Presidency Silent As Sultan Indicts Buhari, Northern Governors On Insecurity
The Punch
The Presidency has yet to react to the chilling revelation by the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, that insecurity in Nigeria had worsened to the point that bandits now perpetrate crime freely without fear of being apprehended.
The Sultan had described the north as “the worst place to be in this country,” while also warning that the situation could get to the point that citizens may not be able to go to sleep with their eyes closed if nothing was urgently done to address it.
Advertisement
THE WHISTLER reports that the Presidency, which is always quick to scold people who appear to indict President Muhammadu Buhari on insecurity, has yet to react to the monarch’s statement.
The Sultan had made the statement at the fourth quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) in Abuja on Thursday.
He had said, “Security situation in northern Nigeria has assumed a worrisome situation. It is regrettable that no strong media platform could report this story to the world.
“A few weeks ago, over 76 persons were killed in a community in Sokoto in a day. I was there alongside the governor to commiserate with the affected community.
Advertisement
“Unfortunately, you didn’t hear these stories in the media because it’s in the north. We have accepted the fact that the north doesn’t have strong media to report the atrocities of these bandits.
“People think north is safe, but that assumption is not true. In fact, it’s the worst place to be in this country. Because bandits go around in the villages, households, and markets with their AK-47. They stop at the market, buy things, pay and collect change, with their weapons openly displayed. These are facts I know because I am at the centre of it.
“I am not only a traditional ruler, but I am also a religious leader. So, I am in a better place to tell the story. I can speak for the north in this regard because I am fully aware of the security challenges there. We have to sincerely and seriously find solutions to the problem, otherwise, we will find ourselves soon, in a situation where we would lose sleep because of insecurity.
“As religious leaders, we must promote peace, love, unity, and tolerance among our followers. We will discuss all these issues at the close door session of the meeting and possibly come out with strong suggestions for government,” said the Sultan.
Meanwhile, reacting to the Sultan of Sokoto’s statement on Friday, former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, commended him for summoning the courage to speak on worsening insecurity in the country.
Advertisement
Fani-Kayode said the Sultan’s bold statement should not be politicised, saying “it is matter of life and death”.
Fani-Kayode said in a tweet, “Deeply courageous of His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto to speak truth in this way. This is a matter of life and death and we must not play politics with it. May God help our leaders from all over our country and across party lines to restore law & order & establish peace in Nigeria.”
THE WHISTLER had also reported that a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Professor Usman Yusuf, had warned that the country risked becoming “a failed state” should the federal government fail to address insecurity urgently.
“When I write about insecurity in the north, I write from the vantage point of one whose close friends and relatives have been victims to these marauding bandits. They roll into our villages in large numbers, three on each motorcycle, high on Tramadol and Cannabis, carrying nothing more than machetes and rusty AK-47s. They spend hours maiming, killing, burning, looting, raping, rustling cattle and kidnapping villagers for ransom.
“These bandits are now literally the law in some of the rural areas in north western Nigeria simply because of the absence of any form of government in these villages. They roam the local markets with impunity carrying AK47 rifles slung over their shoulders,” Yusuf had said in a recent opinion piece.
