Even though the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had insisted that it was doing its best to tackle the melee, the daily killings, many that the citizens believed should have been avoidable is becoming a bitter pill to swallow.
Today, many people seen as ardent supporters of the President, especially from his home base in the North, seems not to be impressed by the way and manner Buhari and his appointees handling the security apparatus in the country are carrying on.
Killings, kidnapping and other forms of criminality have become the order of the day and the response of the security agencies are not engendering any hope for the people.
Just within the week, not less than 28 persons were killed in different parts of Kaduna State; 21 people including 13 women and children were burnt alive at Bakali village in Fatika District, Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State. A day after another seven traders were shot dead by gunmen wearing army uniforms in Maro Village a border community between Kajuru and Kachia local government areas of the state. This is different from the over 30 persons killed in Auno, near Maiduguri in Borno State by the Boko Haram insurgents.
In what many see as an admission of failure, the Commander-in-Chief recently disclosed that he was surprised at the level of insecurity in the land, but failed to put in place measures that will tackle the menace.
It was these developments and many others that made the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) to declare that the President has failed in the critical areas of security and poverty eradication.
The elders in a statement said even though they have, “refrained from comments on major developments relating to management of national security and governance because it is convinced that these are times which require the highest levels of responsibility and circumspection in the manner elders and leaders in the nation contribute to the search for solutions to the multiple problems which face the nation.
“It has become necessary and appropriate, however, to make public, the position of the Forum on important matters that affect the manner Nigerians live, and the future we must address.”
The statement signed by Professor Ango Abdullahi, Convener, Northern Elders Forum stated that “by any standard of judgment, the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari has failed the nation in the vital area of improving its security. Poverty, particularly in the North, and massive social security have worsened under this administration.”
The, added: “The relationship between insecurity and poverty is fundamental, but the administration does not appear to have any idea on what will provide relief or solution.”
NEF, also said it gives them no pleasure to say that they had warned Nigerians that President Buhari lacked “the will, the competence and commitment to lead it into a secure and prosperous future before the 2019 elections.”
NEF, which was in the forefront of those who supported Buhari in 2015, said “It is shocking that in spite of unprecedented consensus among Nigerians that the administration requires a new resolve, approach and leadership in the fight against the nation’s multiple security challenges, President Buhari appears either totally isolated or in deep denial over the result of his failures to secure Nigerians.
“With this type of mindset, it is difficult to see how President Buhari can accept the challenge to radically improve his handling of our security situation. Nonetheless, we believe that Nigerians must continue to raise our voices and organize through all legitimate means to demand that the administration addresses major failings in his perception of our situation and his response to our demands for our rights to security. “
The forum also joined millions of Nigerians to demand a thorough overhaul of the leadership of our security and public safety agencies, and the injection of higher levels of competence, integrity and accountability in the manner our troops and the police and security agencies deal with security challenges.
They also appealed to religious leaders and fellow citizens not to fall into the trap of insurgents to set us up against each other. “We condemn the tactic of targeting Christians and publicising their executions by an insurgency seeking to exploit our different faiths. We also condemn the murder of thousands of Muslims and Christians in communities which the insurgency has made permanent targets in the last decade. These are times when we must unite and resist a common enemy as well us demand that our leaders protect us all as Nigerians.”
The forum also referred to the proliferation of regional and state security outfits across the country in response to the launch of Operation Amotekun by the South-West governors, but insisted that the idea must find a space within the confines of the law. The advised all governments to exercise higher levels of restraint and responsibility in the manner they respond to the challenges of improving our security and safety.
Also worried by lack of government initiative to tame the prevailing insecurity, the Arewa Research and Development Project (ARDP) inaugurated the Northern Security Monitoring Committee just after convening the Northern Security meeting in Kaduna.
Speaking at the gathering, the Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar III, who addressed the situation in the North, called on the Northern states Governors Forum to brace up and tackle the security situation in the region. Sultan also tasked the Northern leaders take the lead, accusing them of allowing a leadership vacuum that has been taken over by the youths.
