By Kolawole Ojebisi
A former frontline Senator, eminent journalist and later presidential adviser, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, has called on President Bola Tinubu to take decisive actions towards finding a lasting solution to the myriads of security challenges besetting the country.
Ojudu maintained that failure to check the growing insecurity could threaten the country’s decades-old democracy and lead to return of military dictatorship.
Ojudu spoke on Tuesday while featuring on Channel’s TV’s ‘The Morning Brief’
He said, “I’m a member of the APC [ruling party] and I shouldn’t be seen to be deliberately going out to criticise a president elected on the platform of my party. But let me just say a bit of the truth here, even if I’ll be condemned by members of my party.
“I think the security situation is worrisome, and I’m not happy with the way it’s being handled. It is being treated as if it’s a skirmish between two policemen or some bad boys on the street. The President must sit up. This is a serious challenge to the existence of this country.”
The veteran journalist and pro-democracy activist condemned the Tinubu administration’s apparent inability to reign in on incessant killings in the North-Central part of the country, particularly Benue, Plateau and Kogi States.
“You go to the North-Central, the North-East, the North-West—even places as close to Yorubaland as Kogi and Kwara—bandits are already on the rampage.
“The President needs to wake up and find solutions. All these palliatives about going to a hall in Benue State to talk to people or crack jokes is not the solution.” Ojudu said.
He continued, “He should hand a marching order to military officials, police hierarchy, the army, navy, air force, and intelligence agencies to come together and come up with a master plan to quickly solve these problems,”
The former lawmaker added, “His advisers should tell him plainly. If he doesn’t, it will threaten democracy. We don’t want to go back to a military era. We don’t want to start running into exile or being jailed. Let him quickly solve this problem before it destroys our democracy,”
