President Goodluck Jonathan
Chuks Okocha
The call by the Northern chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that President Goodluck Jonathan should resign from office because of his poor handling of the security challenges in the country has been described as misguided and uncalled for.
The Northern chapter of CAN had faulted the President’s handling of the security challenges in the country, insisting that he has failed Nigerians and therefore should resign as the President of the country.
According to CAN, the call on the President to resign is predicated on the fact that he is not capable of tackling the dangers posed by the Boko Haram insurgency.
The Northern CAN in the 19 states in a statement signed by its Public Relations Officer, Mr. Sunday Oibe, said it was regrettable that the Boko Haram has continued to strike and getting away with its murderous activities because of the support from the President.
But in a swift reaction, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, told newsmen in Abuja that the call was misguided.
“While government is compelled to sympathise with the Christian community in the North who have suffered incessant bloodshed. The call by the northern CAN for the President to resign is however misguided”.
Okupe further said that the security challenges in the country, especially in the North was being handled with total devotion and commitment by the security agencies.
According to him, “Since this menace started about a year ago, the unwavering support and commitment of President Jonathan through massive deployment of resources, acquisition of hi-tech security equipment and other infra-structure have been seriously overhauled and enhanced.”
“It is a fact that 60 per cent of the programmed attacks of the Boko Haram are frustrated or stopped even before they happen,” he said, while appealing for understanding from the Christian community.
Okupe lamented that the Boko Haram challenges has become very sophisticated with its classifications into a religious, criminal and political dimensions.
The Presidential aide who reiterated that the security challenges would soon be over, said it took the British government more than 28 years to contain the Irish Revolutionary Army (IRA), 27 years to wipe out the Sri-Lanka Tami rebels and over 16 years to contain the Oman insurgency in Morocco.
He explained that the Nigerian Armed Forces have the capacity to contain all insurgent attacks within days, but said that such action would be expensive at a great collateral damages to the civilian populace, hence the need for patience.