The National Democratic Front (NDF) has fingered state governors of directly playing a part in the country’s security challenges, hence must adopt a holistic approach to tackle the situation instead of dancing to the gallery.
The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) reportedly made a desperate plea to President Muhammadu Buhari to overhaul the nation’s security architecture as the ending solution to insecurity.
This the NDF believes is only to enhance their selfish agenda especially when some of these governors are culpable for creating or heightening the situation.
In a press conference held on Thursday in Abuja, the NDF revealed that some governors’ greed to hold on to power blinded them into taking certain steps that breached the peace.
That aside, the group believes there may not have been such conundrum had these leaders tackled underdevelopment, poverty and hardship in their states.
While urging President Buhari to ignore these saintly pretext by the State Chief executives, however, the NDF commended the Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai and the Nigerian Army for always rising to the occasion.
“ We find it most uncharitable that the Governors Forum is now agitating to have the wrong solutions implemented to address the problem that its members were solely responsible for creating. This is why we are calling on the governors to stop being childish, accept what they have done wrong to cause the current security problems and adopt a holistic approach towards resolving the numerous security issues facing the country instead of playing to the gallery, “ the group stated.
“ It is pertinent to remind our dear governors that the degeneration of the security situation of the country, in non-Boko Haram aspects, only worsened after the recent general elections, in which many of them without tangible projects and programmes to entice voters were desperate to win. It was this desperation that made them to take measures that are now haunting their respective states and the country at large.
“In terms of remote causes of insecurity in the land, it was these same governors that have been responsible for underdeveloping their states and impoverishing their population to a point where the risk of death from violent crimes no longer deter citizens that have practically snapped and crossed the point of no return. These same governors have become experts at squandering allocations meant for security vote, which they now in most cases disbursed to arm ethnic militias.
“ It is nauseating that the same governors and their associates are now pressuring President Buhari to abandon his winning team so that they can be replaced with those that will allow terrorism and criminality to explode into full time businesses for the urchins serving the interest of these same governors. This is why they have become obsessed with the symptoms instead of owning up to their own roles in these problems.
“ Instead of scape-goating the heads of security agencies and military chiefs, our dear governors should rather open up to Mr. President about the things they did wrong to create whatever security breach currently prevails in their respective states. Such profound exposition of the crimes that have been committed against Nigeria will give indication on how to effectively tackle the current challenges.
“ We use this opportunity to commend the military and security agencies for doing a good job despite meager allocations to the security sector. We also commend the secure chiefs who have continued to remain up and doing in spite of the willful sabotage they cope with from some politicians. Theirs has been like fighting a fire that some sadists continue to feed with fuel and other incidienary materials. We urge that these agencies and their leadership look beyond the twisted behaviours of the governors so that they can continue to give their best to the country.
“ We advise that President Buhari looks beyond the saintly pretext being put on by the chief executives of the second tier of government in order to correctly decode their selfish interests against Nigeria. He should question their commitment to peace and security given the persistent with which they have done things that promote and complicates the problems that the country is dealing with.”