especially among government officials, was that the country was on the path to subduing insecurity, expressed disappointment that things were getting worse.

While admitting that factors such as ungoverned spaces to religious fundamentalism, poverty, external conspiracy, unhealthy politicking and problems arising from inter-group relations heightened insecurity in the country, he declared that the main cause of insecurity was the exclusionary politics that ignored the masses.

According to him, rather than concentrate energy and attention on tackling the increasing wave of insecurity, the political class is fixated on the politics of 2027.

Saliu added that if the Federal Government had been serious about combating insecurity, its efforts in the last two decades would have yielded positive results.

Reeling out the implications of the continued state of insecurity, Saliu stressed that no foreign investor would put their money where insecurity is becoming a way of life.

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