Thousands of Nigerians have started passing a Vote of No Confidence on President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in a spontaneous social media campaign that started on Wednesday.
SaharaReporters observed that about 12,000 Nigerians had already tweeted, “Vote of No Confidence” on Twitter in a global demand aimed at ending Buhari’s inefficient and clueless administration under which kidnappings for ransom, killings, and terrorism have grown unchecked.
The campaign was started by human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, who called on Nigerians who were tired of the precarious situation in the country to join in raising their voices to demand change.
Sowore tweeted, “If there is anyone still out there who hasn’t placed a ‘Vote of No Confidence’ on the @MBuhari regime, that person or group of person needs help! #BuhariMustGo #RevolutionNow
“Let’s all start by repudiation, let’s pass a Vote of No Confidence on the @MBuhari regime here on @twitter just write ‘No Confidence’ as your response and let’s see if we can get 100 responses! #BuhariMustGo
“Fellow Nigerians: We are passing a ‘Vote of No Confidence’ on President Muhammadu Buhari over his abysmal performance in office. We only need you to retweet this by writing. I hereby pass a Vote of No Confidence on President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership. #Buharimustgo.
“What if a million Nigerians on Twitter paa a ‘Vote of No Confidence’ on President @MBuhari? It will change the game! Let’s keep going, let the world know we are tired of the tyrant, a bigot, a nepotistic ruler, an incompetent ex-general. Let’s go to work! #BuhariMustGo.”
The trending social media campaign is coming a day after parents of some abducted students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State, protested at the National Assembly, Abuja.
Sowore who also joined the protest had accused the government of being insensitive to the plight of the parents who have been traumatised as a result of the incident.
The activist had lambasted the Nigerian government for failing in its constitutional responsibility of protecting life and property and has no moral justification to manage the affairs of the country.
Sowore had said, “The only thing the Department of State Services can tell you is that if you are speaking out at this time, they will come after you but they can’t come after kidnappers. They can’t come after bandits and they can’t come after terrorists including those in government, they can’t go after them but they are very happy to go after you if you speak your mind.
“I feel sad for Nigeria, I feel sad for all these students in captivity; students who wanted a bright future. They could as well have taken to kidnapping themselves so that they can make quick money but they opted to go to school and look at what our government has done to them.
“As a person who has been kidnapped before by the Nigerian government, I know what it means to be in captivity. I know what it means to have zero expectation of when you will leave and when you will join your family.
“Nobody is doing anything about your plight. They are not interested. The Federal Government does not care about you. The Kaduna State Governor does not care about you, I heard him say he will never negotiate with terrorists. The same El-Rufai who was blaming former President Goodluck Jonathan for not negotiating with the Boko Haram when Chibok girls were kidnapped has suddenly realised that he can’t negotiate with terrorists.
“I am not here to appeal to the government. The Nigerian government has failed the Nigerian people. It is up to the Nigerian people to decide how long they want to continue to tolerate this failure. Don’t be afraid of security agents because they have failed too. Soldiers are being kidnapped. A DSS operative was kidnapped, they paid the ransom and they killed him and nothing happened.
“The reason they will not negotiate with terrorists is because the government itself is a terrorist government. Otherwise, they don’t know how to negotiate with terrorists.”