- “He has failed totally,” says Sule Lamido
Calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign because of the deteriorating security situation in the country is irresponsible and “playing dirty politics with the issue of security,” Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed told members of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN) in Lagos.
This is just as former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, said President Buhari has failed Nigerians and needs to cry, and repent to Allah for the country to live in peace.
The former Governor told the BBC Hausa service that “if really, he (Buhari) cannot withstand this he has to resign, but we can’t be accepting sabotage as a reason.
“He has failed totally, if not that he failed how will you allow some people to slaughter 43 people? How will you allow bandits to raid villages and set them on fire and rape their women? Definitely, something is wrong somewhere.
“He is arrogant and always speaking with pride. Many people have said it and we have seen it. In the last four years if you said something like this you will be cursed but now the truth has come. The problem is that he doesn’t listen to what people are saying, but everyone has spoken out. People are tired, the Ulamas, the masses and the traditional leaders… have spoken out.”
In the aftermath of the Zabarmari massacre in Borno State, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) said President Buhari should resign because he did not demonstrate any will to bring an end to insurgency and killings in the North.
Said the NEF: “In civilised nations, leaders who fail so spectacularly to provide security will do the honourable thing and resign.”
The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), the Pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, the Coalition of Nigeria Elders for Peace and Good Governance (CONEPAGG) have all expressed reservations over the escalating security breaches in the country and called on the President to resign.
But the Information Minister said “that this call amounts to playing dirty politics with the issue of security, and it is cheap and irresponsible.
“Mr President was elected in 2015 for a four-year term and re-elected in 2019 for another four-year term. No amount of hysterical calls for resignation will prevent him from serving out his term.
“Therefore, calling on the president to resign every time there is a setback in the war on terror is a needless distraction and cheap politicking. Let us stop playing politics with the issue of security.
“Boko Haram is today badly degraded and can only carry out cowardly attacks like the one against defenceless farmers over the weekend.”
While saying terrorism was a global phenomenon, the Information Minister said no nation, no matter how powerful, is immune to attacks on soft targets.
“For instance, 9-11 happened despite the prowess of the most powerful army in the world. Boko Haram’s only oxygen today is publicity. That is why they have rushed to release a video claiming responsibility for the killing of the farmers.
“That Boko Haram is going after soft targets is a sign of weakness and desperation on their part, especially after they have suffered huge setbacks in the hands of the military in recent times,” he said.
But the NEF, while reacting to the comments by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said through its Spokesperson that their call for the resignation of President Buhari was consistent with democratic principles.
“The President was elected to perform specific functions and undertake responsibilities. He has failed to do that and we are exercising our responsibilities as citizens to say to him, you have failed and there is no basis for you to continue.
“We derive no pleasure from pointing out the weaknesses of the President, we would rather praise him, particularly as Northerners. We would rather say someone we supported to become President has done well but unfortunately, we are now having to ask him the same way we supported him to become president. We are now saying to him, we are very sorry, we thought you would do a lot better but you are not doing anywhere near our expectations, it is time to go and we have no apologies to offer for that at all.”
Baba-Hakeem, reminded that in 2013, Buhari had asked then President Goodluck Jonathan to resign over his failure to deal with insecurity.
“That was two years before he became President, so there is nothing new in asking the president to resign; it is a legitimate democratic right the citizens have.
“Mr President has had five to six years to demonstrate that he has a handle on insecurity, on the economy and many of the problems that his country has.
“He has demonstrated that he has no clue on how to approach the issue of security and so we are not in the business to shorten his term, we are telling him that six years into his presidency, it is clear that he is not going to solve our security problems. There is no sign that he is going to do that, there is no sign that he is capable of doing that. It is time to ask him to go, how they interpret that is their business.”
Also responding to Lai Mohammed, Afenifere Spokesperson, Mr Yinka Odumakin, reiterated that if President Buhari truly loves the country, he should resign.
“If he does not owe this country any responsibility as a president, his position has become untenable,” he said.
Odumakin described the statement attributed to the Minister of Information as lacking in integrity.
He added: “I think at this point, no serious Nigerian would take Alhaji Lai Mohammed seriously. He has turned himself to a joke. When he makes statements, he just has to say something to please his master.”