INSECURITY: Presidency Passes The Buck Again! Blames ‘Hidden Hostile Hands’

For the umpteenth time, the Presidency has attributed the current security challenges facing the country to activities of some “hidden hostile hands” that the Government had yet to unmask.

The country has in recent times been faced with increased communal clashes, banditry, kidnapping and armed robbery.

Advertisement

The current administration had at different instances blamed previous governments and opposition politicians, as well as some external forces, for insecurity in the country.

In one of his media interviews, President Buhari particularly blamed the herdsmen crisis in parts of the country on late former Libya leader, Muamar Gaddafi.

“Gaddafi for 43 years in Libya, at some stage, he decided to recruit people from Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, from Central African Republic and these young chaps are not taught to be bricklayers, electricians, plumbers or any trade but to shoot and kill,” the President had told Arise TV in an interview.

But presidential spokesperson, Mr. Femi Adesina, who spoke recently to The Interview, traced insecurity in the country to 1914 when the country’s Northern and Southern Protectorates were “forcefully” amalgamate by Sir Donald Fredrick Lugard.

Advertisement

“It was an unwilling union, forcefully consummated by Lord Frederick Lugard. Since then, it had been uneasy, with grave suspicion rifling through the polity,” said the presidential aide.

Adesina, who said the colonial masters have a share in the blame, also blamed the freedom of speech that came with Democracy for divisiveness in the country.

“It was not helped by the colonial masters themselves, who played one ethnic nationality against the other, to serve their own interests.

“These tensions spiked in recent times, particularly with the advent of democracy, in which people could make utterances, however indecorous or divisive they may be.

“The security challenges are enormous. Insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, communal strife, criminality generally. These are truly dire times, and as the president has said, they are results of the corruption, decay and neglects of the past.

Advertisement

“But is the government overwhelmed? By no means. The challenges are being tackled, and we will eventually overcome. Nigeria is greater than the challenges, no matter the hidden hostile hands that are encouraging them.”

Speaking further on when President Muhammadu Buhari would name members of his second cabinet, Adesina assured that it would not take as long as it did in 2015, adding that “the circumstances are not the same”.

He said, “Nigerians will not have to wait a day longer than necessary, before they have a cabinet.

“And as the president himself has said, the process won’t take as long as it did in 2015, because the circumstances are not the same.”

Leave a comment

Advertisement