The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to do more to secure the lives and property of citizens in the country.
Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Spokesman of the Forum, said it is clear that the government is not doing enough and that is why the results have been felt negatively across the nation.
He cautioned the presidency against ascribing the complaints of Nigerians to the workings of the opposition.
Dr. Baba-Ahmed who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily said “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.
“If every time Nigerians complain about being marginalized, we (presidency) don’t want to hear this and you dismiss it as this is just the opposition, then these problems will grow. Because even if it is the opposition, it is your job to deal with the opposition.
“Ascribing problems to the opposition doesn’t solve them; because it is the job of the opposition to make you look bad, it’s your job to make the opposition less effective in making you look bad.
“If the only response of the presidency is that every criticism, every complaint, every grievance that the people say the government is not working, we don’t see the result of work, and you say that is just talk, then clearly you are not dealing with the problem.”
According to him, it does not appear that the administration recognizes the magnitude of the problem faced by the country. He added that even if in all fairness they do understand the enormity, then their response has been unsatisfactory and inadequate.
“This is a country that is facing unprecedented levels of insecurity from all angles and we don’t see any sign that they are doing anything different from what they have done in the last 3, 4, or 5 years, you cannot keep doing the same thing and expect to get different results,” Dr. Baba-Ahmed stated.
The NEF Spokesman emphasized that Nigerians don’t want to hear excuses, adding that the people want insecurity addressed outrightly.
With regards to the recent case of kidnapping at the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Kaduna, Dr. Baba-Ahmed said, “Let the president fix security, if he can’t do it immediately then let him do something that indicates that he is capable of securing Nigerians”.
Additionally, he said: “If you are not going to pay money to get the Kaduna College of Forestry students out, then for goodness sake, use another means to get them. It’s not just the responsibility of the Kaduna State government…”
“Please do something about how insecure we are, all these talks about the president are concerning, the president is doing something about it that is not good enough, every single day our lives are getting worse. We cannot wait for the president to get round to fixing things. He was supposed to hit the ground from day one and he hasn’t and consequently, things are just getting worse.”
“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.”
