Former Head of State General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) who gave the advise while speaking to newsmen at his residence in Daura town, Katsina state yesterday, said, “Jonathan should vacate and give way to competent hand to govern the country.”
General Buhari said the issue of security is a fundamental duty of any responsible government and added that Jonathan, since he assumed power, has failed in that regard.
“When the Niger Delta militants started their activities in the South-South, they were invited by the late President Umaru Yar’adua.
“An aircraft was sent to them and their leaders met with the late President in Aso Rock and discussed issues. They were given money and a training scheme was introduced for their members. But when the Boko Haram emerged in the north members of the sect were killed,” General Buhari lamented.
“And when the police failed to address the insurgency, soldiers were invited and they captured the Boko Haram leader, Muhammad Yusuf alive and handed him over to police. But Yusuf was eventually killed, his in-law too was killed and their houses were demolished”, he said.
Buhari explained that the country is in its present situation due to the murder of the Boko Haram leader by security agents which angered his followers and suggested that a new approach to tackling the insurgency without affecting the lives and properties of innocent people should be adopted.
“In Bama and Baga towns, military personnel were reported to have been engaged in extortion and sometimes defiling of women. And because a soldier was killed in Baga the whole town was sacked by military. This is not the best way military should have acted when they were sent to restore law and order in a town. How can a responsible government allow its people to be killed in this way,” he asked.
He warned that the police, SSS, army, navy and Air force should know how to conduct themselves and act professionally.
“The soldiers are not expected to go and sack a town because one of them is killed. They are expected to capture the culprits for prosecution. After all the soldiers are not meant to tackle internal crisis but when it is necessary they should act professionally.
“Whoever is sent to protect people should also protect their integrity. When the former England’s Prime Minister, Margret Thatcher decided to hold its political meeting in Brighton the security advised her to cancel the meeting because of the IRN rebellions, but she insisted and held the meeting. The hotel she was accommodated was bombed and some of her political associates were killed but soldiers did not condone the area and kill everybody there, rather they conducted themselves professionally,” Buhari said.
While condemning the imposition of state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, Buhari said it was not the best way to address the problem.
“Government cannot kill all the Boko Haram members. Government should rather arrest and prosecute the Boko Haram members. They should only be killed when they said clearly they wage war against their country like what happened during the civil war. And even during civil war we that fought in the war were given a copy of code of conduct book which guided us against killing innocent people”, he said.