Pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu stop being “so distracted and fixated on his 2027 second term ambition”, but to concentrate on his primary constitutional duty of protecting the lives and property of Nigerians.
HURIWA is urging the President to focus on the eradication of mass killers of innocent and law-abiding Nigerians, eradicate saboteurs embedded in the military institutions and political offices as a matter of necessity, so the country does not become a failed state under his watch.
In a statement by Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, National Coordinator of HURIWA: “The rate at which farmers, fishermen, Christian clerics are slaughtered in Plateau, Taraba, Benue and Southern Kaduna, should be a major concern to the President and his administration should work on the concrete measures to take out these saboteurs of our collective national security first and foremost so we know that there is indeed a government in Nigeria.
“In Eastern Nigeria, efforts to curtain the activities of the so-called unknown gunmen have been mismanaged by the federal government, even as the President has failed to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from illegal detention which ultimately complicated the security situation in all of South-East of Nigeria”.
HURIWA accused the President of violating his promise to free Nnamdi Kanu and engage the restive Igbo youths in negotiations and constructive dialogues to give the Igbo people a sense of belonging.
“It is painful that at a time that soldiers, civilians are wantonly slaughtered by a multiplicity of armed non-state actors all across Nigeria, the president who is the commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the federation is preoccupied with the prospects of his re-election for a final 4 year tenure with nearly two years to end his first term in office.
“How can the President be this insensitive to be concerned only about his re-election, even as the citizens who are expected to cast their votes in 2027 are being decimated by terrorists?
“Who does the President expect to participate in the next general elections if the heightened state of insecurity is not effectively curbed?,” HURIWA queried.
Onwubiko reminded the President that in not keeping faith with the letters of section 14(1) of the constitution, “two years down the line since he was sworn in, the fundamental question people are asking is whether President Bola Tinubu administration have an effective and coordinated security strategy for taming the chronic killings and abductions?”
The rights body passed a verdict that “since its inauguration in May 2023, the administration has logged a pathetic security record”.
They claimed that President Tinubu “has so far failed to implement evidence-based interventions to effectively stop the wanton slaughter of citizens by non-state actors”.
HURIWA pointed at a security analytical report by Amnesty International to the catastrophe in Tinubu’s first month in office, stating that “attackers killed 123 persons, adding that, “nfortunately, the figures keep cascading”.
According to HURIWA: “Beacon Consulting, a security management firm, said 13,346 people have been killed, and 9,207 have been abducted in the 667 of the 774 LGs since Tinubu’s inauguration.
“From May-December 2023 – eight months after taking office – 5,802 deaths and 2,754 abductions were recorded.
“These figures worsened in 2024 when 7,544 were killed while 6,453 were abducted from January-September. These crimes were attributed to terrorism, banditry, and herders’ attacks on farmers”.
Also, “over 150 persons were slaughtered during the last Christmas Eve in Plateau State. Bandits kidnapped 287 schoolchildren in March in Kuriga, Kaduna, and demanded N1 billion ransom.
“More than 300 had been abducted a week earlier in the same village. No fewer than 10 people were killed and 160 abducted in coordinated attacks by bandits in May in Kuchi, Niger State.
“Major massacres have occurred in Benue, Niger, Zamfara, Yobe, Kaduna and Yobe states in this period.
“HURIWA is therefore appealing to President Tinubu to concentrate on confronting the gigantic threats to our national security and take a decision to engage the services of armed freelance mercenaries to assist the regular Nigerian military and police to defeat terrorists who are expanding their areas of attacks all across Nigeria just as it is shocking that the armed forces are unable to decimate these terrorists since over ten years that the war on terror started”.
