Afenifere to Buhari: Nigeria is in trouble, seek help

THE pan-Yoruba sociopolitical organisation, Afenifere, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to see the security situation in the country as warlike and one that requires recalling retired intelligence officers to complement the efforts of existing security organs. 

Afenifere, in a statement on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Jare Ajayi, urged the president to be decisive in confronting the security situation in order to prevent the country from collapsing. 

The organisation stated that apart from the bomb blast that happened in Maiduguri on Thursday, the day President Buhari visited that city, the Nigerian Immigration Service also revealed in a letter to its border posts, dated December 23, 2021, that terrorists from Mali planned to attack the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. 

“The above are aside from kidnapping, killing, arson and burning of vehicles conveying people from one place to another as it happened on Kaduna highway, in Borno and Katsina states, etc, recently,” it said. 

Afenifere said: “The president must come out openly to give an ultimatum of two weeks to those carrying arms illegally to lay down their arms. Within the period, retired intelligence officers should be encouraged to report at military formations nearest to them with a view to reintegrating them into the system. Needed weapons and incentives must be provided just as the intelligence units within the security organs should be rejigged to weed out the fifth columnists in the army. 

“Overtures should be made to certain powers that have control over our neighbouring countries from where terrorists infiltrate our country. Among such superpowers that need to be consulted are France, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, Germany, Israel and the United States of America. 

“The rationale behind this is to seek direct assistance in terms of logistics as well as for some of them, particularly France, to work on French-speaking neighbouring countries to help curtail insurgents using their territories to infiltrate Nigeria.” 

The organisation added that beyond seeking foreign help, the Federal Government must show genuine commitment to ridding the country of insurgency and other related criminalities. 

“This it can do successfully by stopping to treat bandits and terrorists with kid gloves, by genuinely providing needed equipment to the army and other security agencies, by truly engaging the youths into ventures that would earn them a livelihood, by no longer treating some bandits and terrorists as sacred cows and by liberalising the economy in such a way that the costs of commodities and services in the country would come down considerably. 

“Above all, states and local governments that are willing should be allowed to have their own policing system up to the level of investigation and prosecution without let or hindrance,” Afenifere said. 

It added: “It is disheartening that terrorists had the temerity to launch attacks near Maiduguri on Thursday, December 23, 2021 around the time the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, was visiting Maiduguri and other parts of Borno State. 

“Reports also have it that the Nigeria Immigration Service has put its officers at various border posts on red alert of a looming terrorist attack on the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. 

“According to the Immigration Service, the step was based on the intelligence report it received from the presidency that some terrorists from West African neighbour, Mali, want to move through the NigeriaNiger Republic border to launch an attack in Abuja. 

“The letter, dated December 23, 2021, was titled ‘Terrorists Plan Attacks in Abuja’ and signed by the Land Border Patrol Commander, Edirin Okoto, on behalf of the Acting Comptroller General of Immigration Service, Idris Jere. 

“If steps suggested above are taken, the vow made by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) last week Thursday would be easy to fulfil. It will be recalled that the COAS had, during his visit to the 7th Division, Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri last week, asserted that the Nigerian Army is ‘committed to ending the (Boko Haram) war and other security challenges such as banditry and kidnapping and other crimes bedevilling the country’. 

“To Afenifere, it was not the first time such declaration would be made either by President Buhari or the security chiefs. But rather than the insecurity being checkmated, the situation has been going from bad to worse. 

“It is high time President Buhari heeded the advice being given from various quarters, including the ones by eminent Nigerians led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the one that emanated from the Inclusive Security Dialogue Retreat which held in Abuja a few weeks ago and attended by the same Chief Obasanjo; Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto; Reverend Samson Supo Ayokunle, CAN President; Chief Edwin Clark and many other leaders from the ethnic nationalities. 

“They had called on the president to urgently convene a national conciliatory conference to address the underlying issues of our challenges that successive governments have ignored.”

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