Insecurity: Arewa Forum Reveals Why President Buhari Will Not Resign

The Senate Minority Leader, Eyinnaya Abaribe, has been attacked by the Arewa Consultative Forum, following his call for President Muhammadu Buhari to resign over insecurity in Nigeria.

The Senator representing Abia South senatorial district had called for the President’s resignation on the floor of the Senate while contributing to a discussion on insecurity.

The Secretary-General of ACF, Anthony Sani, while reacting to the call noted that President Buhari can’t resign because his administration had been able to reduce the activities of Boko Haram insurgent.

The group noted that President Buhari administration has been able to curtail the activities of the terrorist group from beyond the Northern part of the country.

The statement reads below: “I do not share the sentiments of the senator who has called for the resignation of President Buhari on account of his expressed surprise at the recent resurgence of attacks in some parts of the country. This is because, in spite of the recent upsurge of insecurity, no one can deny the fact that the emergence of this regime under President Buhari has substantially reduced insecurity posed by Boko Haram which has been consigned to fringes of North East as against in the past when Boko Haram attacked almost all parts of the North and was heading towards southern part of the country.”

“Boko Haram attacked UN offices in Nigeria, attacked police HQ in Abuja. In some attacks like the one in Kano, one attack could claim hundreds of people. In 2012, gunmen attacked a village in Plateau state and killed hundreds of people that included a serving senator. Within the next seven days, another attack occurred in the adjacent village and claimed another hundred of victims.”

ACF recalled that attacks by the Boko Haram were serious that people in the country were scared of gathering in public space.

“The attacks were so ubiquitous across the North and instilled fear among the people who dared not go to worship places, to markets, and to garages to board vehicles.”

“During the National Conference of 2014, some delegates from Benue state cried of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the state. That was the time there was abduction of Chibok girls which took about 72 hours before there was an order from above for the chase of the vehicles conveying them, during which time some 56 girls escaped.”

“The period before the immediate past regime witnessed several high profile killings such as those of Chiefs Bola Ige, Funsho Williams, Harry Marshall, Dekibbo,etc, and many ethnoreligious clashes in many states across the country that claimed thousands of lives.”

“It is against this backdrop that Buhari and APC made taming of insecurity one of the three campaign promises. Naturally, most Nigerians heeded the campaign promises and voted him and the APC in 2015.”

Sani claimed that President Buhari upon assuming power worked towards ending insurgency in the country and resolving problems affecting our economy.

“And when the President was inaugurated and saw the level of challenges by way of high level of insecurity, of corruption and of the work needed to diversify the economy from consumption-based import-dependent to export-dependent productive economy away from dependence on oil wealth that is natural resources, he confessed to the nation that he had considered the possibility of abdication but was prevented from doing so by patriotic instinct and the fact that great leaders are defined by great challenges because such leaders pursue causes higher than themselves as worthy impulses.”

“He, therefore, decided to confront the challenges and recorded some appreciable successes which consigned Boko Haram to fringes of the North East and their attacks were reduced to occasional suicide bombings using small girls. Consequently, the fears which hitherto overwhelmed the North gave way to hope and confidence that comes with normal life.”

“That accounted largely for one of the reasons most Nigerians reelected the regime in 2019. But as soon as the government was inaugurated for second term, there was upsurge of insecurity posed by kidnappings, armed robbery, banditry, clashes between herders and farmers, cultism, ritual killings and rapping. As a result, this regime had to face the upsurge with available resources which brought them under control until very recently when the insecurity resurfaced with some vigor.”

“It is the new developments that made the president to express surprise when a delegation from Niger state led by the governor paid him a courtesy call.”

“It is therefore stunning and bewildering of anybody of status of a senator to use such an honest expression of surprise that comes with a serious sense of concern by the president as the basis to call for the resignation of the president. This smacks of mischief that does not derive from any sense of patriotic courage,” he added.