The Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, Prof Ango Abdullahi, has lamented the growing security challenges facing the country, saying President Muhammadu Buhari is not doing enough to salvage the situation.
The former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was reacting to the Presidency’s assertion that the kidnap of the district head of Daura, Buhari’s hometown in Katsina State, had shown the security agencies were not giving any town preferential treatment.
Speaking on the abduction of Alhaji Musa Uba, Buhari’s brother-in-law, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said on Kakaaki, a breakfast television programme on AIT, “because the President comes from Daura, that is not to say there cannot be crime in Daura or Daura will be specially treated”.
However, Abdullahi slammed the Presidency, saying the current security issues in the North was worse than when Goodluck Jonathan was leading the country.
In an SMS to our correspondent, the NEF leader urged the Presidency to focus on securing lives and property in the country.
He said, “I don’t understand what the reaction from the Presidency is expected to convey to the public.
“They (Presidency) should be concerned that the security failures are everywhere, including the hometown of the President.
“Obviously there is more insecurity in the North today than during Jonathan’s leadership.”
The group last month said a spate of banditry in Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Sokoto states would persist without effective policing.
They also said Buhari had no political will to effectively secure lives and property of the citizens.
Abdullahi, who conveyed the position of the NEF, said the police lacked the capacity to tackle the security challenges because they lacked manpower.
The professor of agronomy had said, “The President has the responsibility to face these challenges. The President, according to what we know of the Nigerian structure and the constitution and the instrument of power, he has the instrument to deal with the challenges.”.”