90 per cent Muslims comment: Apologise for your statement, PDP tells Buhari

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to apologise over his claim that 90 per cent of Boko Haram targets are Muslims.

The main opposition party in a statement, in Abuja on Wednesday, accused Buhari of resorting to religious colouration and classification of wanton killings in the country by insurgents, saying that the remark was “totally horrendous, unpresidential, scandalous, discriminatory, divisive and a huge spat on the grave of the victims.

“The party, therefore, counsels President Buhari to immediately apologise for his comments, accept failure, rejig his security high command and engage more competent hands to effectively tackle the security challenges,” the statement said.

The party described as highly insensitive, that President Buhari could attempt to rationalise the failure of his administration to end the insurgency by stating that 90 per cent of those killed by terrorists are members of a particular religion.

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Signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the statement added: “The PDP, as a Pan Nigerian political party, holds without any equivocation, that the killing of any compatriot, anywhere by terrorists or bandits, irrespective of religion, ethnicity or class, can never be rationalized under any guise whatsoever.”

The party said, “the President’s disturbing statement shows that the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) attach no value to the lives of Nigerians as well as further exposes their manifest lack of capacity and commitment to effectively tackle the worsened security situation under President Buhari’s watch.”

It further stated: “Our party holds that for President Buhari, a commander in chief, who promised to fight from the fronts and now holds all the paraphernalia of power; and on whose shoulders the security of the nation rests, to make such a statement leaves no one in doubt that the Buhari Presidency has reached its wits end, exhausted its propaganda and has no solutions to offer.

“It is instructive for the Buhari Presidency to note that rather than engaging in lame attempt at rationalizing failure, the expectation of Nigerians is for it to take decisive steps, track down and vanquish terrorists, who resurged in our country after Mr President took over as Commander-in-Chief.

“More distressing is that Mr President’s divisive comment is coming at a time when all well-meaning Nigerians, irrespective of religion, partisan and sectional interests, are rallying together following calls by patriotic individuals and groups, particularly the PDP, to find solution for the worsened security challenges under the APC administration

“President Buhari and the APC must know that every life is precious, irrespective of religion and that this obnoxious body count as rationalisation for failure is completely unacceptable.”

The PDP noted that with such dismal attitude Nigerians have lost all confidence in the commitment of the APC administration to find a solution to security challenges under its watch.

The party added: “Indeed, what Nigerians want to hear from President Buhari is the apprehension and prosecution of perpetrators of mass killings in Benue, Plateau, Kogi, Niger, Yobe, Adamawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and other states of the nation where communities where pillaged under his watch.”

The PDP urged Nigerians not to allow such statements to deter and divide their emerging common front against acts of terrorism and violence in our country.

Recall that President Buhari had, in an op-ed published in Christianity Today, spoken against attempts to divide Nigeria along religious lines, saying that contrary to the opinion in some quarters, Boko Haram is not primarily targeting Christians as Muslims form about 90 per cent of its victims.