Former Education Minister and co-convener of Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement, Oby Ezekwesili, has decried what she said, is incompetence of President Muhammadu Buhari in addressing issues of insecurity and other challenges facing Nigeria.
She said the country can no longer continue to have “a President who is comfortable to be in the office, spending the night at the Villa, unconcerned about the type of challenges that we the citizens are facing.”
According to the former minister, the current insecurity in Nigeria is the fastest way to assess the “incompetence” which the President has allegedly shown so far on the issue ofkillings by herdsmen and other criminal elements.
Ezekwesili spoke on Saturday when newsmen engaged her after she spoke as a panelist in Lagos at the 11th Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture series, which was organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism to mark the 85th birthday of the Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka.
Journalists had asked Ezekwesili to commend on the issue of insecurity in the country especially in respect to the killing of Mrs. Funke Olakunrin, daughter of the leader of Afenifere, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, by suspected herdsmen.
In her response, Ezekwesili said Buhari has failed to command the armed forces the way he ought to.
“I think that the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. If security is failing in the country that is the fastest way to assess the incompetence that the President has shown so far to an issue that affects the majority of his citizens.
“I do not think we should mince words and that is why I am not mincing words. We cannot have a President who is comfortable to be in the office, spending the night at the Villa, unconcerned about the type of challenges that we the citizens are facing,” she said.
She had earlier in her keynote address at the event themed “Rethinking credible elections, accountable and good governance in Nigeria”, called on the government to wake up and urgently take action to protect lives and property in the country.
“The government should do what it is expected to do on the issue of insecurity in the country. The safety of citizens of this country should be placed above any other issue,” she said.
Speaking on the theme of the event she said Nigeria’s democracy is being bedeviled by a number of factors, adding that conduct of elections were still far from acceptable global standards, as the will of the people was often subverted by the many inadequacies of the process.
According to her, to get it right, the country must evolve ways of making sure elections are credible and free of violence.
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