*says level of insecurity in Nigeria gotten so bad
By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
Pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere on Mondayraised fresh alarm over the rising level of insecurity in the country which it said has gotten so bad
Afenifere in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to put into practice what he said about justice, fairness and equity on the floor of the United Nations last Friday.
Comrade Ajayi stressed that in as much as Afenifere commended the roles of the Nigerian Army in quelling the level of insecurity in the country, the reality on ground belies the president’s purported claim at the United Nations saying, ” the president, in his speech, had given the impression that terrorists have more or less surrendered to the Nigerian army.”
“We, as Afenifere, commends the heroic efforts of the Nigerian army but it is a fact that activities of terrorists appear to be more expanding rather than receding going by the submission of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, that over 330,000 Nigerian refugees are languishing in neighbouring countries due to insurgency and armed banditry in the North East and North West as well as Kaduna State Governor El Rufai that advocated for the military to be decentralized”, he said
Comrade Ajayi added in the statement that the ” level of insecurity in the country has gotten so bad that the authority of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) allegedly advised youth corpers to always let their people prepare ransom to be paid in case they are kidnapped in course of traveling from one point to another while in service.”
Stressed, ” what else could underscore the unfortunate level to which insecurity in the country has fallen”, he said, ” it is in this respect that Afenifere calls for the NYSC to allow youth corpers to serve the nation in their respective states at least for now.”
On the President Buhari purported call for the reform of the UN by saying “without justice, the legitimacy (even efficacy) of our organization is called to question”, as well as his call for dialogue between Israel and Palestine to resolve their differences as the skirmish between the duo borders on “the question of justice, fairness and equity” Afenifere stated that there is the need for the President to put such to play in Nigeria
Afenifere while also faulting President Buhari’s talk about the commitment of his administration to the respect of human rights, said the ethnic nationalities and other concerned stakeholders in Nigeria have been calling for dialogue to resolve ‘Nigeria issues’ for long, but the federal government under President Buhari has not only been ignoring them but hounding those calling for such dialogue.
“It is interesting, perhaps comforting that the Nigerian authority realises that dialogue is the way to go in resolving knotty issues. It is however hypocrisy of the highest order for this same authority to be prescribing this to foreign authorities while describing those calling for the same thing at home as ‘hate speech makers’ and separatists.
” The Reform that President Buhari advocated for the United Nations is the same thing those calling for dialogue at home are calling for. Why and how our president considered reform and dialogue as necessary at the global level but consider same as anathema in Nigeria beats one’s imagination.It is called Reform at the global level and Restructuring at home”.
Lamenting what it described as the kid glove with which the government has been handling the issue of kidnapping was what has been emboldened the perpetrators to continue in their dastardly acts”, Afenifere called on the government to ” immediately allow states to transform their respective security networks into state police with all the powers appertaining thereto”, Ajayi emphasized in the release.
