The Northern Elders’ Forum, has again slammed President Muhammadu Buhari over the increasing insecurity in the country.
The spokesman of the NEF, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said this during a Channels Television programme on Friday.
Baba-Ahmed accused the Buhari-led administration of downplaying issues bedevilling Nigeria.
He stated that the President has run out of ideas on how to secure the country, while responding to presidential media aide Garba Shehu’s comment of members of the opposition exploiting Nigeria’s security challenges.
Baba-Ahmed said: “I have no idea what Mallam Garba is talking about.
“Hearing him speak in this manner, to be honest with you, I am more depressed now than when I came into this studio.
“If this is how the spokesperson of the President will respond….
“Just telling people that arrest are being made when we don’t see anybody getting arrested.
“If they are arrested, then why are they not being prosecuted?
“If they are kidnappers or bandits, then why are we not seeing anybody being taken to court?
“Who are these people and where are they?
“You can only do that by acknowledging the failure of the government to secure its citizens.
“Listening to Garba, to be honest, I just think that the Presidency has run out of ideas.
“When they’re confronted with a very serious challenge, they go around looking for all sorts of diversions and excuses.
“Nigerians don’t want to hear any of this.
“We want a stop to the kidnappings.”
The spokesman said he believes kidnapping has become a big industry and also accused the Presidency of deflecting the issue.
Baba-Ahmed stated that Nigeria should not have a president who sits around and blames everyone for the woes of the country.
He added: “This thing has grown into a big industry right under the nose of the President.
“There’s no way you can deflect attention from this.
“How do you explain the grown sophistication of the criminals in this country?
“We can’t have a president that is just sitting there and then blaming everybody else for the woes of the country.
“That is not what we elected him for.
“I think the presidency is not listening to Nigerians.
“There are serious, genuine problems about people using language, taking action that suggests that they are attacking the foundation of our national unity and the integrity of the Nigerian state.
:People are saying that they don’t want to be part of Nigeria…
“These are new.
:We have always lived with this kind of threat, but these are new.
“Ordinarily sensible people saying that we don’t want to be part of this country because it is too insecure or because nepotism is too much around the Presidency or that we don’t see any future if we continue to stay here, there is no future for our young people and they are angry.
“Then if the Presidency, people like Mallam Garba Shehu and his President do not understand that this represents a threat to this country, then we are in even more trouble.”
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