INSECURITY: Buhari Sends Birthday Greetings, But Tight-lipped On Kebbi Kidnapping

Barely hours after news broke that bandits who kidnapped scores of students from the Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State, had killed another three of their victims, President Muhammadu Buhari’s office has sent out a birthday greeting to a former police boss while keeping mum on the students’ abduction and murder.

Buhari, in a statement by his senior media adviser, Femi Adesina, congratulated former IGP Solomon Arase on his 65th birthday.

Adesina said the president recalled, “the reforms that the former Inspector General brought to Police in Nigeria, deploying his wealth of experience of working and training in many parts of the world to visualize and domesticate operations, after heading the topmost intelligence gathering unit of the Nigerian police, Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Bureau.”

Buhari’s decision to issue a birthday salutation while refusing to speak on the abduction of at least 58 Kebbi students mirrors his critics’ assessment of him as an insensitive leader.

While troops have made gallant efforts to rescue the abducted students and members of staff, at least three of the victims were reported killed.

The school’s principal, Mustapha Yusuf, told Reuters that two females and a male student were found dead with gunshot wounds.

While the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) Chairman, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, had led a condolence visit to Kebbi State over the incident on Sunday, the presidency has neither sent a delegation to the state nor uttered a word on the abduction and killings.

The alleged aloof posture of the president in times of national tragedies has become a recurring criticism of the president.

This has been exhibited more recently, as Mr Buhari similarly remained tight-lipped on several attacks and killings recorded in Benue and Plateau States, amongst others.