Sen. Phillip Aruwa Gyunka represents Nassarawa north in the Nigerian senate and in this interview with RUTH CHOJI, the deputy chairman, senate committee on drugs and Narcotics stated, that the PDP chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff should sheathe his sword in the interest of the party. He also spoke on some other issues.What will it take to sensitise the youths on the dangers of drugs'Government, through the ministry of education, must create awareness in schools and social media. Drugs is currently eroding the minds of intelligent children and these are our future leaders. The quest for fast money and large lifestyle is another factor. Government must also create jobs for our teeming youths.What is being done for Nigerians arrested for drug smuggling in other countries'They knew the laws of these lands before taking drugs there. In Malaysia, it is clearly written in their passport and other travelling documents that if you are caught, you will face their justice system. Parent have a greater role to play because most of these children that involve themselves in drugs are most probably not trained well. My bible says, teach the children in the way that they should go so that when they grow up, they will not depart from it.Going back to the PDP, are you worried with the state of PDP'I am very worried. But I want to appeal to Sheriff, indeed if he is a good leader that wants to lead this country someday, then he must prove that he can manage crises. He needs to sheath his sword. Supposing he is president today and something like this happens, is this how he will behave' When you fuel crises, you are no longer a leader. As a leader, I expect him to come out with a solution or find ways of uniting the party not further dividing the party.What is the way out'The way out is that, if the two of them can step down and allow a neutral person to led us to the convention, then it will be better. But if everybody is insisting on his right, then things will continue to get worse. The crises has made PDP continue to lose senators.Do you still have faith in the PDP and do you plan on remaining with them'Yes, if it means I will be the one person that will remain in the PDP to contest, I will do so.Coming back to the senate, how will you rate the performance of the 2016 budget'You can imagine the fire brigade approach the 2016 budget was given, yet most funds were not released. When the APC government was sworn in, imagine how long it took them to appoint ministers' They told us they would bring out the best instead it is the same corrupt people that we saw.The Nigerian economy has been a source of worry for many Nigerian, are you also concerned'Sure, I am worried because now the situation has no selection. It affects those working and jobless people. The depreciation in our naira value has also continue to worsen the state of the economy. We have every resource that a serious nation can harness to improve our economy, but we have abandoned them instead, we depend mostly on imported goods which is not the best thing to do. We have every kind of mineral resource in agriculture and arable land that we can farm any type of crop on and it will produce. In Mambilla plateau, the land can produce any kind of crop that we can think of, things like apple, grapes and the rest can grow on such land. Nigeria is blessed with natural resources and yet we are still importing such things when the ones we farm here can be more nutritious than the ones we import because those ones have been chemicalised.Is this government doing enough to revive the economy'This government came in unprepared for governance. I dont think they fastened their belt before they took off. That is why they are confused and dont know how to manage the economy. They met the dollars at a particular rate and the naira was stable. We thought they should have stabilised it, if they couldnt bring it down, instead they introduced bad policies that took everything higher. When they came in newly, the former regime had lots of fertilizer, but this administration used it and couldnt replace or provide farmers with any fertilizer. They have succeeded in bringing down the economy from where they got it at. I think they should get a good economic team that will revive our economy.Given an opportunity to advise them on how to revive the economy, what would it be'The recession has reached depression and it has gone worse. It is not favourable to the people and no investor will want to invest in such an economy. The government must pump money into the economy. The nation must also be secured, else no investor will come here.Talking of security, Fulani herdsmen seem to be on rampage, are you worried with the dimension the attacks are taking'Yes, Nigeria seems to have open its borders to foreigners to come and kill its citizens.So you dont think they are Nigerians'Most of them are not Nigerians because I was involved in the ad hoc committee of the southern Kaduna, Zamfara and other affected areas that were attacked. These people come in freely with arms and nobody checks them. They come and invade villages at night, kill innocent people and run away. Our boundaries must be secured. What these foreigners are doing is declaring war on Nigeria. We once went to Niger and I saw how they molested us because they said, we have to do this and that. Any small thing you do in Niger, they arrest you. I feel the security agents in Nigeria are not doing enough in checking the perpetrators of these dastardly act. If the government is serious, our borders must be secured and those arrested must be prosecuted. The government is not doing enough. The steps they have taking does not commiserate with what we are losing from these attacks. The FG should talk to the ECOWAS so that the laws that allow other citizens to come in freely into our nation are amended for security reasons. These herdsmen work freely even in the city of Abuja. You will be driving and cows will appear from nowhere on the road. Supposing those rearing pigs start bringing them to the street which is a forbidden meat to some people, what will the country turn to' We also know that infectious diseases from the animals permeate the air, so either way, roaming about with herds is dangerous.Some are beginning to advocate for the creation of community policing. Are you in support of this'Yes, I will support it because if I have security in my house, nobody can come in easily. The foreigners come in because they have been given free access to come into Nigeria. Nobody can invade our community and kill our people freely without inhibitions.
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