From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The Coalition of Northern Groups CNG has faulted the recent statement by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari that points to a planned incitement to mutiny, describing it as unhelpful, and doubtful fabrication of a coup story.
The CNG observes that it is the height of ineptitude for an administration that has clearly failed on the manner it approaches sensitive matters such as security of citizens and glaring excesses of the administration officials to make such allegations, confirms the extent of its incompetence and lack of political will.
In a statement on Friday signed by its spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, CNG dismissed the news of an impending coup as a smokescreen intended to divert attention from the failure to acknowledge the huge demands been made for the President to address serious shortfalls in the nation’s policing and security institutions.
“It is a sad commentary that government should choose a time when the verdict from every section of the country is that many things are seriously wrong with our economy, national unity and security to come up with such allegations of a planned military takeover.
“It is ridiculous that this is coming at a time when there are many abuses that ought to have been checked by this administration, but were ignored or treated with levity owing to very low levels of respect for accountability, the statement is a signal that those charged with the responsibility of governance are only concerned with the perpetuation of power,” the statement said.
The CNG said rather than cooking up such pedestrian coup plot story, President Buhari ought to have reminded himself that hundreds of thousands of people in northern communities have been at the mercy of bandits, kidnappers and rustlers without any form of police protection.
“That government should stoop as low as to contrive a coup story to cover its failure in relieving the widespread hardships and stresses faced by the nation, amounts to an admission of loss of capacity and political will to tackle the current challenges around economy, insecurity and national unity.
“It is further proof of ineptitude for an administration that has acquired the reputation of being the worst in the history of our nation in terms of any capacity to generate confidence in achieving credible national goals to resort to scaring citizens with allegations of planned coups.
“Rather than attempting this desperation to divert attention that only succeeded in raising the degree of anger and frustration among all Nigerian communities, government should be dwelling heavily to see that the national security architecture is reframed and reorganized in ways that will bring an end to the incessant banditry, insurgency, kidnapping and other vices that are dragging the into the abyss.
“This must include a thorough review and interrogation of the commercialization of these conflicts by different actors, up and down the ranks and constituencies, defence corruption as well as the persistent attitude of touting success in the face of failure.
“Buhari is heading an administration which has violated all known tenets of democracy, exposed citizens to an unbelievable level of insecurity and poverty, persist in shielding monumental corruption of officials and mismanage national economy to such desperate level as to print currency for infusion into the economy”.