THE Presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday clashed over the heightened insecurity in the country, for which President Muhammadu Buhari said he was “taken aback”.
The main opposition party said the President’s comment showed a defeatist posture, stressing that Senate Minority Leader Enyinnaya Abaribe was right to have called for his resignation.
PDP National Chairman Uche Secondus attributed the insecurity to the absence of good governance, which, he said had led to the collapse of the economy.
But, presidential spokesman Femi Adesina described as “mischievous twisting of President’s comments on insecurity’’ by some traditional and social media outfits.
Adesina said in a statement that it was wrong for anyone to postulate that President Buhari was unaware of the security challenges.
The statement reads in part: “It has become compelling to react to a mischievous slant being given by both the traditional and social media to the comments of President Muhammadu Buhari on the security challenges in some parts of the country.
“On Monday, while hosting Eminent and Respected Citizens of Niger State at State House, Abuja, the President said: ‘I was taken aback by what is happening in the Northwest and other parts of the country. During our campaigns, we knew about the Boko Haram. What is coming now is surprising. It is not ethnicity or religion; rather it is one evil plan against the country.
“We have to be harder on them. One of the responsibilities of government is to provide security. If we don’t secure the country, we will not be able to manage the economy properly.”
Adesina observed that the reportage of the statement above was slanted to mean that President Buhari said he was unaware of the security challenges in some parts of the country.
“Far from it, except to the mischievous mind. The President is fully aware and fully in charge of all that is going on.
“The statement by the President was clear enough, and these are the salient points:
“In 2015, we knew there was Boko Haram insurgency, particularly in the North-east, and we mentioned it in our campaigns.
“There are clear economic and cultural factors behind the clashes that sadly rocked many of our communities, be they the Fulani-Tiv or Fulani-Berom conflict, the Tiv versus Jukun and so on. By now, these conflicts are fairly under control.
“By 2019, banditry had surfaced in the North-West. It was surprising, as the area is almost homogeneous, made up of Hausa-Fulanis. The combatants are largely Muslim. This is what the President said he was surprised about.
“The point he made was that what is happening in the country is not about ethnicity or religion, it is plainly an evil plan against the nation.’’
But, the PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbodiyan, in Abuja, argued that the President, by his comments, showed that he lacked the capacity to articulate and implement solutions to the insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and bloodletting.
Describing the call by Abaribe for the President’s resignation as ”an apolitical verdict,” the opposition party said the call transcended ethnic, political and religious boundaries.
Ologbodiyan said: “This( the comment) shows that indeed, the Buhari Presidency has no answer to the litany of insecurity issues under his administration.
“It is instructive for the Buhari Presidency to note that the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Abaribe, whose voice resonated in the chamber of the Senate, spoke the mind of majority of Nigerians who had become bullied, harassed and despondent in the face of escalated insurgency, bloodletting, killings and other acts of violence that have pervaded our nation.
“On account of this, the PDP counsels agents of the Buhari Presidency to perish any thoughts of harassment, setup, frame-up or victimisation of Senator Abaribe, who rose to the occasion through the constitutionally guaranteed privilege of the parliament to speak on behalf of ordinary Nigerians”.
The party urged the National Assembly to stand with Nigerians and resist every attempt that will make it succumb to any form of harassments, intimidation and innuendos from paid agents and cabal in the Presidency.
The National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, said that the absence of good governance was responsible for the pervasive insecurity in the country.
According to him, the country is being governed by sentiments, rather than any well known principles obtainable in democratic countries.
Secondus said: “The lack of good governance in our country is the cause of insecurity; underdevelopment and the suffering of the masses. The press cannot keep quite neither will we in the PDP and the other political parties keep quiet.
“As a result, the economy has collapsed. But, whichever way, the government is carrying on with propaganda.
“This is a nation that is currently ruled by sentiments and not by any other principles well known in good governance or well known in democratic countries.
Clarifying that the stance of the PDP was not for the country to collapse, Secondus said it was no humiliation, if a leader decides to resign and allow a capable person to assume leadership.
He said: “We are in total support of the position of the Minority Leader in the Senate calling on the President to resign because he has failed.
“The President is overwhelmed with the security challenges and so, the PDP backs the Minority Leader’s position that if we can’t secure lives and properties, which is the first charge of any government, then he should resign with honour.
”We are not calling for government to collapse But if the President can no longer assure the population of Nigerians that they are safe, then it’s time for him to quit”.
Secondus also urged the courts to live up to the task of being the last hope of the common man and the conscience of democracy. (The Nation)
