Northern leaders blame FG for insecurity

Dr. Usman Bugaje

A group of leaders in the North rose from a meeting in Kaduna on Friday and passed a vote of no confidence in President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration for its failure to effectively tackle the prevailing security challenges in the country.

The group said the Federal Government had failed to protect its citizens, adding that it would form a formidable force to ensure that the presidency returned to the North in 2015.

In a communiqué, which was read out to journalists at the end of the meeting by a leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Dr. Usman Bugaje, the Northern leaders blamed the current security crisis in the region on the government’s inability to provide basic social services and to guarantee freedom and rights of the citizens.

The statement said the activities of the violent Islamic sect known as Boko Haram, as well as other security challenges, had impacted negatively on the socio-economic, political and religious life of the people of the region.

“Economic growth and development, commerce and trade in formal and informal sectors of the Northern states are being stifled with multiplier effects on the larger national and African sub-regional economies,” it said.

Regarding the 2015 presidential election, the Northern leaders said they had resolved to bring individuals and groups working in different directions under one umbrella in readiness for the 2015 presidential race.

“All the disparate groups working in different directions, but all with the aim of promoting northern interests within a greater Nigeria under one platform,” they said, pledging to create a strong and united platform that would address the current security crisis and the politics of the North.

The communiqué read in part, “The weakening nature and perhaps the failure of the Nigerian State to protect lives and property as well as its inability to provide basic social services and guarantee freedom and rights of citizens cumulatively accounts for the current state of siege in which the North now find itself.

“The systematic erosion of cherished values of honesty, tolerance and integrity that were once the hallmark of public service in the North have resulted in bad governance, disregard for the rule of law and general decadence.

“Social indicators and statistics for all human development perspectives show the dismal crises in education, health, water and sanitation services thereby placing the region far below its counterparts in the country

“The general conduct of the Joint Task Force and how the fundamental rights of the citizens of the North are being violated in clear breach of the rules of engagement. It is expected that the JTF will strictly abide by the professional terms of engagement in the interest of peace.”

A former Head of State, Gen. Abdulasalami Abubakar (retd.), former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, former Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State and Senator Adamu Aliero were in attendance at the meeting.