…says ‘we supported him because we thought he could secure Nigeria’
Apex Northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum says it no longer has faith in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
ACF said it had become disappointed that Buhari had failed to secure the Nigerian nation.
ACF National Publicity Secretary, Emmanuel Yawe, stated this while speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.
Yawe said citizens in the Northern part of the country had become depressed and sad about the incessant attacks and killings in their region by Boko Haram insurgents, bandits and herdsmen.
The ACF spokesman said during the 2015 elections, the people considered the antecedents of the two major candidates and were impressed with Buhari’s records and decided to cast their votes for him.
He said the electorate had the mistaken belief that Buhari had the capability to secure the country being a retired Army general and a former military head of state.
Yawe said, “When the elections were to be conducted in 2015, the two principal candidates — Goodluck Jonathan and President Muhammadu Buhari — some of us looked at the two candidates.
“What was disturbing the north then, there were feelings of insecurity. So, when we looked at these two candidates, we said well Jonathan was a university lecturer before he went into politics, before he became local government chairman, governor of his state, then vice president to president …all by luck…. his name stuck to him.
“But Buhari was a general who fought in the war to keep Nigeria in the 60s and 70s, then head of state.
“And some of us even had personal testimonies to give. I remember I was a reporter with New Nigerian Newspaper in 1983 when some Chadians invaded Nigeria and took some Nigerian land. As a young man in my 20s, I was sent to cover him, he did very well; he chased away those rascals.
“And we were impressed with this. We said this is the man who is going to secure Nigeria but what has happened? On a daily basis when we hold our meetings in Kaduna, we keep receiving reports …every state in the north…. Every state in the north is not secure.
“Is it not the man we had so much faith in? If he couldn’t do any other thing, at least he will be able to secure the north and the country.
“How can I have faith in someone who presides over this kind of …this state of affair…? When he was coming to become president, I had faith in him because I witnessed how successful he was in chasing away enemies coming to Nigeria.
“But now, 300 people kidnapped in his home state.”
The ACF spokesman said he does not feel safe travelling to his home state in Taraba as a result of frequent attacks.
He said, “I can’t go to my home state of Taraba, the whole place is in chaos. They are killing people every day; that one is not publicised because there is no oil in Taraba.
“What can I say is you have seen what has been happening to our people. I used to drive from Maiduguri sometimes to Sokoto alone in the car, sometimes at night, nothing will happen to me. Even at the worse of this in Abacha days, I used to drive alone all over the north. I have never felt unsafe like the way I feel now.”