A human rights activist, Femi Falana has attributed the security challenges confronting the country and agitations for break-up by several groups to the several decades of the legacy of misrule, lopsided appointments, bad governance, corruption, and diversion of the commonwealth and anti-people’s policies.
He said killings and kidnapping were on the rise across the country due to the failure of the regime to control the violent attacks on farmers and the destruction of farms by the marauding herdsmen.
Falana stated this on Thursday in Abuja at a Commemorative Anniversary public lecture of 80th Birthday Anniversary of Prof. Omotoye Olorode title ” Labour and the quest for Nigeria’s National Development: Reflection and Prognosis on the Way Forward.
The human rights lawyer noted that it was obvious that the State was not capable of ending kidnapping or rescuing abducted citizens and foreigners thereby forcing family members and friends to pay ransom to the abductors to secure the release of their abducted love ones.
He said the Buhari-led government has run out of ideas and incapable of finding lasting solutions to the worsening security challenge facing the country.
Falana said ” The failure of the regime to control the violent attacks on farmers and destruction of farms by a group bearing AK 47 rifles operating as herders and lopsided appointments by the Buhari administration have fueled the separatist agenda of several groups.
“Despite the programme of its own party for restructuring or power devolution from the center to the other federating units, President Buhari has sworn to defend the status quo. A regime that had negotiated and granted amnesty to terrorists and bandits has rejected the call for dialogue with all separatist bodies in the recent past.
“It is our submission that several decades of a legacy of misrule and bad governance, corruption, and diversion of the commonwealth and anti-people’s policies have led to the ascendancy of insecurity in the country. No part of the country is safe as marauders have been abducting people including undergraduates, secondary school students, and even primary school pupils.
Falana said the country may either break up or engage in a full-scale civil war if the worsening insecurity in all states of the federation and the federal capital territory was not checked.
” Having been overwhelmed by the security challenge the ruling class will not hesitate to sabotage the democratic process or plunge the country into another civil war. No doubt, the central labour unions, and individual trade unions have routinely condemned the booming business of kidnapping.
“Since 2009, the armed forces have been waging the counter-insurgency operations in the northeast region. Realizing that the armed forces are ill-equipped and ill-motivated the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, General Yusuf Buratai has predicted that the war on terror will last for another period of 20 years.
“Since the Nigeria Police Force has been demobilized from maintaining law and order by successive regimes the overstretched armed forces have been deployed and mandated to free many communities that have been overrun by nihilist forces in the various states” Falana stated.