Former Head of State and
Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progresive Change (CPC) in the last
general elections, Muhammadu Buhari, has advised President Goodluck Jonathan to
resign from office for his inability to tackle the security challenges facing the
country.
He said the recent declaration of state of emergency in Borno,
Yobe and Adamawa states was not the solution to quelling insurgency, adding
that it might end up being counter-productive.
“Jonathan should vacate and give way to competent hand to govern
the country,” he said.
Speaking to newsmen in his residence in Daura town on Wednesday,
Buhari said the issue of security is a fundamental duty of any responsible
government, but that Jonathan had failed to protect the lives and properties of
Nigerians since he assumed power.
“When the Niger Delta militants started their activities in the
South-South, they were invited by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
“An aircraft was sent to them and their leaders met with the late
President in Aso Rock and discussed issues. They were given money and a
training scheme was introduced for their members. But when the Boko Haram
emerged in the North members of the sect were killed,” Buhari lamented.
“And when the police failed to address the insurgency, soldiers
were invited and they captured the Boko Haram leader, Muhammad Yusuf, alive and
handed him over to the police. But Yusuf was eventually killed, his in-law too
was killed and their houses were demolished,” he added.
Buhari noted that the murder of the Boko Haram leader provoked his
followers and that that was what led the country to its present situation.
He suggested that government should adopt a new approach that will
end the insurgency without affecting the lives and properties of innocent
people.
“In Bama and Baga towns, military personnel were reported to have
been engaged in extortion and sometimes molesting of women. And because a
soldier was killed in Baga the whole town was sacked by the military.
“This is not the best way the military should have acted when they
were sent to restore law and order in a town. How can a responsible government
allow its people to be killed in this way?” Buhari, himself a retired Army
General, asked.
He warned that the police, SSS, army, navy and air force should
know how to conduct themselves and act professionally.
“The soldiers are not expected to go and sack a town because one
of them is killed. They are expected to capture the culprits for prosecution.
After all the soldiers are not meant to tackle internal crisis but when it is
necessary they should act professionally.
“Whoever is sent to protect the people should also protect their
integrity. When the former England’s Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, decided
to hold her political meeting in Brighton, the security advised her to cancel
the meeting because of the IRA rebellions, but she insisted and held the
meeting.
“The hotel she was accommodated in was bombed and some of her
political associates were killed but soldiers did not cordon the area and kill
everybody there, rather they conducted themselves professionally,” Buhari said.
Buhari, who condemned the imposition of state of emergency in
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, said state of emergency was not the best way to
address insurgency in the three affected states and the country in general.
“Government cannot kill all the Boko Haram members. Government
should rather arrest and prosecute the Boko Haram members.
“They should only be killed when they clearly say they are waging
war against their country like what happened during the civil war. And even
during the war, we that fought in the war were given a copy of code of conduct
book which guided us against killing innocent people,” he added.
Source: Daily Independent
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