Stop blaming opposition, live up to expectations, Northern Elders tell Buhari

*”Nigerians don’t want to hear excuses, they want insecurity addressed outrightly…”

THE Northern Elders Forum has urged President Buhari to accept responsibility for the insecurity and alliied woes befalling the country in other sectors and stop passing the buck.

The group said Buhari should buckle down to the serious business of governance instead of engaging in blame game.

Spokesman of the forum, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed said this while featuring on Channels TV programme ‘Sunrise Daily’ today.

Baba-Ahmed said it is tiring to hear the presidency continue to ascribe the complaints of Nigerians to the workings of the opposition.

He said. “We can’t have a president that is just sitting there and then blaming everybody else for the woes of the country, that is not what we elected him for.”

Baba-Ahmed added that, “If every time Nigerians complain about being marginalised, we (presidency) don’t want to hear this and you dismiss it as this is just the opposition, then these problems will grow. Because even if it is the opposition, it is your job to deal with the opposition.

“Ascribing problems to the opposition doesn’t solve them; because it is the job of the opposition to make you look bad, it’s your job to make the opposition less effective in making you look bad.

“If the only response of the presidency is that every criticism, every complaint, every grievance that the people say the government is not working, we don’t see the result of work, and you say that is just talk, then clearly you are not dealing with the problem.”

According to Baba-Ahmed, it appeared the Buhari administration has lost sight of purpose he was elected and does not recognise the magnitude of the problem facing the country under his watch.

“This is a country that is facing unprecedented levels of insecurity from all angles and we don’t see any sign that they are doing anything different from what they have done in the last three, four, or five years, you cannot keep doing the same thing and expect to get different results,” Dr. Baba-Ahmed stated.

While noting that the military is under immense pressure in the northeast, the NEF spokesman said the truth remains that Nigeria is currently not winning the war against the insurgents and the bandits.

The former permanent secretary in the federal civil service said kidnapping and banditry have become big industries in Nigeria and the presidency has run out of ideas.

He emphasised that Nigerians don’t want to hear excuses, adding that the people want insecurity addressed outrightly.

With regards to the recent case of kidnapping at the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Kaduna, Dr. Baba-Ahmed said, “Let the president fix security, if he can’t do it immediately then let him do something that indicates that he is capable of securing Nigerians”.

He added, “If you are not going to pay money to get the Kaduna College of Forestry students out, then for goodness’ sake, use another means to get them. It’s not just the responsibility of Kaduna State government…”

“Please, do something about how insecure we are. All these talks about the ‘president is concerned, the president is doing something about it’ is not good enough. Every single day, our lives are getting worse; we cannot wait for the president to get round to fixing things.

“He was supposed to hit the ground from day one and he hasn’t and consequently, things are just getting worse. “