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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) has accused opposition politicians of capitalising on security issues to mobilise Nigerians against President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling party in spite of their achievements.
The PGF has APC governors as its members.
Its Director-General, Dr Salihu Lukman, said in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, that opposition parties were taking advantage of passive official communication by APC and the Federal Government to achieve their negative objectives
In a statement in Abuja, entitled: “APC and struggle for new Nigeria”, Lukman agreed that incidents of banditry in the North-West and North-Central were producing more cases of kidnappings and abductions of citizens, including schoolchildren.
He, however, acknowledge that the capacity of Nigerian security agencies to prevent and arrest criminal activities of rebellious groups in all parts of the country were enough to arouse the “legitimate concerns of all Nigerians.”
“There is also the challenge of preventing or managing conflicts arising from activities of herdsmen, which have provoked all manner of conflicts between Fulani herdsmen and other citizens, especially farmers, across every part of the country. Criminal activities associated with herdsmen also increased incidences of banditry, kidnappings and abductions of citizens. The narrative around this, promoted by the PDP and their supporters, is that challenges of insecurity facing the country is a confirmation that President Buhari and APC have failed Nigerians. Citing campaign promises of APC in 2015, undertaking to end insecurity, fight corruption and build the economy, problems of insecurity in the country is being used to mobilise Nigerians against the APC and President Buhari.
“Part of the politics is also aimed at mobilising support for opposition politicians ahead of 2023 elections. Divisive politics of ethnicity and religion have been important elements of the campaigns.”
Lukman decried the situation where there appeared to be some disconnect between politics and the need to unite Nigerians to work together to address the nation’s security challenges.
He flayed opposition politicians and their supporters for being unreceptive to efforts to mobilise Nigerians to forge strong unity towards ending insecurity in the country.
He, however, said good thing about President Buhari, which negates his critics, is that he was not in denial of Nigeria’s security challenges, just as he has admitted that the economic situation and hardship in the country.
“No doubt President Buhari is not in denial of Nigeria’s security challenges. Acknowledging the challenges is indicative of the commitment of President Buhari and by extension APC leaders to end the problem of insecurity facing the country,” he said.
He said despite the false narrative “quite some significant progresses have been achieved. A major gap being exploited by the opposition against the APC and the federal government is that official communication both from the APC and the Federal Government are passive and reactive. Efforts to engage Nigerians to secure citizens’ ownership of policy initiatives is quite low.”
