Former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, yesterday highlighted why Nigeria was experiencing so much hardship, division, and hatred under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential aspirant alleged that Buhari’s lack of compassion for the country was responsible for the hatred, hardship, and division.
Addressing journalists in Sokoto, Lamido insisted that Buhari had failed as a leader due to his lack of compassion for the people.
The former governor stressed that the living conditions of the people had worsened in the last three years because of poor governance.
He said, “Buhari is a leader that lacks compassion for Nigerians and that is why there is so much hardship, division, and hatred among Nigerians. We cannot achieve progress and development when leaders lack compassion for their fellow human beings.
“Every nation takes the character of its leader. If a leader is humane and compassionate, the masses will tow that path but if the leader lacks compassion, there will be hatred and violence among the people.”
He, however, pledged to rescue Nigeria from the present state of insecurity and violence.
“The first thing I will do if I become the president is to unite this country because at the moment, we are highly divided as a people. There is so much hatred, fighting and killing in the polity.
“I will restore our human essence and ensure stability of the country because, without peace, there could be no development,” he added.
Oby Ezekwesili, former Education Minister, has reacted to the alleged protest by some men of the Nigeria Police Force in Maiduguri, Borno State.
Recall that the police personnel barricaded the Command headquarters located on Maiduguri-Kano expressway, causing gridlock yesterday.
But a statement by the Force spokesman, Jimoh Moshood insisted that the police officers and men in the state did not protest.
Reacting to the protest, the co-convener of BringBackOurGirls, BBOG, advocacy group berated the Federal Government over its inability to meet up with its promise to reform the security sector in the country.
In a series of tweets, Ezekwesili wrote: “A greater embarrassment to the .@PoliceNG was the BRAZEN LIES told by its Spokesperson that the protesting policemen in Maiduguri, “simply visited the Borno State Police Command headquarters on enquiry over the delay of their allowance.”
Now you know why Citizens Distrust police.
“This Government promised Security Sector Reforms that could address these personnel issues.
“Those who know where the reforms are should please educate the rest of us.
“To see those policemen in Maiduguri in riotous act was the saddest image of institutional decay. Fit it.
“We cannot continue to have their officers feed fat on opaquely spent security resources while the ‘foot-soldiers’ wallow in near abject poverty.
“There are no bad police and soldiers. Only bad officers.
In responses, the Presidency last Monday summoned the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, over the reported protest embarked on by police personnel in Maiduguri, Borno State, last Monday.
The policemen were said to have protested over non-payment of their monthly salaries and allowances.
Our correspondent reports that the IGP was seen heading towards the office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
A source at the Presidential Villa, who preferred to remain anonymous told newsmen that the IGP was in the villa to brief the Presidency on the police protest.
Also, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has come hard on the President Muhammadu Buhari presidency for “converting” the presidential media department to “the propaganda wing” of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association, stressing that the “ignominious role” of the presidential media office was “disheartening and amounts to a grave threat to national security.”
This was contained in a statement issued, yesterday, by the National Coordinator of HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, who accused the office of the Presidential Media Adviser of “coordinating the purported denial of the original interview granted to the Jos-based Correspondent of The Tide by the North-Central leader of Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association, Alhaji Danladi Ciroma, in which he admitted that the recent attacks in Barkin Ladi was a retaliatory strike for the purported theft of 300 cows by the local communities that witnessed the unleashing of bloody violence by armed Fulani herdsmen.
“This is a direct confrontation to the constitutional oath of office sworn to by the President not to allow his ethno-religious interests becloud the implementation of policies that promote and protect national interests.”
It called for “the immediate sack of the entire Presidential media crew of the Presidency for converting a public office to a private media machinery of suspected perpetrators of terror attacks against farming communities that are mostly Christians in the North-Central region of Nigeria”.
On the recent bail granted by the Federal High Court in Abuja to the immediate-past National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), from the custody of the Department of State Service (DSS), HURIWA warned against serial disobedience of court bails granted Dasuki as committed by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, stressing that the unconstitutional tendencies are breeding anarchy and impunity on a larger scale.
The rights group called on, “the international community to demand that the Nigerian President abides by his constitutional obligations and order the release of this Nigerian citizen given that section 36(5) of the Constitution states that a suspect before the competent court of law is innocent in the eyes of the law until a contrary determination is reached by a competent court of law”.