Sultan, who disagreed that the youths were not the right people to take charge of the security situation following the launch of the northern security outfit, operation Shege – Ka Fasa stated, that: “I saw it on the television, and the media gave them attention. Now, the elders allowed these youths to go forward. So, the elites are our problems, the elders are our problems. If the elders don’t take the lead, the youth will do whatever they like and think they are right. You have to caution these youths by giving them good leadership.
“I want to call on northern elders to caution them. Don’t allow these youths to take over leadership from you. You have to reach out to everybody no matter how low the person is. So, I think we need to take the bull by the horns and not allow the youths take over responsibility. I think we need to do that and much more.”
On his part, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara said Nigeria is confronted with a crisis that is “unparalleled in our history. The death spiral appears unstoppable. Increasingly, it is becoming harder and harder to distinguish us from our enemies.”
Dogara lamented that of the 19 Northern states, only Kwara State and the
FCT are relatively peaceful or have the lowest rate of insecurity but all the other 18 states are inflamed by one form of violence or the other, stressing that we are all guilty of waiting for the government to solve all the problems.
Equally perturbed is Matthew Hassan Kukah, Bishop of Sokoto Diocese. He said: “Nigeria is at a point where we must call for a verdict. There must be something that a man, nay, a nation should be ready to die for. Sadly, or even tragically, today, Nigeria does not possess that set of goals or values for which any sane citizen is prepared to die for her.”
Speaking at a homily on the Funeral Mass of Seminarian Michael Nnadi, who was abducted along with three other seminarians at the Good Shepherd Seminary, Kakau, along the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway, but later murdered lamented the level of insecurity in the country.
“The average office holder is ready to die to protect his office but not for the nation that has given him or her that office. The Yorubas say that if it takes you 25 years to practice madness, how much time would you have to put it into real life? We have practiced madness for too long. Our attempt to build a nation has become like the agony of Sisyphus who angered the gods and had to endure the frustration of rolling a stone up the mountain. Each time he got near the top, the gods would tip the stone back and he would go back to start all over again. What has befallen our nation?” he asked rhetorically.
Kukah had urged Nigerians to pause for a moment and think, adding that no one more than the President Muhammadu Buhari who was voted for in 2015 on the grounds of his own promises to rout Boko Haram and place the country on an even keel should be more concerned.
He alluded to Buhari’s address at the prestigious Policy Think Tank, Chatham House in London, just before the elections where he told his audience: “I as a retired General and a former Head of State have always known about our soldiers. They are capable and they are well trained, patriotic, brave and always ready to do their duty. If am elected President, the world will have no reason to worry about Nigeria. Nigeria will return to its stabilizing role in West Africa. We will pay sufficient attention to the welfare of our soldiers in and out of service.
“We will develop adequate and modern arms and ammunition. We will improve intelligence gathering and border patrols to choke Boko Haram’s financial and equipment channels. We will be tough on terrorism and tough on its root causes by initiating a comprehensive economic development and promoting infrastructural development…we will always act on time and not allow problems to irresponsibly fester. And I, Muhammadu Buhari, will always lead from the front.”
He lamented that no one could have imagined that in winning the Presidency: “General Buhari would bring nepotism and clannishness into the military and the ancillary security agencies, that his government would be marked by supremacist and divisive policies that would push our country to the brink.
“This President has displayed the greatest degree of insensitivity in managing our country’s rich diversity. He has subordinated the larger interests of the country to the hegemonic interests of his co-religionists and clansmen and women. The impression created now is that, to hold a key and strategic position in Nigeria today, it is more important to be a northern Muslim than a Nigerian.”
He added that today, in Nigeria, the noble religion of Islam has convulsed. “It has become associated with some of worst fears among our people. Muslim scholars, traditional rulers and intellectuals have continued to cry out helplessly, asking for their religion and region to be freed from this choke hold. This is because, in all of this, neither Islam nor the North can identify any real benefits from these years that have been consumed by the locusts that this government has unleashed on our country,” he said.
Though President Buhari’s aides have castigated NEF as a one-man show, whose position during the 2019 elections has tainted their message, they could not say the same thing respecting the perception of the respected non-partisan Sultan and Kukah, an indication, observers believe should ginger the government to rescue the nation from the precipice.
