Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has admonished President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to take responsibility for the increasing rate of insecurity in Nigeria.
He also accused Buhari’s administration of fabricating false news through “a faceless international non-governmental organisation,” to explain the insecurity in Nigeria.
Atiku was reacting to a report published on Monday by an organisation, Centre for Diplomacy and Democracy, based in Washington DC, USA, alleging the former vice president has a hand in the killings across Nigeria.
In a statement signed by his media adviser, Mr. Paul Ibe, the former vice president said such reports could cause further division and instability in the country.
The presidential candidate of the main opposition party said his checks indicate that “no such body called Centre for Diplomacy and Democracy exists,” adding that the “Americans will never write ‘Centre’. They will write ‘Center’ in conformity to American English usage.”
“This is the deepest low that Muhammadu Buhari administration has gone in causing further division and promoting instability in Nigeria,” he said.
“Anyone versed enough in the protocol of international NGOs will discern without much ado that the particular report by a faceless, insipid organisation known as ‘Centre for Diplomacy and Democracy’ was contrived with express mobilisation from officials of Buhari’s administration in a shameless and disingenuous attempt to find a jejune explanation for the rising rate of insecurity in Nigeria.
“It is so distasteful that the Buhari’s administration, rather than have a self-introspection and admit to the world that its policies and actions are responsible for the divisions in the country with the manifestation of all manner of crimes such as banditry, kidnapping and wanton killings across the land, chooses to employ the service of a faceless NGO to blame the opposition for its own ineptitude.”
Atiku accused Buhari’s administration of always thriving in propaganda and double-speak.
He urged the president to stop the “infantile style of looking for whom to blame for his failures will not obliterate his abysmal record of performance in the past four years.
He also took a swipe at Buhari’s comment that the Inspector-General of Police (IG), Mohammad Adamu, has lost weight due to his efforts to keep the country safe.
“The Buhari’s administration and the ruling APC are renowned for propaganda stunt and double-speak. Sadly, it does not matter to them the disturbing number of criminalities happening on a daily basis in Nigeria,” he said.
“In their warped thinking, the performance rate of security chiefs during times like this is determined on how much weight the Inspector General of Police has lost.
“The question to ask is: how would the APC have reproved a president who makes such careless remarks on national security at a time when insecurity in the country has assumed epidemic proportions?
“President Buhari and the APC have shown without equivocation that the job at hand is overwhelming for them. And because they lack the basic clue of how to tame the bogey that they have created, they now scamper around like school kids who have caused an upset in a highly sensitive science laboratory.
“Nigerians don’t pray for a president who passes the buck. All they want is a president who can hold the bull at the horn and get the job done. After all, President Buhari took an oath to defend the lives and property of the citizens, which is the primary responsibility of every government.”
