Shehu Sani, a former Kaduna Central Senator, has called out President Muhammadu Buhari, over the heightened security challenges in the country.
Sani, who featured on Quest Times Twitter Spaces on Wednesday, blamed Mr President for being “negligent and not taking action on the state of the nation.”
His words; “Why are the security challenges in Nigeria this bad? This is the question we need to ask ourselves. Secondly, why was it that after pumping all these trillions of Naira in our defence and security apparatus, we are still unable to curtail these problems? And the buck stops on the table of the Commander-in-Chief (Buhari).
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“We should sack the service chiefs if they fail to perform their functions.
“The Nigeria Defence Academy was at a time attacked and nobody resign or was even sacked. So, who do you want to blame?
“A country is being run in such a way that the president does not take an action as and when the time demands him to take an action.
“All his (Buhari) ministers are spending their 8 years in service; never has this happened in the history of Nigeria. What kind of country is this? How can you keep ministers in office for 8 years? That’s an issue.
“For instance, Mozambique in the face of its crisis, did not call the president of America to come help them, they reached out to Paul Kagame of Uganda and over 2,000 troops were deployed to northern Mozambique with a clear instruction — End this insurgency! And they did it!
“It is so bad that farmers in parts of Kaduna now pay levies to bandits to go to farms. Recently, in Birnin Gwari (Local Government Area in Kaduna), about N40 million was given to terrorists for them to go and farm and raise their crops.
“When you talk now, they will tell you security agencies are monitoring the camps of the terrorists. Why can’t you storm the place?
“We have reached a point that what needs to be done must be done to save us from this problem. We can’t be held hostage by a gang of criminals who are taking advantage of our weaknesses.
“If it requires the president to sack the service chiefs regularly to get things right, he should do so. People who are holding positions need to know that there is a price to pay.
“Nobody could have imagined in 2015 that Buhari, who people had hope and faith in, can lead a country today where even Abuja is not safe. Leadership is about taking decisions, actions and resolving to do what you need to do in order to protect your people. This is not what is happening in the country today.
“What Nigeria is doing today is to wait for attacks to happen before sending soldiers to defend the country.
“For me, nobody is at fault, it is the Commander-in-Chief (Buhari) because you’re the person who filled the forms and expressed desire to contest for the presidential seat. So, the buck stops on his table.
“We hope that actions will be taken by the president as part of his last attempt to save this country. After all, he (Buhari) said he is going to leave Nigeria better than the way he met it.”