Francis Adenigba Fadahunsi

Fadahunsi Francis Adenigba (born 12 July 1952) is a retired custom officer and a Nigerian senator representing Osun East constituency in the National Assembly's House of Senate. He was born in Ilase-Ijesa in Osun State on 12 July 1952 to Late Chief Israel Adekunbi Fadahunsi and Chief (Mrs.) Emily Fadahunsi, both indigenes of Ilase-Ijesa. Quotes The Senate would not encourage more borrowing, the Federal Government should look inward. All heads of revenue-generating agencies of government must be given a marching order to meet realisable targets or risk being removed from office. As soon as we resume, I will propose that the Senate Committee on Customs and Excise should audit the transfer of containers to bonded warehouses to know how many containers are involved. We will look for serious retired customs officers and seasoned auditors to look at the duties that are supposed to be paid and what was actually paid. Nigerians will now know that we shouldn’t have borrowed money in the first instance to fund the budget if the customs is actually performing. The government of Nigeria resorted to borrowing to fund its yearly budget deficits because the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) decided to put a square peg in a round hole. The President’s decision to appoint an inexperienced retired colonel as the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, is a serious error. It is a factor. But if you remember, former President Olusegun Obasanjo formed a committee to address this issue of arms proliferation. The committee was headed by Justice Emmanuel Ayoola and I was a member of the committee. We went round the whole country; we visited all the borders to see things for ourselves. We identified causes of the proliferation of small arms to be politics of bitterness, religion, economy and youth unemployment. Interview response on 'Do you agree that the proliferation of small arms and light weapons is a major factor responsible for the lingering problems of terrorism, banditry and kidnapping in the country?' It was after that task that Justice Ayoola was appointed the chairman of ICPC. What really made the situation very bad is the porosity of our borders. People can come into the country anyhow and this one encourages criminals coming from Libya, Sudan, Chad and Cameroon. There was war in some of these places at one point or the other. Criminals come into Nigeria from Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) through the waters. Interview response on 'Do you agree that the proliferation of small arms and light weapons is a major factor responsible for the lingering problems of terrorism, banditry and kidnapping in the country?' Supply of arms comes from all these places and it has become a monster. This problem became aggravated with the internal combustion in the country and Boko Haram problem came. We thought Boko Haram would fizzle away but you can see where we are now. Unfortunately, now we have the problem of El-Zakzaky and his members are everywhere- they are in the military, civil service, police and everywhere. Those ones are more sophisticated than the Boko Haram which we are dealing with since. The Boko Haram leader, Yusuf Mohammed, was killed in police custody and everybody can see the effect of that. We haven’t been able to defeat his followers since then. You know we have professors who are members of the sect which El-Zakzaky leads; they have many intellectuals and one thing about them is that they don’t run away. Interview response on 'With this, don’t you think the country will face another serious crisis if he dies in detention?' Did you see their protests? They do not run away from law enforcement agents; they have so much conviction in their faith. But instead of releasing him ( El-Zakzaky) to go home, they are still holding on to him. It is dangerous. Abundant supply of jobless youths is another factor. Many youths are frustrated as a result of unemployment, they do not have anything to show for their existence and that is why they are angry. And as the leaders do not allow them to live well, they are ready to take up arms. Interview response on 'What other factor do you think is fuelling terrorism?' They are ready to kill and to be killed. So, if you send them back to their creator, they are ready. That is why you see some youths; any arm they can lay their hands on, they use it to terrorise their neighbours and that is why there is kidnapping everywhere. It is ventilation of aggression. There is even another problem of the deserters, those dismissed or retired compulsorily from the military. They are thousands and some of them went away with their guns and they use the weapons for crime. The leaders have eaten so much and they can barely walk let alone run after anyone who has gone away with the service rifle. My lecturers back then called the Nigerian Army, Salvation Army. The late Dr Onipede called them Salvation Army as far back as 1976 because they cannot hurt a fly. We have been running after Boko Haram for a decade now and we have not won the war. What do you think will happen if we have a problem from a small country like the Republic of Benin? We cannot overrun them. The insecurity is so bad now in the country and I know we are sitting on guns. It will be disastrous if something is not done urgently to address this problem. If you go to the East, arms come in through the waters freely. In Lagos, the same thing is going on; weapons come in through the waters. The kind of weapons around the Alaba Market is huge. If you look at what has been happening in Benue, the people there went to look for arms to protect themselves when government security agencies failed them. The same thing happened in Taraba; it came to the South-West also. When kidnapping and killings became so much, the people of the South-West had to look for weapons to defend themselves; and those arms were accumulated by some people. External links Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:Politicians from Nigeria