- By Halimah Olamide
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said the growing cases of insecurity in Nigeria have exposed the All Progressive Congress led administration as grossly incompetent.
Atiku said the Bola Tinubu-led government appears helpless in the face of killings and endless violence on the citizens.
Taking to his X handle on Friday a day after the kidnapping of over 280 pupils in Kaduna state, the People’s Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections said life has become meaningless given the spate of violence in the land.
“The problem of insecurity in Nigeria is getting worse by the day.
“The media has been awash with terrifying news of banditry, kidnapping, and bloodletting that has turned our country into perhaps one of the most terrorized territories on earth.
“Within one week, there have been many reported cases of mass abduction of hapless citizens in the Northwest and Northeast regions of our country,” Atiku wrote
Citing the case of Thursday school children kidnapping, who were abducted in Kunga with their teachers, Atiku also made reference to the scores of women and children fetching firewood who were also abducted by gun-totting bandits suspected to be members of Boko Haram.
He also reminded Nigerians of the reported over 200 people, mostly women and children, who were abducted from the IDP camp in Ngala in Borno State.
He said, “The cases are endless, and the problem seems interminable. The APC-controlled government has failed woefully to give the people the basic things expected of a responsive government.
“It is a clear manifestation of the failure of governance.”
Accusing the government of playing the ostrich while the nation is plagued by insecurity, Atiku said the weak and vulnerable are neglected while the government is making empty rhetoric about reforms.
“And while our young men are abducted, killed, or conscripted into the army of the terrorists and our women and girls are ravished and subjected to different forms of gender-based violence, the authorities do nothing. This is in negation of the constitutionally guaranteed commitment that the security and welfare of citizens is the primary responsibility of government.
I stand in solidarity with my fellow citizens and sympathise with the victims and their families. I urge the security agencies to rise up to the challenge and save innocent citizens from the horrors of banditry and terrorism.”