Members of the Coalition of North East Elders for Peace and
Development (CNEEPD) have warned Nigerians not to fall for the Federal Government’s
statement that insecurity will end in three months across the country, saying
it is a tactic to canvass for votes for the 2023 general election.
In a statement by its National Coordinator, Engr. Zana Goni
on Wednesday, the elders advised Nigerians against taking any promise by the
government seriously, saying the administration has a penchant for deceiving
the people through fake and unrealisable promises without accountability,
thereby leaving Nigerians to carry their crosses.
According to the statement, “The government cannot give what
it does not have, its inability to crush insecurity in the past seven years is
a clear indication that it lacked the will to restore Nigeria to its path of
glory.”
The group was reacting to the promise of the government that
it would end security challenges in the country by December.
The government at a joint news conference in Abuja Tuesday
attended by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola; Minister of Information
and Culture, Lai Mohammed; Minister of Defence, Maj.-Gen. Bashir Magashi rtd
and the Police Affairs Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Dingyadi, again assured
Nigerians that it would flush out terrorists and bandits in the country by
December 2022.
Aregbesola, at the event, said that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led
administration has mapped out workable strategies to wipe out insecurity in the
country by the end of the year and flush out the terrorists from every part of
Nigeria.
The elders noted that the nation is faced with and continues
to face security challenges, saying that the origin of these changes, as
Nigerians all know, preceded the present administration, regardless of what
anybody wants to believe or say.
It added that insecurity preceded Nigerians, and there are
insurgents in the North East, bandits in parts of the North West and North
Central, militants in the South-South, separatists in the South East, and
ritual killers in the South West.
The statement observed that the country has constant attacks
on pipelines, electricity cables, and other critical national infrastructure,
adding that crude and refined oil theft and kidnapping for ransom, and
farmers/herders clashes as security agencies rose to these challenges and have
largely degraded the group’s constituting the threats.
The Northern elders claimed that Buhari’s aloofness to
security slid Nigeria to rock bottom, dismissing the promise, describing it as
another bait for 2023 elections, saying that the people have become wiser not
to fall for cheap propaganda anymore.
With pervasive insecurity, they described Buhari’s handling
of insurgency and terrorist attacks as hastening the nation’s descent into a
failed state, regretting that Nigerians have been on edge with regard to how
the sanctity of human life has reduced to the lowest ebb.
The group noted that its verdict is that with no discernible
strategy to wage war against terrorists, the federal government under President
Muhammadu Buhari has not only failed Nigerians but has also allowed insurgents
to gradually make inroads and shut down governance.
The statement explained that after holding the nation on the
throat in recent weeks by launching attacks repeatedly across several states
and kidnapping innocent citizens for ransom, Boko Haram insurgents, in a viral
video, threatened to kidnap President Buhari and Kaduna State Governor, Nasir
El-Rufai, asking how they can give what they don’t have.
It said that the terrorists who kidnapped over 60 passengers
on an Abuja-Kaduna-bound train on March 28, have now become more emboldened,
threatening to kill the captives remaining while threatening to destroy the
country, saying that this is beside the recent attack on the elite Presidential
Guards Brigade, which led to a loss of lives.
The group explained that it forced the closure of Federal
Government Colleges and a shift in the venue of Call to Bar by the Body of
Benchers for security reasons, just as the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)
leadership has called for security reinforcement across its camps are enough
pointers to the fact that government cannot give what they are promising.
It said that it is ridiculous that a government that failed
in the last seven years to restore Nigeria to its right path is promising to
end insecurity in December. We view this as another bait for the 2023
elections, and Nigerians won’t fall for that anymore.
The group said that while it did not expect President Buhari
to personally take up weapons and give the armed non-state actors a direct
fight, it hastens to say he was expected to appoint effective and committed
people who could make a difference and promptly replace those who have not been
able to produce results within the security agencies.
The Northern elders noted with regret that corruption,
inefficiency, ineffectiveness, deceit, and lies had become the hallmark of the
fight against terror, alleging that that is why Abuja is almost at the
precipice of collapsing under the massive and determined attacks by the
terrorists.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com