A group of northern leaders have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately change the leadership and structures of the military and police in Nigeria.
While calling for an end to all protests, the group called on President Buhari to speak to the nation and assure Nigerians that the voices of the young have been heard and that all genuine grievances will be addressed.
They described as disappointing, the president’s failure to appreciate the magnitude of the threats, which the protests posed to national security, stability and unity.
A statement by the group of 36 Nigerians from the North including, Engr Bello Suleiman, Alhaji Mohammed Bello Kirfi, Yomi Awoniyi and Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed stated that: “We are particularly disappointed at the tepid and disjointed responses of the administration.
“In particular, we have noted the distinct impression that the administration operates under the impression that the pressures and multiple interests behind these protests can be accommodated by routine and pedestrian approaches in administrative and policy styles.”
The group stressed that the continuation of protests could lead to negative consequences that include more damaging acts of lawlessness that will worsen the state of insecurity of citizens as well as serious damage to the economy, increasing negative influence of foreign interests in the country’s national affairs as well as further damage to the image and confidence of security, law and order institutions.
Other consequences, according to the group, include “increasing polarization of constituent parts of the nation and deepening the fault lines in our national politics; further alienation of younger Nigerians from political processes and institutions; widening the scope for opportunistic interests that target the political process, particularly the elections in 2023, and the possibility that the country could be threatened by desperate attempts to pitch supporters and opponents of the administration against each other.”
They urged government to show a more determined effort at fighting the Boko Haram insurgency, banditry and kidnapping in the North, as well as assumption of full responsibility to maintain all Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP) camps in the northern states by the federal government and responsibility for securing communities and returning IDPs to their communities.
It called for an immediate resolution of the strike by ASUU and immediate resumption of all tertiary institutions as well as commitment from governments not to prosecute or punish peaceful protesters and the establishment of a judicial commission of inquiry into the killing of protesters in Lagos and other parts of the country.
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