The Pastor-in-Charge of Trinity House Church, Ituah Ighodalo, has lambasted President Muhammadu Buhari’s inability and lack of concern over the escalating spate of insecurity in the country, even as a retired general of the Nigerian Army.
Ighodalo, who spoke at a Press Conference on the ‘State of the Nation’ organised by the Africa Leadership Group in Lagos on Saturday, said the alarming rate of of violence, rampant killings by herdsmen and kidnappings call for concern and the buck stops at the table of the President.
“Let me say it boldly, loud and clear: the problem of insecurity in Nigeria lies on the table of Muhammadu Buhari. If Buhari is ready today to stop all this insecurity, he has the power and ability, and he knows what to do ” Pastor Ighodalo said.
Continuing, he said:
“The reason he is not doing it, I really don’t understand. The reason he is not showing enough energy, effort, direction, interest, and concern in this, I really don’t understand.
“For a person who was a general in the Nigerian Army, he looks a little bit too complacent and lackadaisical concerning this issue of insecurity.
“It is worrisome that despite the human and technological resources available at present, the abduction of school children was possible without punishment for the perpetrators.
“How can you capture 257 girls and we don’t know where they are? It is not possible in this day and age with technology and everything we have today.
“Do you know the amount of effort it takes to move 250 people across a certain place and nobody saw them? And you can’t find them? And they disappeared?
“For the last four years, you had a bunch of security leaders who were disunited, quarrelling among themselves. They couldn’t agree on anything.
“They couldn’t fight behind one common purpose and a lot of them were just doing whatever they wanted, and the gentleman, Buhari, was looking at them.
“Now, we have a new set of security leaders. Let us hope that these ones can come together and face this problem.
“They say this girl, Leah Sharibu, is captured, she’s having babies every year and you can’t find her? What does that mean? What nonsense is that? And you’re telling us that she had babies? Who made that announcement? Where is the person?
“Why don’t we bring him and say, ‘where is the baby that you saw and where is the girl?
“We can’t find her, yet we cross our arms and we are looking, because we are not really serious about these things.
“People go into a village and rape 20 of them, carry the women and children, and we cannot find them. Who does that in this day and age?
“They pick up a man, take him into a forest and cut his head off. Eight of them are filming it. We are seeing them and not one person says, ‘Where are we going to look for these people?’
“There was no call for these people. They filmed it, they sent it to us, we saw it, and nobody did anything. How can that happen?”
“The bandits and herdsmen kidnapping and killing people in the forests, who are they?
“The police know them and know where to find them, but nobody is engaging or crying out. It’s a business; people are making money from this thing. People are selling arms to these people.
“People are making money from security votes. People are making money from the pain and the death of these innocent people. That is why this problem is not being solved and, somehow, we are looking away.
“Nobody who has authority is really concerned. We can solve this problem if, together, we say we want to solve this problem. It shouldn’t have descended to this level.
“Nigerians must stop grumbling. If they did not change the leadership, the leadership would not change. They should talk to one another to ensure the country becomes better”, he said.
