President Muhammadu Buhari has been asked to stop lamentation and tackle insecurity enveloping the country.
The call was made by the pan -Northern socio-political, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) in a statement on Monday.
In a statement issued by its Secretary-General, Murtala Aliyu, in Kaduna on Monday, the ACF expressed concern that the nation’s security situation is worsening such that it can drift “to dangerous escalation of violence and bloodshed.”
It said Buhari must go beyond the usual condemnations and be pragmatic in his approach.
It said the Buhari administration has failed and lacked the willingness and courage to hold his appointees responsible even “with the vast amount of money and other resources being pumped into the security agencies have largely been ineffective.”
The statement partly read, “Over the past few months, the security crises we face in Nigeria has been deepening and there is a dangerous escalation of violence and bloodshed.
“Criminal gangs, heavily armed bandits, armed robbers, secessionist insurgents along with those that call themselves soldiers of so-called Caliphate, have laid siege to Nigeria, moreso, in the Northern states.
The highly coordinated attack on the Kuje Prison in the Federal Capital, Abuja, on July 5, 2022, and the mass escape of hardened criminals, many of whom are Boko Haram terrorists, have triggered an unprecedented wave of apprehension and panic among the long-suffering people, particularly of the North.”
The forum said as long as the crises persist, Nigerians will justifiably conclude that the government is ineffective and needs to do more.
“We demand that President Buhari braces up without further delay and rise to today’s occasion. The regime needs to reprioritise its programmes and free more resources needed to end the pervasive insecurity that is bringing the country to its knees,” it said.
