The Coalition of Northern Groups, CNG, on Wednesday, slammed President Muhammadu Buhari over his recent tweet about the widespread breakdown of law and order, especially in the Southeast, saying it was “thoroughly unpresidential.”
The coalition stated that the President’s latest response to the deteriorating security situation was empty and amounted to an admission of failure and loss of capacity.
The President had, on Tuesday, warned via Twitter that many of those involved with criminal gangs, particularly in the Southeast may not be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian civil war, and that his administration would treat them accordingly.
But CNG described the President’s comment as an admission that his government had allowed time to the assortment of criminal gangs that killed, maimed and displaced tens of thousands of citizens and an indictment that he had allegedly abdicated his primary responsibility of securing the lives and properties of Nigerians.
A statement signed by the spokesman of the Northern groups and issued in Abuja reads: “We dismiss the latest response by President Muhammadu Buhari to the deteriorating security situation as empty and thoroughly unpresidential.
“The presidential tweet merely amounts to an admission of failure and loss of capacity. The President’s admission that he had allowed time to the assortment of criminal gangs that killed, maimed and displaced tens of thousands of citizens is a clear indictment of the administration and abdication of his primary responsibility of securing the lives and properties of Nigerians.
“We find it ridiculous that most parts of the President’s tweet concentrated more attention to infrastructure than on the lives of citizens that are wasted daily with virtually no response from the authorities.
“The President’s revelation that most of those involved in the current agitation for secession are those who have not witnessed the 1967 civil war is a vindication of our position that the only reasonable option to ensure a more secure future is for the Igbo to be allowed to have their wish for a Biafran nation.
“The fact that the strength of the Igbo agitation rests on youth who are mainly below the ages of 50, with diseased mindsets induced by their forefathers and encouraged by their political, cultural and religious leaders to take up arms against the Nigerian state and Northerners, has rendered the nation’s unity negotiable.
“It is therefore unreasonable for those older Nigerians who are mostly above 70 to insist that the unity of Nigeria is sacrosanct whereas the people executing the dangerous Southeast secession agenda are almost entirely below 50. It is time for the Nigerian state and all stakeholders to wake to the reality that the only remaining option to avoid a civil war is for the Igbo to be allowed to have the Biafra, they have used intermittently for decades to destabilize the nation and deny peace to other components of the country,” he said
The CNG also urged the people of the North in any part of the country to remain calm and resolute with the assurance that they are taking steps to ensure the actualization of Biafra so the rest of the country would know peace.
“We, hereby, make an allowance of the next 30 days to see how Buhari would make true his threat to deal with the insurgency, banditry and above all, the greater threat posed by IPOB or how he will handle the entire Igbo leadership that openly back and emboldens them,” he added.
